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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5c18153fd9080ca4938eb1e311c2e644","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1c3695c5-5f95-4173-b16c-c6976716aba7/retrieve","id":"-1504569634"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9a28707e-4e56-4d81-aa45-67a9174dd80c","pagecount":"46","content":"In addition to the focus countries, regional engagement and a series of virtual events and stakeholder interviews have been synthesised into the knowledge series. We would like to thank the time and expertise from stakeholders for interviews, workshops, regional events and sharing their insights towards this important project.This section provides a brief analysis of the history, progress and key bottlenecks related to the Great Green Wall (GGW) initiative within Senegal. It also provides an overview of key institutions responsible for coordinating and implementing GGW-related activities within the focus country.The GGW in Senegal is 545 km long, 15 km wide and involves three regions: Louga, Matam and Tambacounda. The population affected by this project is 322 221 inhabitants.Senegal was one of the first countries where the GGW was operationalised, starting with the creation of the Senegalese National Agency of the Great Green Wall (ANGMV) in 2008, through the leadership of former President Abdoulaye Wade. In 2014 the GGW initiative was ratified.According to the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the implementation of the GGW initiative can be attributed to institutional continuity between 2005 and 2012, and the active participation of scientific, institutional, research and academic partners, such as the Cheick Anta Diop Dakar University (UCAD), the Centre de Suivi Ecologique (CSE), the Institut Senegalais de Recherche Agricole, the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture (ILRI, 2022).In 2019, Haidar El Ali was appointed Director General of the Senegalese Agency for Reforestation and the GGW (ASERGMV). The Agency was by decree merged with two other structures, extending its portfolio to also cover eco-villages and reforestation (Savadogo, personal communication, 2022). As such, the newly created ASERGMV is a \"super structure\", based in Dakar, that operates under the technical supervision of the Minister of Forestry and the financial supervision of the Finance Ministry. It implements and overseas all sustainable land management (SLM) interventions nation-wide.ASERGMV now has three departments:1. The management of the GGW;2. The management of ecovillages; and,The management of reforestation.The Agency's core mandate is to continue to re-green the GGW area and to reforest the whole of Senegal. The 2020 GGW Global Report (UNFCCD, 2020) indicates that Senegal had restored a total area of 119 202 hectares (ha), as of 2019, broken down as follows: 72 452 ha reforested area, 33 500 under Assisted Natural Regeneration (ANR) and 13 205 km of windbreaks. These achievements required the production of 18 million seedlings/plants and resulted in the creation of 1 396 jobs.Total funding allocated to the GGW in Senegal, as of 2019, amounted to US$18.3 million of international funding (UNFCCD 2020). The domestic funding allocated to the GGW is not reported in the 2020 report.The ASERGMV's general mandate is to intensify reforestation, develop ecovillages and implement the GGW. This mandate includes mobilizing actors to implement and maintain reforestation activities, create green jobs, ensure access to renewable energy in ecovillages and support sound water management as well as sustainable funding sources for these eco-villages.The national strategy for the GGW focuses on:• Local appropriation -implementing GGW with and for local communities, through local authorities;• Development partnerships; and • Job creation for youth and women and poverty eradication (African Union 2022).The ASERGMV includes a Surveillance Council (which include a representative from the Presidency, representatives from the Ministries of Finances, Community Development, Agriculture, Forestry, Livestock, Wellbeing, Youth, and a representative from the Union of Associations of the Locally Elected Officials) who meet on a quarterly basis.The ASERGMV Director General is nominated by the Minister of Forestry and is responsible for ensuring the implementation of the decisions made by the Surveillance Council.In 2020, the Agency signed a framework agreement with the Programme for the Inclusive and Sustainable Development of Agriculture in Senegal (PDIDAS). Partnership agreements to support implementation were also signed with the Organisme National de Coordination des Activités de Vacances, which represents more than 7 600 sports and cultural associations in Senegal. Partnership agreements were also signed with numerous cities in the Louga, Thiès, Casamance and Tambacounda regions, as well as with CorpsAfrica (which has placed 20 volunteers in 10 regions in support of establishing Tolou Keur, i.e. 'circular gardens'), and with Fabrimétal in Dakar (which has developed a tree nursery near its factory, from where it distributes saplings free of charge for reforestation and sponsors the Tolou Keur of Belvédère).On the ground, 2 000 water and forestry agents are responsible for supporting the implementation of the programme in the field. These agents supervise the 7 000 young people recruited by the agency for GGW activities.All actors are represented within the national GGW multi-stakeholder consultation frameworks, including state structures, NGOs, civil society organisations, the private and parastatal sectors and research institutions. The modus operandi of these consultation frameworks at different levels is described below:• At the local level (local authorities/communes), meetings are held on a quarterly basis. The Agency signs territorial plans with monitoring and implementation mechanisms, validates the plans, and provides guidance and recommendations. Issues emerging from these local meetings are fed into the regional meetings (Diop, personal communication, 2022). To promote coordination the Agency has brought together all the mayors of the GGW intervention zone and established performance contracts. In addition, the Agency has recently set up a schedule of conditions between the communities (Ba, personal communication, 2022).• At the regional level, meetings are held every six months. The results of these meetings are consolidated in a follow-up report that is used to inform the annual national meeting (Diop, personal communication, 2022).• At the national level, an annual meeting is convened during which the work plan and budget for the coming year are validated. The ASERGMV submits an annual report to the Pan-African Agency of the GGW (PA-GGW). The technical committee of national GGW experts (focal points) meets once a year to prepare for the annual Council of Ministers of the Environment and the Conference of Heads of State (Diop, personal communication, 2022).Meetings with the PA-GGW and its implementation partners happen in an informal manner -meetings are organised on an ad hoc basis and this informal arrangement has proved functional (Boëte, personal communication, 2022).In March 2021, a Presidential Council on GGW met to discuss the development of a national coalition to implement GGW. This meeting resulted in 10 recommendations, including the creation of consultation frameworks at the national, regional and local level.The national consultation framework will gather actors across all relevant ministries, as well as civil society, to leverage the GGW for resilient socioeconomic development. In addition, local planning contracts will be signed with all 17 local authorities in order to increase local communities' participation in the GGW, with technical, financial and operational support provided by the Government of Senegal (AU, 2022).In March 2021, Oumar Abdoulaye Ba was appointed the Director General of the ASERGMV. He has been described by his peers as very dynamic and pro-active. Since his arrival, ASERGMV has been revitalised, with more partnerships and better visibility in the field. Upon taking office, the Director General took European Union and US ambassadors to the GGW field sites to sensitize them to the project.The Director General is reportedly reviewing the Agency's organisational chart and is actively putting the ASERGMV on a highly technological pathway (Ba, personal communication, 2022). This technological focus is apparent in the strategic orientation of the Agency , as captured by the UNCDD (2002). The Great Green Wall Accelerator's briefing note underlines Senegal's focus on the \"promotion of the green economy, articulated around the strengthening of SMEs and their economic environment\" (GGW Pillar 1: Investment in farms, value chains, local markets, exports), as well as on the \"development of techniques and technologies for reforestation and integrated and sustainable management of ecosystems\" (GGW Pillar 2: Land restoration and sustainable management of ecosystems). With regards to the GGW Pillar 3 (Climate resilient infrastructures and access to renewable energy), Senegal's priority is to \"develop techniques and technologies that are resilient to climate change both in the field of agro-sylvo-pastoral and fishing production (food security), in access to alternative energy (energy security) and in the prevention of risks and disasters\". This is illustrated for instance by the purchase of solar powered digging machinery (Ba, personal communication, 2022). Under GGW Pillar 4 (Frameworks for effective governance, sustainability, stability and security), Senegal's reported main intent is to \" improv(e) the institutional and economic environment of the programme intervention area\". Lastly, in terms of the Agency's capacity building priority (GGW Pillar 5) Senegal seeks to \"develop capacity building activities for the various stakeholders for the effective, efficient, and sustainable implementation of the programme\" (UNCCD, 2022:25).Among the new partnerships engaged in by the Agency, notable is the partnership with the Moroccan Office Cherifien des Phosphates. Through this partnership, ASERGMV has acquired new equipment such a solar-powered shovel tractor to plant trees (Ba, personal communication, 2022).The ASERGMV, under the leadership of the new Director General, embarked on a new 'Integrator' programme for the GGW. This programme is providing support for the development of a new fiveyear strategic plan for the ASERGMV.One of the challenges highlighted by national GGW stakeholders was that many of the programmes had limited impact at ground level. Sufficient studies have been done on the biophysical context for land restoration in Senegal, but the funds are not reaching the communities. Generally, the sense was that an adequate skills base was in place, but the costs of land restoration processes was a barrier. That being said, new skills development may be required as ASERGMV ratchets up its use of modern technologies, for example, training on the piloting of drones.A key issue plaguing the progress of the GGW, as related by the GGW Director in Senegal, Colonel Diop, is the lack of adequate and systematic information sharing. This challenge will be addressed by a new communications department withinASERGMV.There is also further work to be done in terms of the analysis of degraded lands in Senegal. It has been suggested that the Institute of Soil Science needs to strengthen the technical capacity of its teams to support accurate assessment of the total amount of degraded land by type of degradation and to assess all the land restoration interventions that are being carried out. This would allow stakeholders to better understand the status of national land restoration efforts, identify good practice, and assess progress against stated policy objectives (Sow, personal communication, 2022).The ASERGMV is currently working to translate into a national programme the PA-GGW Decennial Priority Investment Plan (DPIP) Critical bottlenecks flagged with regards to researchinclude:• Technical expertise in restoration is not matched by strong research on the socio-economic dimensions of restoration, which might constitute one of the main stumbling blocks to the longterm sustainability of interventions;• Critical research topics concerning water stress and water management are not adequately addressed;• The lack of coordination in the research undertaken around the GGW;• The lack of a central repository where all the research linked to the GGW in Senegal could be housed;• Research is often top down and not fed back to the community level;• The lack of research funding to support Senegalese researchers. Research organisations such as the Observatoire Homme-Milieu could increase their research production if more funding was allocated to support PHD and Master candidates;• Research grants are allocated for short time periods (2-3 years), whereas the monitoring of restoration takes place over long time periods (i.e. 10 years); and,• There are gaps in the mapping of stakeholders on the ground and facilitation of information flow to synergise initiatives.Senegal's needs around consolidating platforms is ambiguous. Colonel Diop, the GGW-A Director, has argued that there are already adequate consultation frameworks and that the focus should lie in strengthening these platforms rather than creating new ones. He further underlined that those platforms set up by international NGOs are not sustainable.Others also argue that existing platform structures, especially those that seek to integrate SLM efforts, need additional support. The multi-stakeholder, inter-ministerial platform called the National Strategic Investment Framework for Sustainable Land Management is a case in point. This platform was originally launched under the Terra Africa platform and administered by the World Bank. It was then formally adopted as a ministerial framework in 2014, with support from the EU. This framework brings together different actors working on SLM, in an attempt to integrate interventions related to the GGW. The framework includes a portfolio of projects and is intended to be a framework for dialogue and investment in SLM. However, this framework is not very active.The actors want a formalisation of this organisational structure, which is one of the objectives of the Riposte project. For a while the committee sought formal recognition from the Presidency, then from the office of the Prime Minister. In October 2022, all the stakeholders involved in the platform met and decided that the platform would fall under the Ministry of Agriculture, and a committee was established to support further activities. The committee drafted a technical note addressed to the Ministry of Agriculture in support of the institutionalisation of this structure. Strategic partners were also requested to support this initiative (Sow, personal communication, 2022). Engagement with various stakeholders in the 1. The Decennial Priority Investment Plan (DPIP) will be a reference framework for planning and technical and financial execution of the activities and financial resources required for their implementation. The national consultation framework initiated by the National Agency of Senegal is focused on fostering a national coalition to gather actors across all Ministries, as well as civil society, to leverage GGW for resilient, socio-economic development. This is reflected in the above mentioned effort by the Agency to establish local planning contracts with 17 local authorities in order to increase local communities' participation in the GGW, with technical, financial and operational support provided by the Government of Senegal (AU 2022).Prior to the establishment of the GGW national coalition in early 2022, stakeholders underlined that there was a dire lack of inclusion and information sharing with many relevant actors. However, all key stakeholders were included in the establishment of the national coalition and the activities of the coalition itself may well serve to address these concerns. Going forward, there is a need to ensure the systematic inclusion and information sharing with all actors (including non-state actors) relevant to the GGW (Mbaye, personal communication, 2022). At a national level, a priority should be to support formalising the National Strategic Investment Framework for Sustainable Land Management (Sow, personal communication, 2022).There doesn't seem to be a system of clear data and evidence organisation related to the GGW ambitions and this lack of a centralised system was flagged as problematic by the GGW Accelerator. The ASEGMV website is out of date and, in the words of the Director, information is not shared adequately, which gives a poor reflection of the work Senegal is doing and undermines its relationships with other governmental entities, the donor community and non-state actors (Diop, personal communication, 2022).At the national level, each entity has its own data. The research identified several initiatives involved in centralising data linked to SLM and climate change on existing platforms:  • The National Council for Food Security has developed a Land Resource Information System (SIRT) to use modern information and communication technologies to provide information on the specific resourcesbiophysical, social and economic -of each of the defined territories. It is also a tool for integrating this knowledge for better decision-making in support of enhanced food security and resilience.• A database of reforestation and GGW initiatives and actors is listed on a Google Maps database.The latest updates to the map date back to 2021 and speak of the tree planting the Agency supported in some areas.There are several climate information services (CIS) available in Senegal:•  Two additional platforms with a focus on climate change adaptation will be developed for Senegal by ClimBer through the Governance for Resilience (G4R) project, which will be rolled out in 2022-2025. These are:• The Early Warning, Early Action, Early Finance (AWARE) platform that will be used as trigger mechanism to manage the response to floods and droughts, developing standard operating procedures with the relevant stakeholder coalitions. The purpose is not to duplicate data but to co-create locally-owned specific datasets for Senegal, reflecting the needs of disaster risk management stakeholders in Senegal (ClimBer 2022).• The ClimAdapt-Gov dashboard aims at empowering farmers, communities and policy planners to help community or provincial level organisations assess different resilience strategies at their scale, using simple resilience assessment indicators that could monitor if the portfolio of adaptation options they chose is right for their community and if there is resilience impact (ClimBer, 2022).The World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT) is a global network aiming to document, share, and apply SLM knowledge. The network establishes an innovative space for sharing and scaling good practices to address land degradation, climate change, and biodiversity loss. This facilitates local, national, regional and global knowledge sharing and analysis of which good practices work where, how and why, and their costs and benefits. The WOCAT Global SLM Database has been officially recognised by the UNCCD as the primary recommended global database for SLM best practice. The best practice adopted by the GGW are profiled on the WOCCAT database.Through the support of the TerrAfrica Leveraging Fund, TerrAfrica's Regional SLM Knowledge Base has been established. It contains tools, documents, and practical information to assist in sustainable land and water management upscaling at national, regional and continental level. Senegal is in the process of creating a country-specific information system based on this system. One of the main tools of the TerrAfrica platform is the Country SLM Investment Framework (CSIF), which aims to provide guidance on the design and implementation of SLM investment frameworks at national level. The Green Alliance for Reforestation is a non-state initiative developing platforms based on satellite imagery. This is an interactive platform where large international NGOs can create awareness around their initiatives. This NGO database does not include state programmes and activities.The key needs related to institutional strengthening in Senegal include:• The development of a robust M&E system: This is an issue the GGW Accelerator is seeking to address. It is worth noting that the Ministry of Environment is implementing a monitoring system to inform the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) of Senegal, with support from the French Development Agency (ClimBer, 2022). This M&E system should be integrated into the GGW system.• Senegal needs to build capacity of the various stakeholders for the effective, efficient, and sustainable implementation of programmes, as identified in the GGW results framework (UNFCCD 2022a:26).• The Land Degradation Assessment (2008)   developed a baseline scenario of land degradation for Senegal and subsequently set the country's restoration targets. However, since then there has been no inventory update. Capacity building is required on the use of improved methodologies and tools to carry out such an update (Sow, personal communication, 2022).• Optimising information sharing between stakeholders through online collaboration (identifying the right tools and methodologies).• There is a need to build a strong community base to support the sustainability of national GGW activities and reduce implementation costs.There is also a need to undertake more rigorous evaluation of the success rate of tree planting programmes (ILRI, 2022).2 Bottlenecks for GGW's implementation • Support the formalisation of the National Strategic Investment Framework for Sustainable Land Management.• All the codes that deal with the same resources should be merged under a common heading and addressed under relevant categories.• The inconsistency of public policies is reflected by a poor harmonisation between regulations on decentralization, land use planning, mining operations (mining code), forestry code, agriculture, pastoral development strategies and land laws, which maintain the different resource managers and management in a siloed sectoral vision.• What is lacking in the policy framework is a process/law articulating the synergies between different forms of land use. The Forestry Code, the Water Code and the Agro-Pastoral Law need to be synergized through a focus on development, taking the drivers of degradation into account.• Weak communication and lack of information sharing are highlighted by the GGW Director as critical bottlenecks.• According to Col Diop, these shortcomings will be remedied with the new communication department of the ASERGMV• A global study on the contribution of NGOs in reforestation and addressing desertification would be required (Ba, personal communication, 2022).• The image of the Agency is poor in relation to donors. Information is not up to date or transparent (Diop, personal communication, 2022).• Ecosystem restoration is not only focused on recovering the ecological function of degraded ecosystems; it also involves changes in land management. Large scale agro-industrial development still features strongly in Senegal (despite strong emphasis on supporting an agroecology transition) which is contradictory to the recommended land management practices linked to restoration.• Despite the fact that some key documents support agroforestry, for example: • ANR and agroforestry should be adopted by the Ministry of Agriculture, as well as the MEDD, as essential elements of agricultural extension to achieve real impact on agricultural productivity and resilience.• This could form part of a possible revision of the Agro-pastoral Orientation Law.• In the Ferlo region pressures on silvo-pastoral resources are already exacerbated by climate change, competition for land, and competition between users. In this context, reforestation of plots to which access is prohibited seems to be an additional factor in the fragmentation of the pastoral space and the immediate removal of resources without compensation (Goffner et al 2022).• Scope for mainstreaming land restoration into the Plan for an Emerging Senegal.Description and underlying factors How this can be addressed within the country• Incomplete decentralization processes limit the effectiveness of local institutions (including those overseeing land management) to support national land restoration initiatives. Senegal is slightly in advance, with their decentralization law completed, however the transfer of financial resources from the state to the local government remains challenging.• The decentralization reforms undertaken in Senegal in 1996 and 1998 conferred various prerogatives on rural communities in the management of natural resources.• All prerogatives are held by the local government, but natural resource management issues are often neglected in favour of other sectors and issues (health, education, etc.).• Weak capacity of local authorities in terms of intellectual and technical skills.• Competences transferred without commensurate transfer of resources.• Establish legislative and regulatory frameworks supportive of local initiatives.• The Senegalese land tenure system is characterized by a plurality of norms that is manifested by the coexistence of customary law (widely applied by local communities) and modern land legislation• There is no formal recognition in the forestry legislation that farmers have an exclusive right to the trees resulting from ANR on their fields• There is a need to put up fences before reforestation efforts commence.• Support land tenure security mechanisms developed in collaboration with local authorities that will ensure that local actors, especially women, and investors benefit from the added value generated by their interventions.• The lack of a coherent policy framework results in failures to take advantage of synergies between projects related to land restoration. This leads to an inefficient use of time and resources and ultimately undermines the effectiveness of interventions (Sow, personal communication, 2022).• There is a need to strengthen the coherence of action at the level of the governorates and prefects, whose mission is to promote community dialogue; there is a lot of duplication in the field and a lack of coordination of actions -it is necessary to harmonize this and allow for efficiency of actions (Ba, personal communication, 2022).• Local populations perceive GGW projects such market gardens or large scale SLM as a government environmental project with a \"top-down\" logic disconnected from local realities• A tendency has prevailed to implement the GGW with a \"one size fits all\" approach, whereas each and every socio-ecosystem along the GGW route is unique, with its own characteristics and dynamics, calling for adapting and aligning actions implemented accordingly. \"This alignment requires in-depth knowledge of each socio-ecosystem, as a condition for success and acceptance of future actions. However, the time required for diagnosis, analysis and consultation is often considered incompatible with the urgency felt by decision-makers and GGW implementers.\" (Goffrey et al 2022).• There are reports that the protocol for planting is so strict that other potential partners are precluded from being incorporated into the GGW. 2• The implementation of each project is to be preceded by a grounded consultation and co-design with each community, with a greater focus on political ecology.Exclusion of farmers • The GGW is problematic by design -the chosen location is essentially a pastoral axis, hence the importance of consulting the herders -this implies a strong capacity building and engagement of communities in designing interventions (Ka, personal communication, 2022).• Lack of effective inclusion of a wide range of key actors, e.g. producer organisation are the grassroots of the GGW. The options advocated by producer organisations are often very close to the objectives of the GGW; they should be an integral part of the implementation of the GGW (Garreau, personal communication, 2022).• The proposed 10 recommendations brought forward by the UNFCCC (2021) to improve the work of the national coalition address these concerns.• Put in place practical mechanisms for planning dialogue and action at the local and national levels, especially focusing on producer organisations. This would allow for getting closer to producers' organisations and to associating them with the GGW, taking into consideration their natural resource management strategies (UNFCCC, 2021).• Elevate the GGW as a tool for improving the livelihood of populations to the highest political level.• The solution is to work through the farmers' organisations, so that the communities and other stakeholders carry the project. The CNCR is present in the 14 regions, it includes grassroots farmers' organisations.Participation by the CNCR could allow better implementation and sustainability of the project.• A study on the mobilization of non-state stakeholders of the GGW found that the implementation of the initiative was top down, technocratic and non-inclusive. Greater involvement of CSOs and research actors in the dynamics of the GGW should be encouraged via a support programme for the field actors of the GGW (UNFCCC, 2021).• Failing to introduce these actors in projects will result in the risk that \"the projects presented (lack) territorial anchorage\". Funding partners should be encouraged to set up dedicated funding programmes for these actors (UNFCCC, 2022:14).• Set up multi-stakeholder, multi-sector dialogue mechanisms around the objectives of the GGW• Involve local authorities in project management and the implementation of the GGW projects• For better connections between GGW actors, harness existing opportunities and knowledge through the creation of a GGW multi-stakeholder hub.• Establish practical, simple and clear criteria and procedures for engagement.• Integrate the greatest number of actors through a system of recognition of different levels of commitment of actors and actions (UNFCCD 2022).• National coalitions should enable the establishment of MoU between ministries and decentralized institutions, municipalities and cities, so that states can request dedicated funding for GGW municipal plans (UNFCCD 2022).Description and underlying factors How this can be addressed within the country• The populations that benefit from the land restoration measures must be able to take over from the state services. However often the lack of ownership and co-design of interventions with the local populations, as well as other factors such as access to resources and the absence of land tenure rights, are all factors inhibiting the buy in form local beneficiary populations.• Lack of genuine support from pastoral communities.• The humanitarian approach to implementing market gardens compromises their long-term sustainability. For instance, the \"Food for Work\" programme consist of providing women's groups with food aid; it is conditional on their participation in the farm plot. But most development initiatives do not yield high economic returns. This poor productive and financial performance might condemn them to remain dependent on programmes such as the GGW and actors such as the World Food Programme. This is the major ambiguity of the GGW gardens which, in attempting to promote tools for the fight against poverty, adopt the institutionalized practices of humanitarian aid.• Given that this is their environment, rather than talking about a lack of ownership, we should talk about a lack of project continuity at the GGW level (Ka, personal communication, 2022).• Implementation of GGW projects rely on existing instruments of territorial governance and shared resource management, such as pastoral units, borehole management committees and communal councils. The GGW would thus be catalytic to consultation processes and to consolidate decision-making and management bodies at the intermunicipal level for SLM.• Farmers and farmer organisations lack technical capacity.• Supporting their technical staff is an action that the Accelerator should consider (UNCCD 2022). There are only a small number of NGOs with the required expertise on these issues.• Entry points identified by the GGW Accelerator: \"In West Africa, the ROPPA network took the lead in January 2020 in the so-called West African initiative on agroecology and is a good entry point. (...) Farmerto-farmer exchanges have proven to be a powerful tool for scaling up agroecological techniques.\"• While there is mention of gender equity and inclusion of women, youth and other groups in situations of vulnerability in the policy documents, there is a lack of coordinated planning and activities able to address the root causes of inequalities. Most of the actions relate to solving the current needs of these groups, but there is less focus on changing their status through addressing their strategic needs.• Land restoration is extremely costly.• Insufficient logistics given the isolation of reforestation areas.• ASGGMR has embarked on a hightech drive to increase the pace at which activities are deployed on the ground (modern machinery, etc.).• Many land restoration targets and commitments rely heavily on funding from external donors. The GGW was expected to receive financial support from the government, local authorities and villagers, while these entities, particularly at the local level, have limited capacities for resources mobilization.• The main obstacle to the mobilization of resources is the positioning of national agencies. These agencies are under the direction of their country's Ministry of the Environment. However, the financial partners all dialogue at the level of each country with one interlocutor: the Ministry of Finance and Planning.• \"There is a need to communicate about the opportunities available, not only to the Ministry of Finance and Planning, but also to the sectoral ministries that prepare projects for the government budget\" (UNFCC 2021:5).Description and underlying factors How this can be addressed within the countryWater scarcity • The GGW operates in water constrained environments, with deep aquifers (230 m) compounded by climate change (delayed arrival of long rains).• There is tremendous pressure from pastoralist communities on government to drill boreholes for their livestock. The Agency promised many boreholes -the most challenging area is the Ferlo region.• There is a high mortality of seedlings -approximately half the seedlings are lost before planting or at planting due to water constraints, cattle roaming and fire damage (ICLEI, 2022).Freshly transplanted trees need extra water due to the lack of moisture in the soil.• The agency is planning on multiplying boreholes in the region. It has acquired highly technological equipment. It is important to verify whether there is enough water to irrigate newly restored land. This has long term consequences on the use of underground water.• The water stress issue has implications from a gender perspective -women are forced to allocate significant time to collecting and transporting water.• Alternatives to and better management of water points/ponds.• Studies required on the replenishment of underground water given the high intensity of boreholes being created.• Some actors contend that uncertainty remains in terms of the most optimal species, whereas some maintain that the optimal species are known but that improvements could be done in terms of the management of these species.• Different use of space by several actors e.g. pastoralists and farmers.• Livestock wandering in reforested plots leads to inter-community conflicts. Incidents of open provocation by pastoralists have been reported, with livestock keepers walking their herds through the GGW perimeter at night during the season when pastures are abundant (i.e when there is no scarcity of feed); this has been construed as a sign of provocation towards the GGW (Ouedraogo, personal communication, 2022).• Maintenance of measures to guard against external attacks (firewalls, fences, etc.).• \"In Senegal, the government introduced the concept of pastoral units (PUs) in the 1980s around water points with the objective to sustainably manage resources and spaces for the benefit of local populations and the community of transhumant pastoralists. Despite their apparent success, PUs have been implemented in a top-down manner and have failed to invest in or empower pastoral communities to manage the PUs. Once management plans are established, the PUs are often left without supervision, capacity building programmes or monitoring and as a result, management plans are rarely implemented. Where pastoral unit management bodies exist, they are often politicized and heavily influenced by local chiefs.\"• The PRM approach can assist in overcoming these shortcomingit is embedded in local land use practices with the community, building on customary management and governance norms. PRM can help bring a greater degree of community participation by including women and youth and in managing activities and interventions contributing to the GGW, where the mainly top-down approach to date has excluded communities and, in some situations, has created conflict with them.• The GGW does not go through protected forest areas but through silvo-pastoral areas, and one of the important challenges to be taken into account in planning human developments in the area is the sharp increase in the number of farms in the western zone. At the time, the law prohibited the development of crops in this area, but the agricultural sector is progressing, and livestock numbers in this area is increasing.In the northern part, there are important hydro-agricultural developments that favour crop production; in this sense, the government responds to the needs of the population, particularly in terms of agriculture, but the ecological aspect does not figure sufficiently in the planning.• The theme of water usage should be rethought within a framework of resource management, which calls for a revision of the Silvo-pastoral Law (2004), in order to accommodate these new dynamics (Ndiaye, personal communication, 2022).Description and underlying factors How this can be addressed within the countryLacking M&E system • There is no systematic way of tracking and reporting on the progress made towards achieving SLM that addresses and meet the GGW goals (regionally applicable). This was underlines by Colonel Diop as the 'weakest link'. He says that 'we are aware of the gaps and problems, but the reality is that most people only see the money and the very large amounts. When the US$1.7 billion is announced, there is a rush, there is no excitement about the impact and results' (Diop, personal communication, 2022).• Lack of reliable monitoring and evaluation system for strong reporting on the achievements of the GGW. In policy documents, emphasis is put on reports, making it difficult to trace and verify the interventions' results.• Obsolete datasets for tracking land degradation and impact of interventions. The 2008 land degradation assessment gives a baseline scenario of land degradation. This dataset is outdated and mid-term inventory of degradation is required.• Improve M&E by setting up a system accessible to all actors that centralises all knowledge for innovations in the field.• Undertake a mid-term appraisal of the status of land degradation in Senegal. • Explore the possibility of a \"GGW\" label which actors can used depending on their level of contributions to the GGW.• The evaluation of the effectiveness of investments related to the fight against land degradation should be inseparable from the inventory of global investments made at the level of the concerned sectors of activity (agriculture, livestock, water, etc.). However, in the absence of analytical accounting, it is difficult to know the real share of the total amount of investments that have had a positive impact on actions to combat land degradation.• A review of the Sahelian GGW reveals a \"predominance of ecological studies in the GGW literature and a concentration of studies in certain geographies of interest, such as northern Senegal\" (Bruckmann et al, 2022).• Redress this research bias by supporting research focusing on socio-economic and other aspects of GGW implementation, as well as addressing geographic bias.• Research funding is often allocated for short (2-3 year) time frames, which is deemed highly insufficient to capture the outcome of reforestation projects, taking social dynamics into account -these research time frames need to be expanded to a 10-year period (Mbaye, personal communication, 2022).• Set up a mechanism to centralise all scientific and technical information and innovation and to easily disseminate findings, strengthen knowledge exchange, and promote valorisation of research findings.• Often research outcomes are not fed back to the level of community-based organisations that could benefit from these research findings.• As above -promote the establishment of observatories. Under the MEDD, the key departments are:• The Directorate of Water, Forests, Hunting, and Soil Conservation (DEFCCS), which helps implement GGW activities on the ground  The Senegalese Agency for Reforestation and the GGW falls under the Presidency.Local authorities are the custodians of local land management and access to resources (tenure, land use, etc.). They are responsible for local development planning and are equipped with legal tools adapted to this responsibility. Local government entities (\"collectivités territoriales\") further play a role in institutionalizing rural participation in national policy commitments; help form federations of elected local authorities; and support public forums to debate national policies that affect rural populations. These institutions also play an important role in developing models of natural resource management and in informing rural populations of their rights and the roles and powers of their elected representatives.The Association of Mayors of Senegal plays a role in training municipal councils on policy frameworks (especially around decentralisation functions) and on their rights as local representatives and the means by which they can defend, exercise and develop these rights.The Agency for National Statistics and Demographics (ANSD) centralizes and disseminates statistical data produced by the national statistical system. The Agency is also responsible for monitoring international technical cooperation on statistics. In this capacity, it represents Senegal in subregional, regional and international meetings relating to matters within its competence and monitors the activities of international organisations in the field of statistics. At the request of the government and public and private entities, the Agency may undertake research on statistical, economic and social issues.The National Agricultural and Rural Advisory Agency (ANCAR) manages agricultural and rural advisory services throughout Senegal. It develops a decentralized agricultural advisory system, working for the producer organizations through a participatory approach based on partnership. It has set up the Agricultural Services and Digital Inclusion in Africa (SAIDA) platform.The National Food Security Council (CNSA) was created in 1998. The Executive Secretariat of the National Food Security Council (SECNSA) was created within the CNSA. Its function is to inform all decisions in the field of food security and resilience, to facilitate the monitoring and evaluation of the food security and resilience policies and programmes, to participate in the mobilization of financial resources for the national food security and resilience system; and to facilitate consultation, synergy and ensure complementarity between actors involved in the implementation of food security and resilience projects and programmes. This Council is responsible for providing food insecurity early warnings, with two important meetings every year where all food security actors gather to analyse and map the food security situation for Senegal.• The AfDB has in 2021 pledged US$6.5 billion in support of the GGW. It is involved in the recently launched Africa Integrated Climate Risk Management Programme.• The West African Development Bank (BOAD)   announced that between 2024 and 2034, the \"100 Million Trees\" project will bring together the efforts of eight West African countries mobilised against desertification. This major reforestation operation will cover the entire West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) zone, as part of the GGW. • The European Investment Bank funds several environmental projects in Senegal.• Green Climate fund (GCF) funds a number • The ASERGMV has signed a framework agreement with the Programme for the Inclusive and Sustainable Development of Agriculture in Senegal (PDIDAS), a programme initiated in 2014 with funding from the World bank and the GEF and another specific agreement for the implementation of the following activities:• The demarcation and signposting of eight classified forests in the Saint-Louis region.• The construction of three nurseries, two in the Saint-Louis region and one in the Louga region.• The production of 800 000 seedlings of a dozen species.• Capacity building of actors grouped in Intervillages Association (AIV).• The establishment of 40 000 ha of land degradation defences.• The development of nine development and management plans (PAG).• These activities will, among other things, contribute to the increase of the vegetation cover rate, the management of biodiversity and the development of income-generating activities in the regions of Saint-Louis and Louga.• The OPEC Fund for International Development contributed financially to the Agricultural Development and Rural Entrepreneurship Programme -Phase II (PADAER-II).• As France relaunched the GGW initiative at the One Planet Summit in January 2021, by announcing the creation of the GGW Accelerator, the French Development Agency (FDA) naturally features as one of the primary development partners, especially in Senegal. The FDA positions itself as a key strategic partner of the GGW Accelerator.• The EU supports several land restoration and agro-ecologically focused projects. See the EU funded project database for further details. Amongst the EU-funded projects is Regreening Africa.• The African Risk Capacity (ARC) Group is involved in the recently launched Africa Integrated Climate Risk Management Programme.• USAID funds the Feed the Future Senegal Agricultural Policy and Reform Support Project (PSS).• The Canadian (Quebec) Union des producteurs agricoles du Québec (UPADI) has been working with the CNCR on SLM projects country wide.• The Moroccan Office Cherifien des Phosphates (OCO) features among key partners to the Agency, providing modern equipment to improve planting.• GIZ supports land tenure security among the rural population and is very involved with developing a sustainable electricity supply through the deployment of renewable energy and the promotion of energy efficiency measures. A project on \"climate-friendly cooking\" in Senegal is underway (2020-24).   Local and international NGOs working on land restoration, climate change and land management include:• The Organisme National de Coordination des Activités de Vacances which accounts for more than 7 600 sports and cultural associations.• Fabrimétal has developed a tree nursery near its factory, from which it provides saplings free of change in support of reforestation, as well as sponsoring the the Tolou Keur (\"circular gardens) of Belvédère. 3• IUCN is a membership union uniquely composed of both government and civil society organisations. It has recently called for bringing back the focus on the wetlands and water issues within the GGW. A biodiversity status assessment of the GGW was undertaken in 2017 \"Biodiversity and the GGW: Managing nature for sustainable development in the Sahel\".• Oxfam is involved in the Regreening Africa project and support small scale agricultural projects in Senegal.• CARE is involved in the Regreening Africa project.• Catholic Relief Services are involved in the Regreening Africa project.• The Pierre Rabhi Endowment fund supports associations with agroecological work in Senegal.• SOS SAHEL is a French NGO currently active in 11 countries in the Sahel, from Senegal to Djibouti. It helps rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa to guarantee their food security and nutritional quality in a sustainable manner that respects their environment. The NGO has been actively involved in the GGW. It has taken part in identifying GGW champions and has, together with the 1t.org platform 4 , which is hosted by the World Economic Forum, formed a partnership to support the GGW. This initiative is focused on encouraging the establishment of partnerships around landscape restoration, supporting and strengthening the visibility of Sahelian eco-preneurs, and attracting investment for restoration in the Sahel.• Sahel Eco has signed a partnership agreement with the Pan-African Agency for Food Security to strengthen collaboration between governments and civil society actors. It also runs the GGW Partners' Platform.• The NGO Elevage Sans Frontières has supported several livestock projects in Senegal.• Entrepreneurs Without Borders (OZG) is implementing agroforestry projects in Senegal.• World Vision has committed with ministries and national networks to institutionalise ANR and other sustainable land use practices.• The Association for the Promotion of Agroforestry and Forestry (APAF) is a peasant organisation that supports the application of agroforestry techniques.• Reforest'Action plants trees to restore soils depleted by decades of groundnut cultivation.Planted by and for the local farmers, the trees protect their fields and secure their crops.• WeForest is a Belgium NGO which supports local governance frameworks in the GGW project areas. In Senegal, Weforest is involved in rehabilitating mangroves. It was involved in a reforestation project of 1 000 ha in the silvopastoral zone of Ferlo, a three-year pilot project with a view to scaling up over 10 years (Neyra, personal communication, 2022).• The \"Sukyo Mahikari\" association has been working alongside the Forestry Service on a voluntary basis on large-scale actions, notably through group of young people from different countries in Europe, America, Asia and Africa, to participate in the building of the GGW programme (GGW Action Plan 2011).• University Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar (UCAD) has been involved in GGW activities through reforestation activities, as well as providing medical care and literacy training, in particular to women's groups and youth associations, as a contribution to the building of the GGW by students and teachers with the support of the competent services (GGW Action Plan 2011).• Union Nationale des Exploitants Forestiers du Sénégal (National Union of Forest Users) (UNCEFS), has also been active in the field assisting the GGW. • Agrécole Afrique uses an approach based on agroecology, on the social economy of solidarity and the development of innovations to help the population in a situation of poverty to become aware of this situation of vulnerability, to organize and mobilize themselves to better produce while respecting the environment, the earth and the health of people and animals, all in a participatory and responsible management.• ENDA Pronat is a preeminent NGO in Senegal.It is a member of the international network Enda Tiers Monde, of the Senegalese National Federation for Organic Agriculture (FENAB) and leads the Avaclim research in Senegal. ENDA Pronat sits on the Cadre de Réflexion et d'Action sur le Foncier au Sénégal (land tenure think tank in Senegal -CRAFS), the multistakeholder task force for the promotion of agroecology in Senegal (TaFAé), and the national Alliance for Agroecology in West Africa (3AO) steering committee. The NGO is secretary of the Dynamique National pour la Transition Agroécologique au Sénégal (DyTAES), focal point of the Coalition for the Protection of African Genetic Heritage (COPAGEN) at the national level and also of the sub-regional and international networks COPAGEN, and participates in the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA).• The National Partnership for Senegal's Water (Partenariat National de l'Eau du Sénégal -PNES) is an association working in the field of integrated water resource management.• The Platform of European NGOs in Senegal is a network of NGOs that was formed with the objective of creating synergies and establishing new partnerships. It aims to strengthen the effectiveness of the participation of its members in the economic, social and cultural development of Senegal. It seeks to promote dialogue between the different civil society actors in Senegal.Total Energies Foundation has in 2018 partnered with the Téssékéré International Human and Environment Observatory, which is working in Senegal to promote the sharing of experiences between states and raise awareness of the project among local communities.The Jokalante platform combines feedback mechanisms, IVR systems, voice services, SMS, social media and data collection tools. Through local community radios, a dynamic web platform and dedicated agents, Jokalante creates linkages with the rural population. Jokalante works with ANACIM (a climate information institution) to scale the distribution of this information.MLouma is a company specialized in the digitalization of agriculture; with the support of several partners (ICCO, USAID, UNCDF, ICRISAT, ANACIM, ORANGE, OCP, MEDA), mLouma has in recent years developed a range of tools that address the problems of producers based on specifications developed by international organisations. Assists the agency in the planification of the activities and the formulation of some indicators. Gives orientations in order to inform all decisions in the field of food security and resilience, to facilitate the monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of food security and resilience policies and programmes, to participate in the mobilization of financial resources for the national food security and resilience system; to facilitate consultation and complementarity.To be involved in GGW to foster synergy and ensure complementarity between actors involved in the implementation of food security and resilience projects and programmes.Identify synergy and ensure complementarity in the fields of food security and resilience, access to funding opportunities.The Resources to pursue restoration activities.On site implementation of restoration.ONCAV (Organisme National de Coordination des Activités de Vacances) which counts more than 7600 Sports and Cultural Associations in SenegalPartner of the ANGMV for the realization of land restoration activities.Resources to pursue restoration activities.On site implementation of restoration.Partner of the ANGMV for the realization of land restoration activities and developed a tree nursery.Resources to pursue nursery/tree planting activities.On site implementation of restoration.Has been working alongside the forestry service on a voluntary basis on large-scale actions.Resources to pursue restoration activities.Participation in the building of the GGW programme. Resources to pursue restoration activities.On site diffusion of agroforestry techniques.Reforest'Action Plants trees in agroforestry initiatives.Resources to pursue restoration activities.On site diffusion of agroforestry techniques.Partners with the PPSZ in researching social dynamics and setting up local governance frameworks in the GGW project areas.To be part of the Alliance.On site diffusion of agro-forestry techniques.Partner of the ANGMV for the realization of land restoration activities -has placed 20 volunteers in 10 regions for Tolou Keur and with Fabrimétal in Dakar.Not known.Availing volunteers to project sites.This network brings together different associations of farmers, fishermen, foresters, breeders, women's organisations, the youth college, 32 national peasant federations in all.In each federation there are hundreds of organisations; some are structured by region or by association (there are 38 associations that cover specific localities).It launched the National family farming Observatory and in 2015 it drove the launch of the National Observatory for land tenure.Inclusion in GGW Alliance.Works in projects that seek to promote a community-based natural resource management approach to GGW projects.Best placed organisation to make linkages with farmer sat ground level and ensure participatory approach to GGW activities.These include cooperatives, associations, unions, federations, confederations, foundations and foundations and unions.The CNOP and its member organisations, FENAFER, FENAJER, AOPP (at the national and regional levels) feature among the key professional agricultural organisations.Being included in co-design, to have farmers benefit GGW, knowledge shared.Enhanced, participatory, sustained implementation of GGW and lasting legacy. The success of the GWI essentially rests on producers as the contributors to restoration and the gate keepers of restored areas.The GTPs set up by ANACIM at the department level gather all relevant sectors concerned by the preparedness and monitoring of the winter cropping season to guide farmers with their decisionmaking.Expansion and use of the network to benefit farmers on the ground. National Platform on DV and Land Governance (COPIL DV/ GF)Ensures dialogue on land governance, the development of national consensus, the preparation of action plans for the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines, and the monitoring and evaluation of land governance in Senegal.Application of provisions in decentralisation law.Platform aimed at addressing land tenure issues can be leveraged by GGW to address localised land tenure in the context of projects being implemented.Land tenure thinking and action tank in Senegal (CRAFS)CRAFS in 2017 called onto the President to finalise the land reform process.Application of provisions in decentralisation law.Multi-actors Task force for the promotion of agroecology in Senegal) (TaFAé)A group of actors, born from a desire to think and act together between farmers' organisations, researchers, NGOs, institutions in order to promote agroecology in Senegal.Greater uptake of agroecology.Platform can be used to engage actors to promote/ learn about agroecology fr GGW projects.Dynamique Nationale pour la Transition Agroécologique au Sénégal (DyTAES)Network that brings together umbrella organisations of producers, consumers, NGOs and Senegalese and international research institutions, networks of Senegalese and West African civil society organisations, a network of local elected officials.Greater uptake of agroecology.It plays a key role in fostering a transition towards agroecology. A good platform to engage on how to deepen agroecology uptake in context of GGW.National framework of the Alliance for Agroecology in West Africa (3AO)Coordination and information platform composed of farmers' organisations, research institutes/universities, international NGOs and social movements. It aims to promote and support an agroecological transition in West Africa.Greater uptake of agroe-cology.It seeks to facilitate inter-sectoral cooperation through a series of concrete and concerted actions in favour of agroecology, while providing greater visibility to the agroecological movement in West Africa.Green Climate Fund (GCF) Funds a number of regional projects of which Senegal is part, such as the Africa Integrated Climate Risk Management Programme, Inclusive Green Financing Initiative (IGREENFIN I), both projects focusing on the GGW.Direct support to GGW projects.Funding.Stakeholder & Contact Person Phone, Email, Website, Address Role Specific role of the stakeholder related to GGWGlobal Environment Fund (GEF) GEF funds multiple SLM and climate resilience projects including.Direct support to GGW projects.Funding.European Investment bank Funds several environmental projects in Senegal.Status of support/ interest in GGW unknown.Has been earmarked to fund projects for the GGW .African Development Bank (ADB)In 2021 pledged US$6.5 billion in sup-port of the GGW.Direct support to the GGW.Consultations were held within the framework of the support project for the implementation of the GGW on the initiative of the ADB (pillar III of the transition support facility).World Bank World Bank's IDA is the main funder of the livestock climate finance in Senegal. It finances activities of the Regional Support Project for Pastoralism in the Sahel to mitigate and adapt to climate change through sustainable landscape management, improved animal health and veterinary drug control, improved livestock value chains.Vision for the Sahel: mobilize financial resources to protect a fragile environment, and help the countries restore the living conditions of populations, particularly live-stock herders.Funding -In 2021 the World Bank announced it would invest US$5 billion to help restore African dry-lands.Was earmarked to fund projects for the GGW (discussion held in 2022). Will fund the \"100 million trees\" project 2024 and 2034 (cover the GGW area).Direct investment in GGW.Funding.European Union Supports several land restoration, agro-ecologically focused projects.Fostering an agroecological transition in the Sahel.Funding.Canadian (Quebec) Union des producteurs agricoles du Québec (UPADI)Has been working with the CNCR on SLM projects country wide.Funding & technical supports involved with on some SLM project in GGW.French Development Agency (AFD)Hélène JulienSupporting regional projects focused on the agroecological transition, resolving transboundary issues in the context of the GGW. + funds \"Programmeme d'Appui à la Transition Agroécologique\" (PATAE). The French Development Agency puts itself forward as a key strategic partner of the GGW Accelerator.Fundingenhancing AE dimension of projects. The GEF, through UNEP, has committed to supporting the APGMV Member States in establishing their baseline situation.Being part of GGW Alliance.Direct support to GGW, technical support.GGW project funding.Involved in several programmes related to climate change resilience and agricultural development.Being part of GGW Alliance.GGW project funding. Although not always strictly located within the GGW intervention zones, a number of transboundary programmes and projects exist to support the implementation of the GGW initiative at the regional level. The GGW in Senegal overlaps with a number of these global and regional restoration initiatives.In as much as an attempt was made here to classify projects according to a main theme, the reality is that many projects linked to the GGW have a multisectoral focus.The • The demarcation and signposting of eight classified forests in the region of Saint-Louis in order to avoid any encroachment by the populations and the agro-industrialists installed in the zone;• The construction of three nurseries, two in the Saint-Louis region and one in the Louga region;• The production of 800 000 seedlings of about 10 species;• Capacity building of actors grouped in the Intervillages Association;• The establishment of 40 000 ha of land degradation defences; and The project seeks to promote the social and occupational inclusion of youth in family farms and profitable ventures that will create income and decent, sustainable jobs in agro-silvo-pastoral and fisheries value chains. The project will benefit 150 000 rural young people. Among this group, 45 000 young people (50% of whom will be female) will be integrated into or receive support to start up a sustainable profitable activity in the agro-silvopastoral and fisheries value chains. The project will be implemented across four agroecological zones in Senegal: the Niayes region, the groundnut basin, the silvopastoral zone and lower and middle Casamance (not GGW areas). Recent research by ILRI found that, of the total amount of climate funding allocated for the livestock in Senegal between 2015 and 2022, only 39% was allocated to the livestock sector as the main target, the remaining of 61% was allocated to the agricultural sector, with a component for the livestock sector (2022b:46). Most of this was World Bank funding (95%) for phases 1 and 2 of the Regional Support Project for Pastoralism in the Sahel, and a small contribution from the French Development Agency (AFD) and the NGO Elevage Sans Frontières.Strengthening Agricultural Adaptation (SAGA) funded by the Government of Quebec and implemented by FAO and a range of partners on the ground focuses on reinforcing adaptation planning for food security and nutrition in Senegal which has increasingly suffered from climate change impacts.Through training and community-based participatory approaches, the project has reached more than 1300 beneficiaries and is implementing a broad range of initiatives from gender-sensitive Farmer Field Schools, market gardens, agroforestry and rainwater harvesting to beekeeping activities and the production of energy-efficient vegetable charcoal.The programme is proving catalytic in adopting a \"new\" approach to GGW projects, that are far more community based. The CNCR was recently involved in the conception of the project. 3. Specific strategies for building climate change resilience are refined and piloted in agropastoral systems and scaled up, including the optimal use of genetic resources as well as dryland farming in the three agroecological zones targeted by the project.The project was subject of a Good Practice Brief: Strengthening Climate Resilience through People-centred Approaches which highlights how the resilience of people to climate change was enhanced by the project by building the capacity of communities and women through two innovative, people-centred approaches, namely the Farmer Field Schools and Dimitra Clubs.The Down to Earth: Territorial Approach to Climate Change (TACC) is part of a partnership between the United Nations and sub-national governments for fostering climate friendly development at the subnational level. This partnership is a collaborative effort involving UNDP, UNEP and 8 associations of regions.CASSECS 2019-2023 -The CASSECS project is an ongoing project, funded by the EU, on the impact of livestock on climate change in CILSS countries.The overall objective of the project is to provide the CILSS countries with emission factors and reference data that will enable them to better establish the seasonal and annual carbon balance of agro-silvopastoral ecosystems and thus correctly fulfil their commitments in the implementation of the Paris Agreement. Among the project objectives are a focus on training and strengthening the skills of the technical services of the CILLS member states, local and international NGOs and livestock breeders' associations. Fair carbon: a research project still at the final stage of conception, to be funded by the EU and being led by IRD and involving the PPZS, with a possible start in 2023. The project will focus on assessing soil carbon in the GGW area.Senegal is signatory to the three Rio Conventions for biological diversity, climate change and the fight against desertification, as well as a number of other agreements and commitments reflected below:• The Bonn Challenge 5 .• The New York Declaration on Forests 6 .• The African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100) 7 launched in 2015.• The UNCCD Land Degradation Neutrality by 2030.• The African Resilient Landscapes Initiative 8 .• The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030) 9 .Senegal has also adhered to international conventions on the elimination of specific ozone depleting substances (for example the Vienna Convention, the Montreal Protocol and the Kigali Amendment) and has set national targets, and instruments to reach the elimination objectives. ","tokenCount":"9987"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4193e5ad16b6006d1e1fcfaef5e4bf12","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/6d25e988-55e7-49ac-b10f-20865556c0eb/content","id":"-626354467"},"keywords":["alternative oxidase (AOX)","carbon balance","photosynthesis","respiration","yield potential"],"sieverID":"034493b2-7076-4260-bf50-a70e1bcee0e2","pagecount":"18","content":"The rate with which crop yields per hectare increase each year is plateauing at the same time that human population growth and other factors increase food demand. Increasing yield potential (Y p ) of crops is vital to address these challenges. In this review, we explore a component of Y p that has yet to be optimisedthat being improvements in the efficiency with which light energy is converted into biomass (ϵ c ) via modifications to CO 2 fixed per unit quantum of light (α), efficiency of respiratory ATP production (ϵ prod ) and efficiency of ATP use (ϵ use ). For α, targets include changes in photoprotective machinery, ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase kinetics and photorespiratory pathways. There is also potential for ϵ prod to be increased via targeted changes to the expression of the alternative oxidase and mitochondrial uncoupling pathways. Similarly, there are possibilities to improve ϵ use via changes to the ATP costs of phloem loading, nutrient uptake, futile cycles and/or protein/membrane turnover. Recently developed high-throughput measurements of respiration can serve as a proxy for the cumulative energy cost of these processes. There are thus exciting opportunities to use our growing knowledge of factors influencing the efficiency of photosynthesis and respiration to create a step-change in yield potential of globally important crops.Anthropogenic carbon emissions since the Industrial Revolution have led to sustained global warming, with 2020 tying 2016 as the hottest year on record, at 1.25°C above preindustrial times (Voosen, 2021). How climate change affects our natural and managed systems is of major concern, particularly the effect of warming on major agricultural crop production. To keep pace with increasing crop demand for human and animal consumptionwhich will potentially double between 2010 and 2050 (van Dijk et al., 2021) and to minimise the demand for arable land, grain yields per hectare need to increase by 2.4% each year. Yet, for the period 1989-2008, actual annual increases fell markedly short of this figure, being 1.6%, 1.0%, 0.9% and 1.3% for maize, rice, wheat and soybean, respectively (Ray et al., 2013). Therefore, it is imperative that we improve major crop yields (Smith, 2013). This goal can be achieved through increasing both yield resilience in suboptimal 60 New Phytologist (2023) 237: 60-77 conditions (Munns & Gilliham, 2015;Rivero et al., 2022) and yield potential, discussed herein.To date, increases in crop yields have been driven by Green Revolution cultivarsthat lent themselves to more intensive irrigation, fertilisation and mechanisationand continued selective breeding (Tilman, 1998;Crespo-Herrera et al., 2018). These strategies doubled wheat yield and tripled that of maize between 1961 and 2000outcomes that were achieved with only a 30% increase in cultivated land area (World Bank, 2007;Hazell, 2009). Global wheat production grew from 222 Mt in 1961 to 585 Mt in 2000 and then to 735 Mt as of 2018. However, in recent years, yield per hectare has plateaued and further investment in the current strategies may be ineffective at further boosting yield (Tester & Langridge, 2010;Mózner et al., 2012;Iizumi et al., 2017). To avoid farming more land and using more fertilisers, it is essential that new pathways are found to boost crop yields. Improving yield potential (Y p ) is one such opportunity.Breaking Y p into components allows assessment of targeted multiplicative improvements. Y p is the product of several underlying components:where Q is the cumulative incident solar radiation (MJ m −2 ) throughout the growing season; ϵ p is the partitioning efficiency (commonly referred to as harvest index), the proportion of biomass allocated to harvested product; ϵ i is the efficiency with which the plant intercepts/absorbs radiation; and ϵ c is the efficiency with which the intercepted radiation is converted into biomass (Monteith, 1977;Long et al., 2015) (see Box 1 for a mathematical expansion of ϵ c , and Fig. 1 for examples of factors that influence each underlying component of Y p ). In theory, an increase in any of these factors would increase overall Y p . However, not every term of the equation holds promise for a significant improvement in future years (Loomis & Amthor, 1999). Both ϵ p and ϵ i have improved greatly since the Green Revolution through selective breeding, approaching 0.6 and 0.8-0.9, respectively (Zhu et al., 2010). Increasing crop yields throughout the second half of the 20 th century came with a concomitant increase in harvest index, attributable to biomass allocation patterns and dwarf genes that resulted in shorter stems that could support more grain (Sinclair, 1998). Meanwhile, because higher ϵ i increases the amount of incident solar radiation available for photosynthesis, improvements in canopy architecture and responses to light have been targets for selection. In many field-grown crops, plants with leaves perpendicular to incoming light will intercept most of the solar radiation at the uppermost layer of the canopy, shading lower levels and preventing them from achieving light-saturated levels of photosynthesis (Campbell & Ogren, 1990;Ort & Long, 2003). Structuring canopies such that leaves higher in the canopy arrange themselves at steeper angles allows for deeper penetration of solar radiation, potentially doubling ϵ i at peak irradiance or low latitudes. Through selective breeding during the Green Revolution, ϵ i was increased through reductions in plant stature and lodging.By comparison, there are still many untapped opportunities for improvements in the underlying factors that influence the efficiency with which solar radiation is converted into biomass (i.e. ϵ c ). Currently, the maximum observed value of ϵ c lies at c. 0.024, yet the ϵ c for C 3 crops has a theoretical maximum efficiency of 0.046-0.051 (Monteith, 1977;Long et al., 2006;Zhu et al., 2010). Given this gap, ϵ c values could be strategically targeted as they provide one of the best options for future improvement (Fig. 2). To enable this, opportunities to increase the efficiency of the biochemical processes underpinning ϵ c urgently need to be identified and prioritised.Steps to improve the efficiency of net photosynthetic CO 2 fixation One way of improving ϵ c is to increase the efficiency of photosynthesis (Eqn B3). But how might this be achieved? Ultimately, improvements are needed in the ability of plants to convert absorbed light energy into products (ATP and NADPH) needed to drive CO 2 fixation by ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase/ oxygenase (Rubisco) and in minimising carbon loss through processes such as photorespiration, while protecting the system from photoinhibition. Here, we discuss attributes that influence the efficiency of photosynthesis and strategies being employed to improve net photosynthesis.The variable nature of light availability across space and time in the plant canopy requires consideration of biochemical responses to these fluctuations. Incoming solar radiation above saturating rates can cause photooxidative damage to light-harvesting complexes (Havaux & Niyogi, 1999;Baroli & Niyogi, 2000). Photoprotective mechanisms can decrease the quantum yield of photosystem II, accounting for c. 15% decrease in daily canopy carbon uptake, and even higher values under stress conditions (Long et al., 1994;Zhu et al., 2004). Photosynthetic induction, the ramp-up of photosynthetic activity after exposure to light, can delay a leaf from reaching optimal photosynthetic rates under given conditions on the scale of minutes (Retkute et al., 2015;Soleh et al., 2017). Modulating these responses could improve net photosynthetic performance in certain situations (Murchie & Niyogi, 2011). The issue of induction is related to canopy structure because lower canopy layers are more reliant on intermittent light interception for photosynthesis. For example, total canopy photosynthesis could increase up to 17% with increased light penetration to the lower canopy in rice (Burgess et al., 2016). Additionally, the delay of photosynthetic induction ramping up to full capacity can cause a > 20% loss of potential carbon assimilation in wheat (Taylor & Long, 2017), which could potentially be ameliorated through overexpression or amino acid substitutions in Rubisco activase (Yamori et al., 2012;Carmo-Silva & Salvucci, 2013). Because leaf N is not necessarily distributed to maximise photosynthesis, optimising nitrogen distribution throughout the canopy is another strategy for increased photosynthesis, particularly at key growth stages (Johnson et al., 2010;Moreau et al., 2012). Potential strategies to improve induction of photosynthesis include speeding up the rate at which proteins are activated in the photosynthetic electron transport system, increasing carbon fixation capacity via increases in concentrations in Rubisco and Rubisco activase, and improving CO 2 supply via increases in stomatal and mesophyll conductance (Yamori, 2021). Increasing nonphotochemical quenching (NPQ) relaxation under fluctuating light conditions could also be beneficial, in order to increase the efficiency of light energy use under light-limiting conditions (Yamori, 2021). A recent example is the study by De Souza et al. (2022) for soybean; they reported that the overexpression of genes linked to NPQ relaxation (AtVDE, AtPsbS and AtZEP) improved photosynthetic efficiency of soybean under fluctuating light over 2 yr in field trials. Yield may also be improved, as shown by the 24% higher soybean yields of five independent transgenic lines at the Urbana site in 2020. While further work is needed across multiple sites and years, the work of De Souza et al. (2022) does highlight opportunities to improve yield potential via targeting photosynthetic properties such as NPQ relaxation.Another approach to improve photosynthesis is via targeting the biochemical properties of Rubisco. As a central protein in the Calvin cycle, Rubisco's biochemical properties play a large role in defining photosynthetic performance. Variations in Rubisco's Currently, the maximum observed value of ϵ c lies c. 0.024 (Monteith, 1977). Yet, the ϵ c for C 3 crops has a theoretical efficiency of 0.046-0.051 (Long et al., 2006;Zhu et al., 2010). With current ϵ c values being only half of their theoretical maximum, there is clearly scope for improvement. Here, improvements in the efficiency of biochemical processes underpinning ϵ c are urgently needed. To understand ways of improving ϵ c , we can mathematically consider which factors contribute to variation in ϵ c . One way of achieving this is to define ϵ c according to:where ϵ c (and thus the biomass produced per joule of light absorbed) is the product of how much CO 2 is fixed by photosynthesis per joule of light, multiplied by the amount of plant mass per unit of CO 2 fixed by photosynthesis. Eqn B2 shows that ϵ c could be improved through targeting aspects of photosynthetic biochemistry to improve the amount of CO 2 fixed per unit quantum of light. Put another way:It also shows that ϵ c can be improved via changes in the efficiency with which plants accumulate biomass per unit of CO 2 fixed:Bringing Eqns B3 and B4 together, we see that ϵ c is related to α and ϵ biosynthesis according to:where ϵ biosynthesis is dependent on the efficiency of ATP production (hereon termed ϵ prod ; i.e. how much substrate must be consumed for a certain ATP yield) and the efficiency of ATP use (ϵ use ), with the latter being the ATP yield necessary to drive processes of biosynthesis, transport and cellular maintenance. Bringing these factors together, we see that:and therefore:These equations thus show that improvements in ϵ c could be achieved through α, ϵ prod and ϵ use . In subsequent sections, we discuss strategies available for improvement in these components of ϵ c .New structure, catalytic activity and interactions with other proteins (such as Rubisco activase) present both opportunities and limitations for engineering improvements in photosynthesis (Whitney et al., 2011;Conlan & Whitney, 2018). Collaborations such as the Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency project (https://ripe. illinois.edu/) highlight the role of strategies such as introducing novel Rubisco types (Prins et al., 2016), selecting for shorter photosynthetic induction (Acevedo-Siaca et al., 2020) and improving stomatal CO 2 response of mesophyll conductance of CO 2 (Bailey-Serres et al., 2019). Hyperspectral reflectance has also shown promising correlations to related traits, such as the maximum catalytic activity of Rubisco (V cmax ) and maximum rate of photosynthetic electron transport (J max ) (Silva-Perez et al., 2018;Fu et al., 2020). Focusing on such traits, and using emerging highthroughput, nondestructive methods of quantifying photosynthetic traits, provides opportunities to breed for increased α and through it, improve ϵ c .Another route to improving the efficiency of net photosynthesis is via modifications to photorespirationthe pathway through which the oxygenation reaction by Rubisco consumes RuBP to form 3-Fig. 1 Logic flow of improvements to the carbon economy of plants in order to increase yield potential. Minimising the ratio of respiration to either photosynthesis (R : P) or growth (R : RGR) increases the amount of photo assimilate available for yield (yellow). This goal can be achieved in two ways (green): by shrinking the numerator (decreased mitochondrial CO 2 loss) or by increasing the denominator (more CO 2 uptake). To date, increases in yield potential have been in part due to improvements in ϵ i (violet). Further improvements will require improving ϵ c through modifying the photorespiratory pathway (α; orange), increased ϵ prod (blue) or increased ϵ use (red). AOX, alternative oxidase; COX, cytochrome c oxidase; SWEET, Sugars Will Eventually be Exported Transporter; UQ, ubiquinone pool.Fig. 2 Theoretical efficiencies of yield potential factors. Yield potential can be improved by increasing any of its factors -ϵ i , ϵ c and ϵ p . However, only ϵ c shows appreciable difference between its observed and theoretical efficiency and therefore stands as the best target for improvement. Energy remaining after ϵ c processes is in the form of biomass, and a doubling would hypothetically flow downstream and double energy remaining during ϵ p , that is yield. Q, incoming solar radiation for growing season.Ó 2022 The Authors New Phytologist Ó 2022 New Phytologist Foundation.New Phytologist (2023) 237: 60-77 www.newphytologist.comPGA and 2-phosphoglycolate (2PG), the latter being converted to glycolate. The 2PG inhibits triose-phosphate isomerase and disrupts the Calvin cycle, emphasising the need not only to minimise Rubisco oxygenation, but also to efficiently metabolise 2PG once produced. This is achieved, in part, via the export of glycolate to the peroxisome where it is converted to glyoxylate and then glycine (resulting in the release of H 2 O 2 ), with glycine being exported to mitochondria where it is decarboxylated by glycine decarboxylase (GDC) to yield serine, NH 3 , NAD(H) and CO 2 .Together, these reactions mean that photorespiration reduces the efficiency of net photosynthesis (and thus α and ϵ c ). Because of this, minimising Rubisco oxygenation and associated rates of photorespiratory CO 2 release are potential targets for improving yield potential. Importantly, any strategy to modify photorespiration needs to regulate the production and metabolism of toxic intermediates, the loss of nitrogen as volatile NH 3 , and also consider the current role of photorespiration in wider amino acid biosynthesis and metabolism (Novitskaya et al., 2002;Abadie & Tcherkez, 2019).From a carbon metabolism perspective, photorespiration represents an energetically expensive process, either as an opportunity cost during Rubisco oxygenation (every O 2 bound to Rubisco represents a potential CO 2 that did not bind), or as CO 2 release during glycine decarboxylation. Rubisco oxygenation will be influenced by the relative specificity of Rubisco (S c/o ), leaf temperature and the intercellular and intracellular concentrations of CO 2 (Parry et al., 2013), with the subsequent rate of photorespiratory CO 2 release varying depending on which metabolic intermediates are shuttled to other pathways (Peterhansel et al., 2010;Busch, 2020). Reassimilation of photorespiratory CO 2 by Rubisco will also influence the extent to which photorespiration reduces α and ϵ c (Sage & Sage, 2009).Because of its potential to reduce the efficiency of net photosynthesis, many researchers have investigated the effect of mutations to different points in the photorespiratory pathway over the past 30 yr. These studies have revealed a wide range of 'photorespiratory phenotypes' that vary depending on the site of disruption to photorespiratory pathway and the environmental conditions in which plants are grown (e.g. see table 2 in Timm & Bauwe (2013) for a list of mutants and associated phenotypes). In many cases, knockout of key steps in the photorespiratory pathway is deleterious and potentially lethal. For example, in Arabidopsis thaliana, the most severe phenotypes show conditional lethality in GDC double knockout mutants (gldp1 × gldp2) and serine hydroxymethyltransferase double knockout mutants (shm1 × sh-m2) (Engel et al., 2007(Engel et al., , 2011)). Other deletions result in a milder photorespiratory phenotype because of functional redundancy with other members in the gene family (Timm & Bauwe, 2013) and/or because of the plasticity of phenotypic response in photorespiratory mutants (Peterhansel et al., 2013;Walker et al., 2016). In any case, the available mutant studies highlight that fully knocking out the entire photorespiratory pathway is not a viable strategy and that photorespiratory modifications (to reduce photorespiratory CO 2 release) must consider reducing flux through the pathway, while regulating production and metabolism of toxic intermediates.A range of studies provide examples of how modifications of photorespiration can increase biomass production (see Fig. 3), including: increasing CO 2 concentration around Rubisco (to reduce the rate of oxygenation) based on the modelled introduction of cyanobacterial carboxysomes; changing associations between chloroplasts and mitochondria; and engineering photorespiratory bypasses (Sage & Sage, 2009;Price et al., 2013;Xin et al., 2015;Betti et al., 2016;Batista-Silva et al., 2020). One example is the expression of CO 2 permeable aquaporins to improve membrane CO 2 conductance (Groszmann et al., 2017;Zhao et al., 2017;Ermakova et al., 2021) and reabsorb emitted CO 2 in the chloroplast. Another example of the latter is recent work by South et al. (2019) who detail three alternative photorespiratory pathways (APs) in Nicotiana tabacum, two of which led to increased biomass and one which increased light-use efficiency. AP1 plants (with Escherichia coli glycolate oxidase genes targeted to the chloroplast) exhibited a 13% increase in plant dry mass. AP3 plants (with replaced malate synthase and glycolate oxidase) exhibited an 18% increase in the absence of an RNAi construct that reduced PLGG1 expression and 24% biomass increase with the RNAi constructas well as increased glyoxylate and pyruvate, increased photosynthetic rate, increased chloroplastic CO 2 concentration and decreased serine and glycerate. These findings highlight the potential and viability of modifications to the photorespiratory pathway to improve plant growth.Net photosynthesis determines the upper bounds of the plant carbon budget; however, understanding the fate of fixed carbon is just as important to ultimately improving Y p . Photoassimilate from the Calvin cycle is stored or exported to sink tissues, where it can be respired to produce ATP, carbon skeletons and reductants. Between 30 and 60% of daily fixed carbon ends up being respired (Amthor et al., 2019). The ultimate goal is to improve the efficiency of ATP synthesis and use, reducing the proportion of daily fixed carbon that is respired and improving yield through enhanced ϵ c . This could be accomplished through improvements in ϵ biosynthesis (Eqns B4 and B6). Knowing that respiration is a key component in determining available carbon for growth in a plant's carbon budget, we first explore the components of ϵ biosynthesis (i.e. processes that influence the efficiency of ATP production and consumption).To improve ϵ biosynthesis , one option is to consider ϵ prodthe efficiency with which ATP and other respiratory products are made (Eqn B7). During oxidative phosphorylation, high-energy electrons generated during glycolysis and from the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle are transported through a series of complexes along the inner mitochondrial membrane (IMM) to the terminal electron acceptor, oxygen. The flow of electrons through Complexes I (NAD(H) dehydrogenase), III (cytochrome bc 1 complex) and IV (cytochrome c oxidase, COX) is coupled to the pumping of protons across the IMM to create the electrochemical gradient that drives generation of ATP by Complex V (ATP synthase). Importantly, the plant IMM also contains rotenone-resistant dehydrogenases (alternative DHs) that reduce the ubiquinone pool without utilising Complex I (Rasmusson et al., 2004) and the cyanideresistant alternative oxidase (AOX) that diverts the flow of electrons from the ubiquinone pool directly to O 2 (McIntosh, 1994;Vanlerberghe & McIntosh, 1997;Berthold et al., 2000). The alternative DHs and AOX pathway reduce the efficiency of ATP production per mol substrate because electrons bypass either Complex I, or both Complex III/IV, respectively, resulting in a decrease in the number of protons pumped across the membrane such that the amount of ATP per unit of CO 2 released and/or O 2 consumed decreases. Similarly, dissipation of the electrochemical gradient also occurs when protons are transported through the IMM-located uncoupling proteins (UCPs) or mechanosensitive ion channels and results in reduced ATP yield, with energy being dissipated as heat (Sweetlove et al., 2006;Lee et al., 2016). Because of this, ϵ prod has the potential to be inversely related to engagement of the AOX pathway and/or other nonphosphorylating/uncoupling pathways (Fig. 4). While we lack examples of where engagement of these pathways are linked to changes in ϵ prod , low activity of them couldin theorycontribute to increased ϵ prod and ultimately Y p .One challenge for improving ϵ prod through targeting the AOX and/or other nonphosphorylating/uncoupling pathways is the fact that nonphosphorylating and uncoupling pathways broadly increase stress resistance. For example, AOX transcripts increase under stressed conditions such as the presence of inhibitors of mitochondrial electron transport chain (Saisho et al., 1997;Polidoros et al., 2005), chilling temperatures (Djajanegara et al., 2002) and oxidative stress (Yukioka et al., 1998). Loss of AOX makes plants susceptible to stress (Giraud et al., 2008;Demircan et al., 2020), and overexpression can improve plant stress tolerance (Dahal et al., 2015;Gong et al., 2020). Changes in UCP and NDH expression have similar effects (Taylor et al., 2005;Arcuri et al., 2021). Increases in the abundance of nonphosphorylating and uncoupling pathways enable plants to maintain flux through glycolysis and the TCA cycle under conditions of low ATP demand (i.e. enabling flexibility in the ATP yield and depending on demand). This flexibility comes with the trade-off of decreased efficiency in ATP production, and a decrease in ϵ prod means that more assimilated carbon must be consumed to produce ATP. However, suboptimal ATP yield is counteracted by increased stress tolerance and blunt excision of these pathways may do more harm than good, as the aforementioned mutant phenotypes show.Assuming in specific scenarios that changes in ϵ prod could help increase ϵ biosynthesis , how might future studies incorporate screens for genotypic variability in ϵ prod into breeding strategies? One approach is to quantify the relative engagement of these pathways in vivo. In the case of terminal oxidases, COX and AOX exhibit differential isotope discrimination when consuming O 2 (Guy et al., 1987;Cheah et al., 2014). When placed in a closed system, the ratios of 16 O and 18 O change through time; when coupled to measurements of overall O 2 uptake, rates of COX and AOX can be calculated. While such an approach could be used to screen divergent genotypes of crops, the method is currently low throughput and requires sustained use of high-sensitivity mass spectrometers; thus, as currently available, the oxygen isotope discrimination method is unlikely to provide the rapid screening required by the crop breeding industry. Similarly, we lack methods to rapidly screen for variability in in vivo proton translocation via uncoupling pathways or the use of alternative NDHs. Thus, new approaches will need to be developed that enable in vivo rates through any or all of these alternative pathways in high-throughput measurements as part of screens of diverse germplasm. An alternative approach could be to employ a synthetic biology approach to modify their engagement. For example, Amthor et al. (2019) suggested engineering a light-specific AOX to replace constitutive expression, minimising AOX flux in the dark and improving ϵ prod . A dual-track approachusing screens of diversity panels and a synthetic biology approachwould allow us to take advantage of natural variation in engagement of alternative pathways and engineered variation. Finally, further efforts need to be made to adapt the genetically-encoded biosensors developed for live monitoring of photosynthetic redox and energy status in chloroplasts (Müller-Schüssele et al., 2021) to the monitoring of respiratory energetics in mitochondria.Improvements to ϵ biosynthesis can also be accomplished through changes to the efficiency by which respiratory energy is used (i.e.ϵ use ) for biosynthetic, maintenance and active transport. Cellular respiration not only provides the energy required for metabolic reactions, but also creates the carbon skeletons necessary for biosynthesis and regulates the cellular redox environment in which these reactions to take place (Plaxton & Podestá, 2006;Millar et al., 2011;O'Leary et al., 2019). Changes in the efficiency of processes that use products of respiration can thus influence ϵ use , with consequences for ϵ biosynthesis , ϵ c and Y p .Biosynthesis costs of plant tissues are generally invariant Could ϵ use be improved via screening for variation in the energy costs of synthesising new tissues? The energy demand associated with biosynthesis depends on two factors: (1) the ATP costs of making individual chemical constituents; and (2) the relative abundance of individual chemicals in plant tissues (De Vries et al., 1983;Lambers & Rychter, 1989). Beyond acquisition (described later), minerals have no construction cost, and organic acids, total nonstructural carbon and total structural carbon are relatively cheap to produce (0.91, 1.09 and 1.22 g glucose g −1 dry mass, respectively). Meanwhile, the costs of synthesis are higher for lignin, protein, soluble phenolics and lipids (2.12, 2.48, 2.60 and 3.03 g glucose g −1 , respectively), and key components of energy organelles. Theoretically, differences in the chemical makeup of different tissues could mean that some tissues are cheaper to produce than others. However, in studies that have quantified the construction costs of plant tissues in a range of contrasting plant species, relatively minor differences have been observed. For example, Poorter & Villar (1994) found only small differences in the construction costs for different functional types: a 6% difference between herbaceous and woody plants (1.45 to 1.54 g glucose g −1 , respectively) and a 4% difference between deciduous angiosperms and evergreens (1.52 and 1.58 g glucose g −1 , respectively). Additionally, environmental-limiting conditions ((CO 2 ), light and nutrients) have a minimal impact (≤10%) on construction costs. Underpinning the uniformity of construction costs is the fact that there are often trade-offs in the abundance of energetically expensive compounds. For example, fast-growing species are protein-rich, whereas slow-growing species contain high concentrations of lignin, with both compounds being energetically expensive to construct (Poorter & Villar, 1994), with there being a general trade-off between inexpensive and expensive constituents in both slow-and fast-growing species (Lambers et al., 2008). Given these observations, targeting the efficiency of biosynthesis is unlikely to be the best strategy for improving ϵ use . Rather, improvements are likely to come through a focus on the efficiency with which respiratory energy is used by processes of cellular maintenance and/or ion transport.Improvements through targeting the energy costs of maintenance processes Perhaps of greater significance in determining whether a particular plant has low or high ϵ use are the energy costs associated with maintenance of mature tissues (e.g. protein turnover and maintenance of solute gradients across membranes), which can consume 30-60% of daily fixed carbon (Penning de Vries, 1975;Amthor, 2000), with high costs being associated with slow growth rates (Lambers et al., 2008). More recently, Amthor et al. (2019) outlined the opportunity to reduce energy costs of maintenance processes, including decreasing protein and membrane turnover, relocating and/or rescheduling metabolic activities, suppressing futile cycles in metabolism and reducing ion transport costs. As such, there is potential for ϵ use to be improved through screening for variation in the energy costs of these processes and/or genetic manipulation of the underlying components of each process (Jacoby et al., 2016;Amthor et al., 2019).Plants employ a diverse assortment of proteins for daily growth, metabolism and function, as well as in response to dynamic stimuli. The plant proteome is responsive to abiotic and developmental factors as well as carbon and nitrogen economy (Kosová et al., 2011). Total protein content in a plant is not constant and changes in response to environmental factors such as salinity (Doganlar et al., 2010;Jouyban, 2012), drought (Akhzari & Pessarakli, 2016) and heat stress (Giri et al., 2017) to name a few. Protein abundance depends on the rate of protein synthesis (k s ) and degradation (k d ) (Li et al., 2017;Ross et al., 2021). As Li et al. (2017) note, these two processes are often combined to loosely define protein turnover, the process by which degradation of existing proteins and replacement with newly synthesised proteins modify the proteome. For a given time period, Ross et al. (2021) define total protein produced simply as the integral of k s , whereas total protein degraded is expressed as an exponential decay function, with k d as the rate constant. By relating protein abundance to rates, the authors find that k d controls turnover under steady-state conditions, including after changes in k s , as only k d controls protein half-lives (see Ross et al., 2021).What do we know about the relationship between protein turnover and its associated ATP costs? Reflecting the factors mentioned earlier, it is clear that plants have evolved a complex system to regulate protein synthesis and degradation, allowing metabolism to dynamically adjust to changes in the type and abundance of proteins needed in different environments and growth stages (Vierstra, 2009;Marshall & Vierstra, 2018). Protein synthesis can be controlled at the transcriptional, posttranscriptional and translational levels, whereas degradation is dependent on post-translational regulation related to protein location and function, local environment and protein-protein interactions (Hinkson & Elias, 2011;Nelson & Millar, 2015;Huang et al., 2020). The balance between synthesis and degradation dictates maintenance costs of protein turnover, either through differences in specific ATP cost of turnover or the absolute amount of turnover occurring.While protein turnover can help plants adjust to new environments, it is energetically expensive. Each day, c. 6% of all proteins are replaced, with 6-10 mol ATP being consumed per mol peptide bonds undergoing turnover and 0.9-1.6 CO 2 per amino acid (Noguchi et al., 2001;Nelson et al., 2014;Ishihara et al., 2015). Bouma et al. (1994) estimated that protein turnover in bean leaves accounted for 17-21% of darkened mature leaf respiration (c. 2.3 nmol CO 2 g −1 s −1 ). In a review of previous research, Noguchi et al. (2001) reported that protein turnover consumes 3.5-60% of total ATP produced. In their own experiment, Noguchi et al. (2001) found protein turnover consumed 15.9-23.8% and 40.8-61.3% of total ATP produced in shaded and sunlit leaves, respectively. Quigg & Beardall (2003) reported that the proportion of maintenance respiration is attributable to protein turnover in higher plants, ranging from Dactylis glomerata roots (7%) to Hordeum vulgare full-grown leaves (30-60%). In wheat, protein turnover consumes approximately a third of total respiratory energy (Zagda ńska, 1995). In Arabidopsis, 25-40% of ATP is used for protein turnover, depending on the age and growth rate of leaves, and this overall cost has been broken down to specific costs of maintaining different kinds of cellular organelles, metabolic pathways and enzymes (Li et al., 2017). Specific proteins also play disproportionately large roles in turnover costs. For example, thiazole synthase (THI4) turnover can account for 2-10% of total maintenance respiration (Amthor et al., 2019). Thus, while there is clearly considerable variability in the estimated ATP costs associated with protein turnover, what is clear is that reducing the costs of turnover could be a target for improving ϵ use , particularly when designing plants for future, warmer climates. This is because turnover costs are likely to increase under conditions of environmental stress (e.g. heat, salinity and hypoxia) that accelerate the turnover of proteins, thereby consuming more of the ATP budget (Hachiya et al., 2007;Edwards et al., 2012).Bearing in mind the goal of maximising ϵ use , are there correlations between whole-plant growth and protein turnover? In Arabidopsis, larger (higher growth rate and rosette biomass) accessions reduced ribosome abundance at night, whereas smaller accessions maintained end-of-day levels of ribosomes (Ishihara  , 2017). Smaller accessions also had rates of protein synthesis up to 30% higher than the estimated rate required for growth, and up to 25% of the observed difference in relative growth rate could be tied to increased ATP costs of protein turnover. Gibon et al. (2009) found a tight correlation between growth, starch metabolism and protein content in Arabidopsis grown under different photoperiods, although they observed protein amount, not turnover rate. There are currently few studies in this space, but it should be considered a priority for further study, considering the substantial proportion of ATP use devoted to protein turnover.Other substantive energy demands are phospholipid membrane turnover (c. 0.7 nmol CO 2 g −1 s −1 ) (Penning de Vries, 1975) and maintenance of ion gradients within cells; for the latter, Penning de Vries (1975) estimated that the total cost of maintaining intracellular ion gradients was c. 4.6 nmol CO 2 g −1 s −1 in some leaves, that is over 50% of respiratory rate. Lipids (a large part of membrane composition) are expensive to produce, costing nearly 3 g of glucose to produce 1 g of lipid (De Vries et al., 1974) To our knowledge, little work exists on the specific construction costs or turnover rates of plant membranes. Prior studies show that wholeplant cell membranes can be fully turned over in 200 min (Warren & Glick, 1968;Steer, 1988). However, Hao & Maxfield (2000) found membrane turnover rates as low as 5-10 min in Chinese hamster ovarian cells. This large difference between very distinct cell types suggests more work remains to address gaps in how membrane turnover is supported by maintenance respiration. Similarly, considering protein turnover, improved measurement techniques will allow for fine-resolution, context-specific descriptions of synthesis and degradation rates, k s and k d , respectively (Nelson et al., 2014;Ross et al., 2021), across the multitude of subcellular and ambient environments experienced, allowing greater specificity of turnover characterisation. Variation in energy demands associated with maintenance can, therefore, have a substantive impact on ϵ use of leaves. From the context of increasing ϵ use and ultimately Y p , minimising the energy costs associated with protein turnover, while maintaining adequate function, would present an opportunity to decrease the maintenance respiration costs incurred (Amthor et al., 2019).Lowering the energy costs of phloem loading A further factor that influences the demand for respiratory ATP is nocturnal carbohydrate export from mature leaves. Once synthesised in photosynthetic source leaves, sucrose (Suc), the main assimilate in most seed plants, needs to be loaded into the phloem for translocation towards nonphotosynthetic sink organs where Suc is unloaded. This source-to-sink allocation of assimilate plays critical roles in determining how biomass is translated into crop yield (Ruan, 2014;Fernie et al., 2020). Opportunities exist to increase source-to-sink phloem translocation efficiency with no or little additional ATP cost as elaborated later.In most species, phloem loading takes place either via the apoplast across plasma membranes or via the symplast through plasmodesmata (PD) at the interface of phloem parenchyma and the companion cell-sieve element (CC-SE) complex in developed leaves. The latter pathway also includes Suc moving from mesophyll and bundle sheath cells through PD into specialised CCs called intermediary cells, where Suc is synthesised into a raffinose family oligosaccharide for loading into the SE, the socalled polymer trap model. This pathway has been observed in Cucurbita genus and some trees (Fu et al., 2011;Zhang & Turgeon, 2018). In apoplasmic phloem loading, the uptake of Suc into CCs is typically mediated by H + -Suc symporters energised by plasma membrane-bound ATPase, while efflux of Suc from phloem parenchyma is facilitated by the energy-independent clade III Sugars will Eventually be Exported transporter (SWEET). Knockout of clade III SWEETs significantly reduced phloem loading, leading to a severe growth phenotype in a range of species such as Arabidopsis (Chen et al., 2012) and maize (Bezrutczyk et al., 2018). These findings indicate a major role of SWEETs in controlling Suc efflux for subsequent uptake into the CC-SE. It is therefore plausible that enhancing Suc efflux by increasing clade III SWEET expression or activity could improve phloem loading of Suc with no direct energy cost (and thus improve ϵ use ).In parallel to apoplasmic loading, Suc may also be loaded into CC-SE symplasmically via PD (Braun et al., 2014;Bezrutczyk et al., 2018). In this case, phloem loading may be improved through increasing PD conductance by modifying sterol homeostasis or callose turnover or other PD-associated proteins (Zhang et al., 2017;Fernie et al., 2020). To this end, β-1,3 glucan synthase and β-1,3 glucanase are the two enzymes synthesising and degrading callose, respectively (Ruan, 2007;Zhang et al., 2017). Thus, the knockout of η-1,3 glucan synthase could block callose synthesis at the PD neck region, while overexpressing β-1,3 glucanase could degrade callose at the PD neck region. Such changes would have the effect of 'opening up' or increasing PD conductance for symplasmic loading (potentially increasing ϵ use ).The SWEETs also play an important role in unloading of Suc into sinks. Interestingly, clade III SWEETs could be bound and inactivated by SP6A, a homologue of FT and phloem-mobile tuberigen in potato tubers, which switches the apoplasmic unloading route into symplasmic unloading, triggering tubulisation (Abelenda et al., 2019). This shows potential to optimise phloem unloading for yield gain such as tuber formation via manipulating SWEET activity. On the contrary, PD appears to impose major restrictions on the delivery of assimilates to meristematic sinks such as shoot or root apex and ovules (Ruan, 2012). In this context, computational modelling has identified inefficient delivery of carbon as a cause of floral and seed abortion on the secondary and tertiary branches of rice panicles (Seki et al., 2015), likely due to low PD conductance in those highorder branches (Fernie et al., 2020). Collectively, the above analyses indicate potential scope and avenues for improving phloem loading and unloading for growth and yield gain in an energy-efficient manner, with positive implications for ϵ use .Reducing the energy costs associated with root nutrient uptake Uptake of nutrients from the soil into roots is another major energy cost, with 50-60% of root respiratory ATP being used to support ion uptake (Poorter et al., 1991). Importantly, the specific energy costs of ion uptake differ among species adapted to contrasting environments, with more respiratory ATP being needed to take up a given amount of nitrate in inherently slow- growing species than their fast-growing counterparts, when plants are provided with high nutrient supply (Poorter et al., 1991). The differences in the specific costs of ion uptake reflect the fact that: (1) there is an efflux of ions (e.g. nitrate) from roots, resulting in a reduction in the net rate of ion uptake; and (2) the extent of efflux is relatively greater in inherently slow-growing species than in fastgrowing species (Scheurwater et al., 1998(Scheurwater et al., , 1999)). Such differences suggest that we may be able to increase ϵ use via understanding the mechanistic basis for these differences.Roots collect water and nutrients from the surrounding soil matrix, not only through bulk flow passive transport but also through active transport facilitated by transporter proteins. Active transport impacts ϵ use by using ATP to transport nutrients across membranes, against a concentration gradient, to be assimilated by roots or transported to shoots (Xu et al., 2012). In the case of nitrate, this movement is undertaken by nitrate transporter 1 (NRT1)/peptide transporter gene superfamily (NPF) that encodes transporters throughout the plant that allow its movement from root to shoot and ultimately nitrate reduction (Campbell, 1999;Plett et al., 2010;Zhang et al., 2020). However, as outlined earlier, nitrogen efflux from roots is common (Segonzac et al., 2007;Xu et al., 2012) and can contribute to high rates of respiration in slower growing plants as the ratio of nitrate influx to net nitrate uptake increases (Scheurwater et al., 1998). Ideally, ϵ use would be maximised through maintaining high rates of net nitrate uptake and assimilation per ATP used. This could be achieved through increased influx, decreased efflux or more rapid translocation to the shoot. Strategies including suppressed expression of nitrate efflux transporters such as NAXT1 (Segonzac et al., 2007) or other anion channels (Teakle & Tyerman, 2010;Wege et al., 2017), targeted overexpression of influx transporters with high NO À 3 selectivity (Fan et al., 2016), increasing structural barriers to impede leakage in roots such as suberised hypodermal or endodermal layers (Barberon, 2017) and relocation of nitrate assimilation from roots to shoots have been proposed to increase biomass gains from lower respiration rates (Amthor et al., 2019). Microbiome interactions, for example with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, also aid with nutrient uptake and growth promotion (Pascale et al., 2020). Griffiths et al. (2021) studied hydroponically-grown Zea mays and found genotypic variation in specific root ion uptake rates, which were heritable and positively correlated with specific root respiration rates. Variation between two rice subspecies in their NRT1.1B transporter showed increased nitrate uptake and transport to shoots, as well as upregulation expression of root and shoot nitrate reductase genes (Hu et al., 2015). As Griffiths & York (2020) point out, the extent of genetic variation in transporter traits such as energy costs of active transport is not yet well-characterised. Thus, variations in uptake kinetics exist and present another target for improved ϵ use .The earlier sections have shown that there is potential for variability in both ϵ prod and ϵ use to occur in nature, with consequences for ϵ biosynthesis and ϵ c . Amthor et al. (2019) estimated that a 10% reduction in the energy costs of maintenance could increase biomass accumulation by 6%, and a 20% maintenance respiration reduction could lead to gains up to 14%. This provides a rationale for screening genotypic variability in ϵ prod and/or ϵ use and therefore possibly identifying genotypes with improved yield. However, to be useful, such an approach needs an array of high-throughput methods capable of large-scale phenotyping of ϵ prod (e.g. rapid assays of nonphosphorylating or uncoupling pathway engagement) and/or ϵ use (e.g. measurements of the ratio of net to gross nitrate uptake and associated rates of root respiratory ATP production). However, such high-throughput tools are not available.Consequently, we need to consider new ways of assessing variation in ϵ biosynthesis . Here, one option is to screen for variation in the relationship between plant respiration and photosynthesis (i.e. what fraction of daily fixed carbon is respired rather than conserved in plant biomass). Another is to look for variability in the relationship between respiration and relative growth rate (i.e. screen for genotypes that achieve high growth rates while also having low rates of respiration).What evidence is there that rates of plant respiration vary among genotypes that differ in productivity? Here, insights can be drawn from the eco-physiology literature which has shown that inherently fast-growing species respire a lower fraction of daily fixed carbon than their slow-growing counterparts (Poorter et al., 1990;Lambers & Poorter, 1992;Loveys et al., 2002). Rates of whole-plant respiration are also relatively similar among species that differ markedly in relative growth rates, with high growth rates of some species being achieved without concomitant proportional increases in respiration rates. Such studies point to variation in ϵ biosynthesis being an outcome of evolution, with ϵ biosynthesis being highest in fast-growing species adapted to resource-rich, favourable habitats, and lowest in species adapted to resource-poor, unfavourable habitats.Further evidence of the possible link between ϵ biosynthesis , biomass accumulation and yield comes from the work done on Lolium perenne (perennial ryegrass) in the 1980s. In a series of papers by Wilson, Jones and Robson, up to 13% increases in biomass accumulation and up to 40% increases in annual yield (in repeated years) were observed in plants grown under highdensity conditions and selected for lower rates of mature leaf respiration (Wilson, 1975(Wilson, , 1982;;Robson, 1982a,b;Wilson & Jones, 1982). In Wilson (1982), slow-respiring and fast-respiring progeny were produced by pair-crossing parents within either a slow-or fast-respiring cultivar. Additionally, progeny with low rates of mature leaf respiration were found to have higher net assimilation rate, relative growth rate, dry weight at harvest and leaf area index. Another study comparing selected fast-and slowrespiring ryegrass cultivars found the slow-respiring cultivar to have higher shoot and root mass at each harvest point (Day et al., 1985). More recently, selection across multiple generations of lines with low respiration rates has been shown to be associated with higher yields in canola (Hauben et al., 2009). Thus, there is some evidence that screening for variability in plant respiration rates may enable genotypes with higher ϵ c to be identified, with future work needing to use screens to ultimately identify what genes are responsible for variability in ϵ biosynthesis .Ó 2022 The Authors New Phytologist Ó 2022 New Phytologist Foundation.New Phytologist (2023) 237: 60-77 www.newphytologist.comThe link between respiration, growth and yield is not, however, always consistent. For example, in perennial ryegrass, the relationship between low rates of mature leaf respiration and improved biomass accumulation disappeared when plants were grown in lowdensity swards (Kraus et al., 1993), a result that was supported by a later study (Kraus & Lambers, 2001). Similarly, there is evidence that the growth of pea plants is linked to the efficiency of the respiratory system in some studies (Musgrave et al., 1986) but not others (Obenland et al., 1988). Thus, future efforts to explore the link between respiration, growth and yield will need to ensure that this relationship holds over a wide range of industry-relevant planting regimes.One of the challenges facing work designed to link respiratory rates to photosynthesis, biomass accumulation and yield is the need to screen large numbers of plants for variability in traits of interest and to establish the genetic basis of variability in ϵ biosynthesis . In the past, assays of photosynthesis and respiration were painstakingly slow, limiting our ability to screen large numbers of plants. Similarly, growth analysis required repeated destructive harvesting of plants. However, in recent years, methods have been developed that enable each of these parameters to be quantified in high throughput. Growth analyses are now possible using light detection and ranging technology to quantify aboveground biomass in field experiments (Jimenez-Berni et al., 2018;Furbank et al., 2019;Walter et al., 2019;Jin et al., 2020). For respiration, a breakthrough was the development of a high-throughput, robotic fluorophore method for measuring respiratory O 2 uptake (Scafaro et al., 2017). This method has provided the opportunity to screen hundreds of plant samples per day and has revealed that there is substantial variation in leaf respiration rates among genotypes of individual species, both in wheat (Scafaro et al., 2017) and Arabidopsis (O'Leary et al., 2017). Subsequent work has also shown that we can use hyperspectral reflectance signatures to predict variability in leaf respiration rates of laboratory and field-grown wheat (Coast et al., 2019), further increasing our ability to screen respiration rates in field trials; similarly, hyperspectral reflectance can be used to predict photosynthetic capacity in wheat (Silva-Perez et al., 2018). There is now an opportunity to use these methods to screen diversity panels and recombinant inbred line populations for variations in leaf respiration, photosynthesis and growth, and to identify quantitative trait loci for traits associated with high ϵ biosynthesis .To fully exploit the potential for screens of variability in respiration rates to be used in strategies to improve ϵ biosynthesis , consideration needs to be given, not just to screening variations in leaf respiration (R leaf ), but also R stem and R root . An understanding of the fraction of whole-plant biomass allocated to leaves (LMF), stems (SMF) and roots (RMF), with rates of whole-plant respiration (R total ) being calculated according to:The challenge going forward will be developing high throughput, (ideally) nondestructive ways of estimating stem and root respiration, and the patterns of biomass allocation above and belowground.How would a warmer world temperature affect ϵ c ?Given that the world is warming, it is important to understand how rising temperatures affect ϵ c . Noting that ϵ c ¼ α  ϵ prod  ϵ use (Eqn B7), any temperature-dependent change in the factors and processes previously discussed would likewise influence ϵ c . On a short-term timescale, increasing temperature past the photosynthetic optimum will decrease photosynthetic efficiency by decreased Rubisco carboxylation, damage thylakoid membranes and induce changes to vapour pressure deficit that result in stomatal closure (Mathur et al., 2014;Dusenge et al., 2019). At the same time, respiration, along with photorespiration and reactive oxygen species, is stimulated by increasing temperatures (Tjoelker et al., 2001;Mundim et al., 2020). Importantly, the initial imposition of heat likely results in an increasing proportion of respiratory ATP being used to support maintenance processes instead of growth (Gibon et al., 2009;Scafaro et al., 2021). Rapid increases in temperature result in membranes becoming more fluid and therefore leaky (Allakhverdiev et al., 2008), decreasing ϵ use as a result of more ATP being needed to maintain ion gradients across membranes and decreasing ϵ prod as protons leak across the IMM (Divakaruni & Brand, 2011). Heat also increases the rate of protein turnover and associated demand for respiratory ATP, lowering ϵ use . More severe temperature increases can denature proteins, deactivating enzymes and elevating the cost of maintenance chaperone and heat shock proteins, further lowering ϵ use (Wang et al., 2004). Such factorscombined with knowledge of the mechanisms via which plants adjust membrane fluidity (via alterations in the degree of saturation of fatty acids) and stabilise proteins (e.g. via synthesis of heat shock proteins), as well as thermally acclimate photosynthesis and respiration (Smith & Keenan, 2020) will need to be considered in work targeting higher ϵ c in crops developed to cope with more frequent and severe heat waves.Considering abiotic stress more broadly, the complex, interacting nature of many of the components affecting energy efficiency in plants requires a multivariate investigative approach. Screening for trait variation in ϵ prod and ϵ use and isolation of genetic candidates via GWAS or QTLwhile being an approach that can enhance classical breeding approachesis complicated by the high degree of environmental sensitivity of ϵ prod -and ϵ use -related traits (O'Leary et al., 2019;Scafaro et al., 2021). As such, the experimental design used to screen trait ϵ prod and ϵ use variation needs to be done in ways that enable the roles of genetics and adverse environments to be clearly identified.A further option to improve ϵ prod and ϵ use is to combine the above trait screens with additional approaches that harness the potential of genetic engineering. For example, modern genetic engineering techniques will permit the introduction of low-cost alleles that maintain stress responsiveness by targeting modifications to specific tissues only under permissive conditions, or by editing regulatory elements of promoters to better tune expression under such  (Smith et al., 2011), while knockout of AtNDB2 lead to susceptibility to environmental stress (Sweetman et al., 2019). Therefore, a strategy for improvement will need to be tissue specific or timed to avoid these detriments. Alternative oxidase pathway Flux through AOX does not pump protons into IMM Replace constitutive AOX isoform with a diel-scheduled isoform (such as with a light-specific promoter region) to increase ϵ prod at night (Amthor et al., 2019). ϵ use Growth Construction costs Expensive constituents (lignin, protein, lipids) cost > 2 g glucose g -1 to construct Employ Fourier transform (near-) infrared spectroscopy for high-throughput screening for variation of chemical composition in tissues (Collins et al., 2014).Membrane composition Lipids in membranes are expensive to synthesise and leaky membranes can reduce efficiency of cellular processesEngineer DNA nanostructures to mimic transmembrane proteins, regulate liposomes, modify membrane morphology and mediate membrane interface chemistry (Feng et al., 2021).Slowing protein turnover may translate to higher growth rate and biomass (Jacoby et al., 2016), for example by modifying synthesis of THI4, a high-turnover protein (Hanson et al., 2018).Inefficient energy use with no net gain in useful productMinimising enzymatic sucrose degradation and resynthesis (especially that paired with active transport), or F6P/F16BP cycling under specific developmental or stress conditions (Amthor et al., 2019).Active transport costs ATP Upregulate SWEET/SUC/WAKL proteins to increase phloem loading, biomass and yield (Xu et al., 2020).Ó 2022 The Authors New Phytologist Ó 2022 New Phytologist Foundation.New Phytologist (2023) 237: 60-77 www.newphytologist.com conditions (Zhang et al., 2018). The generation of a range of cisregulatory element edits provides the opportunity to produce a wide range of expression levels of endogenous genes, producing a broader range of potential trait variation than can be seen in natural populations (Rodriguez-Leal et al., 2017;Liu et al., 2021). Because of this, trait stacking (i.e. incorporation of multiple genetic modifications into a single variety of a crop) via transgenesis has enormous potential to speed up the process of crop improvement compared with approaches that relay on traditional breeding approaches. Trait stacking has proven successful in improving crop resistance/tolerance to biotic stresses (Dormatey et al., 2020) where a binary responseimmune or susceptiblecan be easily assessed; with improvements in high-throughput phenotyping methods, the same is likely to be true for assessing the outcomes of stacking of traits that contribute to improved ϵ c . While 'trait stacking' will not always deliver overall positive outcomes for plant metabolism and biomass accumulationwith balance between positive vs negative likely to depend on developmental stage, environment and management practicesthere is clearly potential to create crop lines with marked improvements in ϵ c through exploring the effect of multiple changes in energy-related traits.As outlined earlier, annual increases in crop production are well behind that needed to meet future global demand for food, with new ways needed to improve yield potential (Y p ). Our review has highlighted opportunities to increase Y p using a range of approachessummarised in Table 1 that target photosynthesis and respiration to improve the efficiency with which light energy is converted into biomass (ϵ c ). For photosynthesis, this includes changes in the properties of Rubisco and photosynthetic induction rates to increase carbon fixation (Table 1). Minimising photorespiratory carbon loss through metabolic engineering to increase carboxylation rates while still allowing oxygenation at a reduced but viable rate also shows promise (Table 1). Similarly, reducing the percentage of daily fixed carbon that is released through respiration could improve ϵ biosynthesiswith there being potential to improve the efficiency of ATP synthesis (i.e. ϵ prod ) and/or ATP use (i.e. ϵ use ) to improve ϵ c (Table 1). When such changes are brought together through a 'trait stacking' approach, there is potential to create additive or even multiplicative improvements to ϵ c , and through it, a step change in Y p . Key to exploiting the potential to improve yields through increases in efficiency of photosynthesis and respiration will be the development of high-throughput assays that quantify components of ϵ c . We suggest prioritising high-throughput and digital phenotyping of these components through hyperspectral and automated fluorophore systems and associated growth. The ability to phenotype variation in the balance between respiration, photosynthesis and growth across many plants would provide opportunities to exploit genetic variation in α and ϵ biosynthesisand through them ϵ c and Y p . Collectively, a focus on these strategies will inform breeding programmes targeting the increases in annual yield necessary to keep pace with increasing demand for food, reduce the amount of land used for agriculture, limit the demand for inorganic fertilisers and restrict greenhouse gas emissions from the agriculture sector.","tokenCount":"9122"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"95f23df9307f8eeecbf5d2263bbbcda8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/43ff8ee7-bb7f-4f17-ae00-271145325531/retrieve","id":"122789945"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f23150b8-64b9-4b7b-819d-c54857f63a00","pagecount":"10","content":"• Contested hegemony: peasantry and nation-state formation processes in Latin America 10 .• Agency: relationship between producer families, private companies and the state (from field schools and farm plans to Heirs of Tradition).• Power dynamics within families, youth livestock producers as a discrete social group 1,2,4,6,7,9,11,12,13 .• Participation in educational projects, as well as in rural household economies.The origins of \"Heirs of Tradition\", (2012-2020)• Alquería's program and the company's importance in Colombia's dairy sector. • Pilot initiative in Meta, Colombia, one of the most affected regions due to the presence of armed actors and illicit crops. • Objetive: to tackle the low rates of schooling amongst producers, and the need for a technification of livestock farms to increase their productivity and, in turn, the quality of life of families. • Initial field activities were centered on two major fronts: ECAS or field schools (Escuelas de Campo) and the Plan Finca (farm plan), an educational initiative that introduces tools to facilitate the planning and improvement of farms (Alquería's suppliers) 15 .The role of young participants • Objective: that \"young farmers from different parts of the country be trained on livestock practices at no cost and enhance their knowledge and skills on management of soil, animals, and the environment\".• Address generational transfer, critical issue in the livestock sector in Colombia and Latin America at large 3,5,8,14,16,17 .• Duration: two years. It awards the title of Livestock Production Technologist.• The first 18 months students receive their training at SENA educational centers, and the last 6 are spent in practical on-the-job experience.• 2020-2021, partnership with the Alliance Bioversity International-CIAT (environment, productivity, socioeconomics)The program at a glance (students, dissagregated)  Assessing the impact achieved (qualitatively)• Interviewing former and present participants on their perceptions of the program, and exploring if they continued a career in the livestock sector or maintain their bonds with the company.• Bridging and facing gender disparities (not central to the project from its inception, yet critical in terms of equality, and generational transfer).• Maintaining the program for educational purposes (that can and will benefit the company), in addition to the improvement of milk quality and farm management.\"I was able to gain vital knowledge and tools to grow professionally, as a farmer and as a family member. Yet, overcoming gender stereotyping was one of the hardest parts, as many employers (producers, managers) could not stand the fact of being somewhat \"trained\" by a woman.\"• Closer, deeper relationships with producers and their families, getting to know their needs and ways of life• COVID contingency: rethink educational initiatives when circumstances deepen existing gaps (gender inequity, access to technology and information, remote learning, etc).• Build on past and present testimonies to strenghten the program onwards: listening To young farmers, amplifying their concerns and including their feedback. In sum, contesting hegemonic relationships, as historiographical readings on rural Latin America suggest.","tokenCount":"472"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a5a3dd2fd9ff119e24029ff7bc75f9f6","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/396f66ca-003a-467b-80c5-879eeb43f33d/retrieve","id":"-1624170991"},"keywords":["gender equality","social equality","women's empowerment","food systems","climate change","resilience"],"sieverID":"ddd33538-46cd-4513-afed-ea1fcaf6d298","pagecount":"12","content":"The CGIAR Generating Evidence and New Directions for Equitable Results (GENDER) Impact Platform is grateful for the support of CGIAR Trust Fund Contributors (www.cgiar.org/funders) and in particular wishes to thank the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations for supporting this work (https://www.fao.org/home/en).These evidence-based papers address key themes important for gender and social equality, and women's empowerment in agriculture and food systems. They each discuss: • current status and emerging thinking • the theme's relevance for transformative change toward more inclusive food systems • the evolution of equality in agriculture and food systems over the past 10 years in low-and middle-income countries • what has proved effective to ease structural constraints, and promote equality and empowerment • specific suggestions about interventions, programs and policies that can help make agriculture and food systems more inclusive.COVER PHOTO CREDIT: Felix Clay/Duckrabbit/WorldFish. Weeding maize, Mongu, Western Zambia.Generating Evidence and New Directions for Equitable Results (GENDER) is CGIAR's impact platform designed to put gender equality at the forefront of global agricultural research for development. The Platform is transforming the way gender research is done, both within and beyond CGIAR, to kick-start a process of genuine change toward greater gender equality and better lives for smallholder farmers everywhere. gender.cgiar.org.The working paper has gone through a process of nonblinded peer review by two reviewers external to the CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform, and has also been reviewed by the FAO team working on the 2023 FAO report on the Status of Rural Women in Agrifood Systems. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations nor of the CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform.Elizabeth Bryan, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), [email protected] (Corresponding author)Glossary of terms in gender equality in agri-food systems workAdaptation (to climate change) for human systems refers to the process of adjusting to actual or expected climate and its effects, in order to moderate harm or exploit beneficial opportunities (IPCC 2018). The options, strategies and measures for adaptation can be categorized as structural, institutional, ecological or behavioral (IPCC 2018).Adaptive capacity is the ability of systems, institutions, humans and other organisms to adjust to potential damage, to take advantage of opportunities or to respond to consequences (IPCC 2018;MEA 2005).Agroforestry ''is a collective name for land-use systems and technologies where woody perennials (trees, shrubs, palms, bamboos, etc.) are deliberately used on the same landmanagement units as agricultural crops and/or animals, in some form of spatial arrangement or temporal sequence. In agroforestry systems there are both ecological and economical interactions between the different components. Agroforestry can also be defined as a dynamic, ecology-based natural resource management system that, through the integration of trees on farms and in the agricultural landscape, diversifies and sustains production for increased social, economic and environmental benefits for land users at all levels. In particular, agroforestry is crucial to smallholder farmers and other rural people because it can enhance their food supply, income and health. Agroforestry systems are multifunctional systems that can provide a wide range of economic, sociocultural and environmental benefits\" (FAO 2015).Aquaculture, or farming in water, ''is the aquatic equivalent of agriculture, or farming on land. Defined broadly, agriculture includes farming both animals (animal husbandry) and plants (agronomy, horticulture and forestry in part). Similarly, aquaculture covers the farming of both animals (including crustaceans, finfish and molluscs) and plants (including seaweeds and freshwater macrophytes). While agriculture is predominantly based on use of freshwater, aquaculture occurs in both inland (freshwater) and coastal (brackish water, seawater) areas\" (FAO n.d.a).Aspirations are defined as forward-looking goals or targets (Locke and Latham 2002) and as orientations toward a desired future, where such futures may be individual or collective projects, more immediate or longer term, and pertain to imaginations, affect as well as material practices (Huijsmans, Ansell and Froerer 2021).Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is a framework that is used to promote coordinated efforts to achieve three objectives (pillars): (1) increasing agricultural productivity and incomes, (2) adapting and building resilience to climate change at multiple scales, and (3) mitigating greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from agriculture (Lipper et al. 2014). CSA provides a basis to evaluate alternative strategies and approaches to address climate change across the three pillars. It is often criticized for its lack of attention to political and equity dimensions.Crop productivity or yield is the output of either a particular crop or all crops produced on a unit of land. It is usually presented in physical weight (kilograms) per hectare.Endowment effects are the component of the gender productivity gap that is accounted for or explained by farmer characteristics and the unequal access to production inputs.Empowerment is the process by which people who have been denied the ability to make strategic life choices acquire such an ability. It encompasses three dimensions: resources (economic, human and social preconditions), agency (power-related processes), and achievements (well-being outcomes) (Kabeer 1999).Social empowerment entails receiving recognition in one's community.Economic empowerment entails generating income and purchasing of assets.Exposure and sensitivity to climate shocks and stressors are properties of a system, community or individual that are dependent on the interaction between the characteristics of the system (e.g., livelihood characteristics) and on the attributes of the climate stimulus (severity, duration, scale, etc.) (Smit and Wandel 2006).Fisheries refers to the capture of aquatic organisms in marine, coastal and inland areas, as well as their processing, marketing and distribution.Forest: \"Land spanning more than 0.5 hectares with trees higher than 5 meters and a canopy cover of more than 10 percent, or trees able to reach these thresholds in situ. It does not include land that is predominantly under agricultural or urban land use.\" (FAO 2022)Gender differences arise from the socially constructed relationship between women and men (Oakley 1972;Quisumbing and McClafferty, 2006). Sex differences, on the other hand, are biological and innate. The roles that women and men play in society show similarities and differences across classes and societies. Since the definition of men's and women's roles is specific to time and place, gender divisions are not as simple as 'ticking a box' (Moser 1989;Quisumbing and McClafferty, 2006). Gender differences affect the distribution of resources between women and men and are shaped by ideological, religious, ethnic, economic and social determinants (Moser 1989;Quisumbing and McClafferty, 2006). Being socially rather than innately determined, this distribution can be changed through conscious social action, including public policy.Gender gaps in productivity refer to either within-household or between-household differences in productivity between women and men. Broadly, two types of gender-based farming practices exist: individual and joint production units (farms). Intrahousehold gender productivity differences involve individual farms wherein plots are distinguished by the sex (female and male) of the plot owner or manager or decision-maker, usually wife and husband who are part of the same household; interhousehold gender gaps involve productivity differences (at plot or household level) between joint farms wherein households are distinguished by the sex of the household head or farm decision-maker in the household. Interhousehold gaps also involve productivity differences between households (joint farms irrespective of the gender of household head).Conditional gender productivity gap refers, in this report, to gendered productivity gaps reported after factoring in the gendered differences in access to and control over key agricultural resources such as land, agricultural inputs (fertilizer, improved seeds, plot area, climatic conditions, etc.).Unconditional gender productivity gap refers to reported gender difference in productivity after taking into consideration the gendered differences in access to and use of key agricultural resources such as land and inputs (inorganic fertilizer, improved seeds, etc.).Structural effects are the component of the gender productivity gap which is residual or unexplained by the observable factors and is due to unequal returns to production factors.Gender integration refers to the process of applying strategies in policy and program planning, assessment, design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation to consider gender norms and to compensate for gender-based inequalities (Catacutan and Naz 2015;Njuki et al. 2013).Along the gender integration continuum, gender-blind programs are programs that ignore gender, gender differences and gender relations. Gender-accommodating programs acknowledge gender, gender differences and gender relations. They seek to ensure that women benefit but do not necessarily attempt to reduce gender inequality or address the gendered systems that contribute to the differences and inequalities. Gender-responsive/ gender-sensitive programs acknowledge gender differences in barriers and outcomes related to specific program objectives that aim to address gender inequalities in the local context through program design and implementation. Gender-transformative programs (such as gender-transformative approaches below) seek to address structural barriers and transform gender relations to promote gender equality (USAID 2017; ICO 2022).Gender-transformative approaches actively strive to examine, question and change rigid gender norms and imbalances of power. They encourage critical awareness among women and men of gender roles and norms, promote the position of women, challenge the distribution of resources and allocation of duties between women and men, and/or address the unequal power relationships between women and others in the community (Rottach, Schuler and Hardee 2009).The ultimate goal of gender-transformative approaches is to catalyze gendertransformative change whereby norms and other structural barriers to gender equality are removed and more equal power relationships emerge.Hazard refers to the potential occurrence of a natural or human-induced physical event or trend that may cause loss of life, injury or other health impacts, as well as damage and loss to property, infrastructure, livelihoods, service provision, ecosystems and environmental resources (IPCC 2018).Institutions, as commonly defined in economic and political sciences, are the \"rules of the game\" of a society or, in other words, the rules, norms and conventions that people devise to guide, constrain or enable human interaction and behaviors. Institutions can be established formally, through rules such as statute law, common law, regulations and the enforcement mechanisms of these, or informally, through more informal conventions, normative or selfimposed rules of behavior, traditions and their enforcement mechanisms (North 1990;IPCC 2022). From a post-institutionalist perspective, institutions are defined as \"regularised patterns of behavior that are made and remade through people's practices but emerge from underlying structures and sets of 'rules in use'\" (Leach, Mearns and Scoones 1999, 237).Discriminatory social institutions are formal and informal laws, social norms and practices that restrict or exclude women and consequently curtail their access to rights, justice, resources and empowerment opportunities (OECD 2018). They consist of both formal constraints (sanctions, taboos, customs, traditions, codes of conduct/ norms) and formal rules (constitutions, laws, property rights). They influence decisions, choices, and behaviors of groups, communities and individuals (OECD 2018).Social norm is a rule of behavior that individuals prefer to conform to if they believe that most people in their reference network (i.e., people whose behaviors and beliefs matter to their own behavior) conform to it (empirical expectations) and most people in their reference network believe they ought to conform to it (normative expectations) (Bicchieri 2006). Social norms can be held in place, at least in part, by anticipation of positive and negative sanctions (Cislaghi and Heise 2018).Gender norms are a subset of social norms defining acceptable and appropriate actions for women and men and governing behaviors and practices in a particular social context and at a particular time in a given group or society. They are informal, deeply entrenched and widely held beliefs about gender roles, power relations and standards or expectations that people tend to internalize and learn early in life. They are embedded in formal and informal institutions, nested in the mind and produced and reproduced through social interaction. Gender norms play a role in shaping women and men's (often unequal) access to resources and freedoms, thus affecting their voice, power and sense of self. They sustain a hierarchy of power and privilege that typically favours what is considered male or masculine over that which is female or feminine, reinforcing a systemic inequality that undermines the rights of women and girls and restricts opportunity for women, men and gender minorities to express their authentic selves (Cislaghi and Heise 2020; UNICEF 2020).Laws: Rules of conduct formally recognized as binding or enforceable by an established authority. Laws relating to gender issues include personal property and inheritance laws and laws prohibiting gender-based violence, sexual harassment and discrimination (Markel and Jones 2014).Livestock are ''domesticated terrestrial animals that are raised to provide a diverse array of goods and services such as traction, meat, milk, eggs, hides, fibres and feathers. The term livestock systems embraces all aspects of the supply and use of livestock commodities, including the distribution and abundance of livestock, the different production systems in which they are raised, estimates of consumption and production now and in the future, the people engaged in livestock production and the benefits and impacts of keeping livestock.\" (FAO n.d.b).Mitigation (of climate change) refers to a human intervention to reduce emissions or enhance the sinks of greenhouse gases (IPCC 2018). Mitigation measures are technologies, processes or practices that contribute to mitigation, such as renewable energy technologies, afforestation and soil carbon sequestration.Policies are statements by a government of what it intends to do or not to do, including laws, regulations, decisions or orders. Markel and Jones (2014) note that policies differ from laws in that they do not have legal standing; however, they govern the management, decisions and actions of institutions.Relations are the expectations and cooperative or negotiation dynamics embedded within relationships between people in the home, market, community, groups and organizations (Hillenbrand, Karim and Wu 2015).Resilience, broadly defined, is the capacity of social, economic and environmental systems to cope with a hazardous event, trend or disturbance, responding or reorganizing in ways that maintain their essential function, identity and structure while also maintaining the capacity for adaptation, learning and transformation (IPCC 2018). Most definitions of human resilience focus on the ability of people, households, communities, countries and systems to act upon a set of capacities to mitigate, adapt to and recover from shocks and stresses in a manner that reduces chronic vulnerability and maintains or improves well-being outcomes, such as food security (Frankenberger et al. 2014;Mercy Corps 2016;USAID 2012USAID , 2017)).Resilience capacities include absorptive, adaptive and transformative capacities. These are subject to gender and other social distinctions as well as the intersection of these identities, including those related to age, class, caste, ethnicity, marital status and sexual identity (Béné et al. 2014;Djoudi et al. 2016).Responses to climate change are broadly defined to include adaptation, mitigation, climate-smart or climate-resilient approaches. They can also be categorized in several different ways as coping, risk management, adaptive and transformative responses (Bryan et al. 2017;Theis, Bryan and Ringler 2019). Coping responses are usually short-term, ex post responses to experienced shocks or stresses and include actions like selling assets or changing consumption patterns and, at larger scales, humanitarian interventions (Corbett 1988;Dercon 2002). While coping responses may aim to maintain well-being at pre-shock levels, they are often associated with a deterioration in well-being, such as poorer diets and increased indebtedness. Risk management strategies, like diversifying production or livelihood activities, and adaptive responses, like adopting new agronomic practices, tend to be proactive and aimed at avoiding or minimizing harmful impacts of shocks and stresses over the medium to long term (Jost et al. 2016;Corcoran-Nantes and Roy 2018;Lawson et al. 2020). Transformative responses aim to change the fundamental attributes of a system or context to improve well-being outcomes, such as actions that directly address underlying social inequalities (McOmber, Audia and Crowley 2019;Carr 2020).Role models are defined as individuals who inspire people to make similar choices or adopt a similar set of values and to achieve comparable results (Madhavan and Crowell 2014;Porter and Serra 2020).Structural constraints on equality (by gender and other sources of social differentiation) are features of the institutional or normative environments (at any of multiple scales) that tend to restrain women from exerting agency and achieving their full potential.Technical efficiency is the effectiveness with which a given set of inputs is used to produce an output. A farm is said to be technically efficient if it is producing the maximum output from the minimum quantity of inputs, such as labor, capital and technology.Vulnerability encompasses a variety of concepts, including exposure and sensitivity to climate hazards and adaptive capacity (Adger 2006;IPCC 2018;Smit and Wandel 2006).Generating ","tokenCount":"2674"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"131e8adf9eeb86aa22579e50b27be8ed","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2eff9f55-00ef-49ec-b6d4-f12ae91d5d54/retrieve","id":"-519941518"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a9191a75-cdc1-4a65-918b-51c098a709e9","pagecount":"11","content":"Fair dealing and other rights are in no way affected by the above. The parts used must not misrepresent the meaning of the publication. ILRI would appreciate being sent a copy of any materials in which text, photos etc. have been used.Innovation Platforms as an approach to foster agricultural innovation Linking small scale farmers to markets using value chain approaches has become an important element of many agricultural developing interventions in developing countries.Traditional interventions normally focus on farm productivity to ensure food security among households and their capacity to market the surplus.Innovation Platforms (IPs) target a wide range of farmers, those who are still ensuring food security and those already participating in the market.Agricultural cooperatives often target farmers who are already engaged in growing cash crops and ensure that farmers maintain access to critical farm inputs, market farm products, strengthen farmers' bargaining power and improve income opportunities.There is a need for supporting the IPs which embrace a cooperative societies' approach. Such support would help to avoid certain pitfalls (see: the Bubaare IP Case Summary) and encourage the IPs trying to adopt the enhanced cooperative society's model to generate wider benefits.The role of an IP is to facilitate and strengthen interaction and collaboration in networks of farmers, extension officers, policy makers, researchers, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), development donors, the private sector and other stakeholder groups.The nature of agricultural innovation can be both technological (e.g. information and communication technology (ICT), agricultural inputs or machinery) and institutional (market approaches, modes of organization, policies and new rules).IPs aim at stimulating continuous involvement of stakeholders in describing and explaining complex agricultural problems and in exploring, implementing and monitoring agricultural innovations to deal with these problems.• They can provide various insights about the biophysical, technological and institutional dimensions of the problem.• They understand what type of innovations are economically, socially, culturally and politically viable.• Stakeholder groups become aware of their fundamental interdependencies and the need for action to address their constraints and reach their objectives.• Stakeholder groups are more likely to support and promote specific innovations in which they have been part of the decision making or development process.IPs provide opportunities for exchange of knowledge and learning, negotiations and dealing with power dynamics. They can contribute to strengthening the capacity to innovate across stakeholder groups which means the individuals, collectives or networks will be more capable of continuously shaping and adapting to change. This is because they collectively posses a varying degree of resourcefulness in assets, time, knowledge, dialogue, experimentation and persistence. The higher the capacity the better their ability to react proactively, flexibly and creatively to challenges and opportunities.• Continuously identify and prioritise problems and opportunities • Take risks, experiment with social and technical options, and assess the trade-offs that arise from these • Mobilize resources and form effective support coalitions around promising options • Link with others in order to access, share and process relevant information and knowledge • Collaborate and coordinate with others and achieve effective action.IPs can function on different levels ranging from the community or village level to the administrative or spatial levels, and these depend on their specific objectives such as:• Enhancing the capacity to innovate.• Supporting the scaling of successful local innovations.• Facilitation of national policy development and implementation.• Interconnected IPs may be required to strengthen the development and implementation of coherent intervention strategies across different levels.• The involvement of local producers, regional processors, distributors and retailers as well as certification bodies may be required.IPs have the potential to perform robust agricultural research, development and policy strategies. Their impact depends on the quality of platform organization and facilitation, communication within the IP, stakeholder representation and institutional embedding. Learning from the successful and effective IP case studies is essential to promoting best practices and role modelling the most effective approaches.The SSA CP is a research program developed, funded and implemented by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA). It was implemented between 2008-2010 and employed the Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D) approach, which is an innovation-based research approach involving many stakeholders and innovative partnerships.SSA CP altogether formed 12 IPs in the region, four in each participating countries: Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The IPs formed around chosen value chains such as sorghum, potatoes or beans, which were selected by all stakeholders. Thanks to adopting the IAR4D innovation approach they were able to address most categories of agricultural problems at the same time.In Uganda problems such as poor management and political interference led to near-collapse of the cooperative sector. The case study of Bubaare IP demonstrates how the registration of the IP as a cooperative society has opened market opportunities for its members. The Bubaare IP was established with a focus on the development of the sorghum value chain. As a result, they managed to increase the production of sorghum grain, most of which is purchased by the Huntex Ltd to process it for producing Mamera. The members are also able to process and pack sorghum flour and they even managed to introduce it into supermarkets. Over the years the IP has introduced other value chains such as potato and honey. Members of the IP are welcome to have other enterprises. The registration of the Bubaare IP cooperative society has created opportunities for a large number of smallholder farmers to participate in various market activities. The other IPs in southwestern Uganda are in the process of registering as cooperative societies after they observed the achievements of the Bubaare IP cooperative society. This case presents how the registration of the Bubaare IP as a cooperative society has opened opportunities for a large number of smallholder farmers to participate in market activities. The model also empowered the farmers into innovations and product diversification, favoured women farmers who responded in large numbers to take advantage of the benefits offered.The Bubaare IP was formed in the Bubaare sub-country of Kabale District in southwest Uganda in the Lake Kivu Pilot Learning Site by the SSA CP.The Bubaare IP decided to focus on sorghum as the enterprise because every household in Bubaare grows a traditional sorghum variety. This plant has been used for generations to produce porridge and weaning food for babies and is a traditionally and culturally important crop.The crop, however, brings low yields and the process of producing it is tedious hence making it unprofitable. Locally processed products such as the weaning food for babies last only about three days.The IP decided to pursue value addition as the key driver of sorghum value chain development. The IP, led by an executive committee, set out to form a strategy for increasing production and value addition through improved processing and creation of market linkages.Since the establishment of the Bubaare IP in 2009 a number of innovations have been generated to support the development of the sorghum value chain and to link farmers to the market:1 Improved farming practices Before looking for market opportunities it was necessary to raise the quantity and the quality of sorghum produced by the local farmers. The two local wild varieties of sorghum mature in seven months and are harvested once a year. With support from SSA CP members of the IP were introduced to improved agronomic practices such as correct plant spacing.Kabale Zonal Agricultural Research Institute, which was one of the partner institutions, developed varieties of sorghum that mature in shorter time and have higher yields. As a result, currently about 50 percent of the IP members have adopted the recommended spacing for sorghum by planting in lines instead of broadcasting. They also apply fertilizers to improve yields.With a help from the Department of Food Science and Technology at Makerere University, the IP members/farmers produce two types of sorghum flour -unmalted sorghum for food and malted sorghum for porridge, which will soon be launched in supermarkets around the country.In order to enhance the development of the sorghum value chain from production to marketing, the community wanted to revise their Natural Resource Management byelaws. They realized that the existing byelaws were poorly implemented and inadequately enforced and that there was a lack of review procedures to maintain the relevance of the existing byelaws and to formulate new ones.The IP members mobilized their respective parishes and villages to begin the process of reviewing and formulating the byelaws. They were finally approved and implemented in several parishes and used to protect gardens and guide marketing procedures.The IP negotiated with one of the IP stakeholders, Huntex Ltd -a food processing company, to process and pack sorghum produced by the member farmers into a non-alcoholic beverage, Mamera. It has a shelf life of six months, which is much longer than the drink original sold in local supermarkets with the shelf life of only two weeks. The Mamera drink has now two varieties: sweetened with honey and unsweetened, and its new packaging makes it both attractive and hygienic.It became necessary to include other enterprises which the IP farmers were involved in and these included honey and Irish potato. The IP members also purchased equipment to produce and pack potato crisps and they will soon be launching it on the market.The IP purchased a computer which helps them research the market. The IP members have also been introduced into savings mobilization and a credit by a partner institution -Agriculture Innovation Systems Brokerage Association. Now the IP savings are kept with financial institutions such as Crane Bank, Muchahi Savings and Credit Cooperative.Your Key Takeaways:The Main Achievements of the Bubaare IP • Improvement of farming practices such as correct plant spacing and fertilizing • Development of a variety of sorghum that matures in shorter time and have higher yields • Revision of the existing byelaws and formulation of new ones to support the development of the sorghum value chain, protect the gardens and guide marketing procedures • One of the IP stakeholders, a food processing company Huntex Ltd, agrees to process sorghum into a non-alcoholic beverage Mamera and give it a much longer shelf life and an attractive packaging • Local farmers (the IP members) produce sorghum flour while the IP stakeholder company produces the Mamera beverage• The IP introduces other value chains such as honey and Irish potato. They also purchase equipment to produce potato chips and will soon launch them on the market • The IP purchases a computer to allow the members to research the market • The IP members are introduced into savings mobilization and a credit, and their savings are now kept with financial institutions.The Bubaare IP Success Factors• The political stability in the country provided a supportive environment for the private sector to develop • The local governments (district and sub-country) have given support to the IP activities • The government has pursued a conductive macro economic policy environment and a decentralized form of governance. This, in turn, supports innovativeness to the point that specific localities are able to deal with development challenges.• The sub-country administration provided the venue for the IP meetings as well as security for the IP property• The identified stakeholders to join the IP were suitable to address the challenges of the community • The following institutions contributed to the above developments: Huntex Ltd, KAZARDI, KDLG, Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Industry (MTTI), NGOs.Why the Bubaare IP registered as a Cooperative SocietyThe Bubaare IP was initially registered as an association, which allowed the members to operate within the district, get into ventures and interactions. The development partners gave them a grant of 30,000 USD for the expansion of sorghum production and the processing it into larger quantities of Mamera. The IP decided to loan the funds to Huntex Ltd to expand their premises and purchase the required equipment to process and package Mamera.As advised by one of the major IP stakeholders, through the District Commercial Office, at this point they needed to be formally registered beyond the level of an association. This would allow them to sue and to be sued in courts of law in case of a breach of contract by the IP or Huntex Ltd.The process of registration was initiated by the District Commercial Office and after the meetings with IP members during which the implications of such registration were explained, the IP was finally registered as Bubaare Innovation Platform Multipurpose Cooperative Society in 2013. It became the first among the 36 IAR4D-driven IPs in Sub Saharan Africa to register as a cooperative society.Outcomes and the impact of the Bubaare IP registration as a cooperative society 1 Infrastructural development• The sub-country authority donated a piece of land for future developments and let the IP use a store for bulking and storing sorghum• The registration of the IP cooperative society has given them a new status • The society has decided to embark on the construction of a new building to house their office, a community bank, a potato processing unit, sorghum milling, packaging facility and a computer room• The premises at Huntex Ltd. have also been expanded and more equipment purchased to process larger quantities of sorghum having the capacity to produce 2,000 litres of Mamera from 250 kg of per day. The previous capacity was 50 litres from 13 kg per day.2 Increased formation of Self Help Groups (SHGs) and a membership in the society• Since the registration of the IP cooperative society, there has been more Self Help Groups formed and joining the IP to take advantage of the benefits. Total membership has risen from 32 in 2009 to 1121 in 2014.• After becoming a cooperative society the new plans provided incentives for more farmers to join. The plans included signing a contract with Huntex Ltd to purchase more of the farmers' sorghum, hence ensuring the market for it. As a result more farmers have joined since then.• More women farmers joined the IP than men farmers most likely due to the fact that the crop is commonly grown by women. After the registration, the number of women farmers doubled with more of them taking leadership positions.3 Increased access to small affordable loansThe society was able to internally generate funds from its members to create a start-up capital for loaning to the groups. Individuals or an entire group may borrow funds to grow crops, to store sorghum which is later sold when the market price is favourable or for other enterprises. In general, the affordable loans have opened up more market activities among the IP member groups and individuals.The IP cooperative society enabled member farmers to obtain short-term small and affordable loans, which was a big incentive for farmers and especially for women farmers to form Self Help Groups and to join the IP.Since they joined all the SHGs have been able to get a loan.Small affordable loans are available to a wide range of socio-economic groups of farmers, who can use the loans for a variety of enterprises and to market their products outside the cooperative. The IP cooperative society has overcome the challenge, which prevented women and poorer farmers from joining a conventional cooperative society and receiving a loan. Also, under normal circumstances women would not own items that could be used as security and would not have any formal identification. As a result, the IP encouraged more socio-economic diversity in membership and impact across different socio-economic groups.4 Improved supply of good sorghum grain to Huntex Ltd.The supply of sorghum grain to Huntex Ltd has improved. Since signing the contract both the society and the Huntex Ltd have been able to meet their obligations.The registration has increased the demand for training in savings, lending, marketing and processing. KDLG in partnership with Makarere University contracted Durosh Empowerment Consult Ltd to train the Self Help Groups. Altogether 32 Groups were trained by the end of 2014 and were given a free savings kit each. Women members were entrusted with the responsibility of counting the group's savings every time the group meets to collect their savings.6 The quality standards of the product are set to improve• The Bubaare IP cooperative society has linked with the Uganda National Bureau of Standards to obtain the S&Q marks for quality certification.• The Department of Food Science and Technology at Makerere University has trained IP members to process high quality flour and introduced the use of new equipment such as food weighing machines, sealers and food grade bags.• The Department has also analysed the nutrient content of sorghum and produced a label for the sorghum flour packets. Such standard certification procedures enable access to affluent but previously inaccessible markets in Kampala, a city eight hours away from Kabale.• The society is pursuing the patenting of Mamera.• The new status of the IP enables it to pursue the development of other value chains, which has already gained interest of organizations such as National Organic Agriculture Movement in Uganda.• There is need for the IP leaders and partners to internalize regulations of the new society to assist members to operate within these regulations. • It is not clear how membership will be sustainably motivated as unlike in a conventional society members of an IP cooperative society do not receive yearly bonuses related to their shares. The contribution of shares by member SHGs and the potential bonuses have not yet been worked out. • As the society continues to expand it might be necessary to employ professionals to run a society as a business entity as conventional societies do.IP cooperative as a business entity:• An IP cooperative is a business with full legal rights, which give it the credibility, recognition and more opportunities for support from development partners, to attract other credible partnerships both within and outside the country. • It has possibilities to engage new development partners while still owning the cooperative.• It can engage the services of a consultancy company, a new processor, an input provider and much more as new innovations develop. • It can also provide several services itself. It may operate a SACCO to provide loans to its members, establish a bulking store for farmers' produce, operate a processing plant.Development partners with resources to make investments should be encouraged to participate in an IP in order to support private sector engagement with small farmers. In the Bubaare case, Huntex Ltd did not have the incentive funds to expand its plant for processing sorghum. With the development partners of the IP funds were made available for the expansion of the premises and purchasing equipment for processing large quantities of sorghum under a contract.Public sector institutions such as Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Industry are instrumental in supporting the registration process of IPs. Local governments should be aware of the concept of an IP to help interpret regulations of the cooperative movement that could be used in the new proposed model of cooperative society and help to facilitate IPs requiring the same registration but with diversity of activities. Such support will enhance the transfer of already observed impact of an IP cooperative society across the entire sub-sector in Uganda.The Bubaare IP, which was the first to register as a multipurpose cooperative society, is still adapting itself to operating both as an IP and a cooperative society.The IP multipurpose cooperative society created in Bubaare is a new model of cooperative society and is a key factor of their success because:• It creates wider impact in the community with less transaction and monitoring costs than a conventional primary society.• The IP is comprised of Self Help Groups as members. Each group has 20-30 individuals who due to a lack of relevant society in the area or a lack of resources to buy shares to join a conventional society would not have been able to join any. Thanks to the new IP cooperative society model it is now possible.• The group members monitor each other's recovery of the acquired loan, which in turn reduces the cost of monitoring. • The individual members of SHG each produce commodities of their choice at the scale they can manage, which enables the IP society to produce variety of products from a very large number of small farmers. These farmers would not have been targeted by a conventional society.• The IP society is part of a wider IP of which partners and private sectors are stakeholders but not necessarily members of the cooperative society. This enables long term support from partners such as research institutions, private sector or farmers. The IP remains open to wide membership while it still owns its cooperative society.","tokenCount":"3399"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4a44433c7d22328ab78a7db796513f2a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/cb4cbb96-8bed-46d3-a082-248e9067a293/content","id":"-2036063523"},"keywords":["maize","multiple-hybrid population","heterosis","heterotic groups","combining ability"],"sieverID":"41b42a4f-300e-4ef0-8448-0692bfbb8d51","pagecount":"16","content":"Combining Ability and Heterosis in Maize efficiency by using both temperate and tropical maize to broaden genetic basis. Large sets of parental lines with available genotypic information can be shared and used in worldwide hybrid breeding programs through an open-source breeding strategy. Potential applications of the reported results in developing hybrid maize breeding strategies were also discussed.Understanding combining ability and heterosis among diverse maize germplasm resources is important for breeding hybrid maize (Zea mays L.). Using 28 temperate and 23 tropical maize inbreds that represent different ecotypes and worldwide diversity of maize germplasm, we first developed a large-scale multiple-hybrid population (MHP) with 724 hybrids, which could be divided into three subsets, 325 temperate diallel hybrids and 136 tropical diallel hybrids generated in Griffing IV, and 263 temperate by tropical hybrids generated in NCD II. All the parental lines and hybrids were evaluated for 11 traits in replicated tests across two locations and three years. Several widely used inbreds showed strong general combining ability (GCA), and their derived hybrids showed strong specific combining ability (SCA). Heterosis is a quantifiable, traitdependent and environment-specific phenotype, and the response of parental lines and their hybrids to environments resulted in various levels of heterosis. For all the tested traits except plant height and hundred grain weight (HGW), NCD II (temperate × tropical) hybrids showed higher average heterosis than the temperate and tropical diallel hybrids, with higher hybrid performance for ear length, ear diameter, and HGW. Tropical maize germplasm can be used to improve the yield potential for temperate lines. Grain number per row and grain number per ear were two most important traits that determined yield heterosis, which can be used as direct selection criteria for yield heterosis. The hybrids from heterotic groups, Reid × SPT, Reid × LRC, SPT × PA, and Lancaster × LRC, contributed highly significant positive SCA effects and strong heterosis to yield-related traits, and the heterotic patterns identified in this study were potentially useful for commercial maize breeding. Heterosis was more significantly and positively correlated with SCA than GCA, indicating that SCA can be used in heterosis prediction to develop potential hybrids in commercial maize breeding. The results of the present study not only contribute to developing breeding strategies, but also improve targeted breedingMaize (Zea mays L.) is one of the most important crops for staple food, livestock feed, edible oil, and biofuel (Mackay, 2009). Its cradle is in America's tropical and subtropical areas, subsequently generating a variety of ecotypes and diverse germplasm through a process of evolution and domestication. Compared to temperate maize, those developed in tropical and subtropical zones usually have more diverse genetic variation with resistance to diseases and pests, flourishing roots, toughness stalk, lodging resistance, drought tolerance, and higher levels of heterosis in their hybrids with temperate inbreds (Vasal et al., 1992). The phenomenon of heterosis or hybrid vigor was perceived by Darwin (1876) and described as hybrid F1 offspring exhibiting phenotypic superiority than both parents (East, 1908;Shull, 1908). In plants, heterosis could be attributed to the interaction among multiple loci, depending on hybrids and traits (Schnable and Springer, 2013), as shown in the magnitude and ratio of heterosis for biomass (Li et al., 2001), flowering related traits (Krieger et al., 2010), yield (Luo et al., 2001), and resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses (Miller et al., 2015).Utilization of heterosis is of great importance for agricultural production and one of the most successful examples in crops is from maize (Duvick, 2001). Breeding practice indicates that the performance of parents per se is not consistent with the hybrid performance. Excellent hybrid varieties are not necessarily derived from elite parents. Therefore, breeders should judge a parental line by its potential to produce superior hybrids, not only by its performance per se (Riedelsheimer et al., 2012). To identify the parental lines with great potential in making hybrids, combining ability has been estimated and used to select desirable parents and thus their hybrids. Two types of genetic parameters, GCA and SCA, have been used, which may be primarily caused by additive and non-additive gene actions, respectively (Sprague and Tatum, 1942). GCA for an inbred line is measured as the average performance for all the hybrids produced with that inbred line as the common parent, and SCA for a specific cross or hybrid is measured by the deviation of the hybrid performance from what can be predicted by the parental GCA (Sprague and Tatum, 1942). In generally, GCA evaluation is performed at early generations or breeding stages in order to save time and money in hybrid breeding, particularly in hybrid maize breeding (Sprague, 1946). The relative contribution of GCA and SCA effects to hybrid performance depends on traits and hybrids, and in some cases, for example, aflatoxin and grain yield (GY) (Meseka et al., 2018), GCA effects are more important than SCA effects. Evaluating GCA is inevitably a cumbersome and time-consuming task, becoming one of the major constraints in hybrid breeding programs.To breed ideal hybrids with high GY (Yong et al., 2019), good quality (Machida et al., 2010) and strong resistance to biotic (Sibiya et al., 2013) and abiotic stresses (Makumbi et al., 2018), heterosis and combining ability have been analyzed for available germplasm with limited numbers of parental lines. Heterosis and combining ability are usually estimated by populations derived from special genetic designs, such as diallel (Griffing, 1956) and the NCD II (North Carolina design II) (Comstock and Robinson, 1948), which are two most powerful genetic designs for combining ability analysis and have been applied extensively. Using an NCD II with 6 × 18 parents, the combining ability analysis indicated that at least one parent with higher GCA is required for producing a hybrid cross with high SCA for nitrogen use efficiency (Cui et al., 2014). Heterotic grouping among 378 hybrids derived from diallel crosses of 28 early inbreds was evaluated for their tolerance to Striga hermonthica, indicating that grouping based on SCA and GCA was the most effective in classifying early maturing maize inbreds for tropical maize breeding programs (Akinwale et al., 2014). Therefore, the better understanding of the genetic basis of heterosis and combining ability we can get, the more effective maize improvement programs and hybrid performance prediction can be achieved (Dhillon and Singh, 1977). However, only limited numbers of parents and their hybrids have been used so far, with a few of exceptions that over 100 hybrids were used (Akinwale et al., 2014). The population for a hybrid crop with a large number of hybrids generated from mating designs can be simply called as multiple-hybrid population (MHP) (Wang et al., 2017). Using a specific mating design or a combination of multiple designs, large-scale MHPs can be produced for more effective analyses of combining ability and heterosis. Diverse germplasm from different ecotypes, including temperate and tropical maize, should have been used for identifying genetic variation for both basic research and commercial breeding. So far, very few analyses of combining ability and heterosis have been performed using the hybrids between different ecotypes in maize (Fan et al., 2016). Considering great genetic diversity existing in tropical maize germplasm that could contribute to further genetic improvement, more studies are required by using between-ecotype hybrids. Therefore, large-scale analysis of heterosis and combining ability using diverse germplasm resources will improve our understanding of hybrid performance significantly, thus contributing to increased genetic gain in maize hybrid breeding.Here we report a large-scale analysis of combining ability and heterosis using an MHP consisting of 724 hybrids derived from 28 temperate and 23 tropical maize inbred lines. Our objective was to measure heterosis in both intra-and between-ecotype hybrids, estimate GCA and SCA effects and compare combining ability and heterosis across ecotypes and environments. Our results will facilitate our future maize breeding through improved combining ability analysis, defined heterotic patterns and broaden genetic basis using different maize ecotypes. The largescale phenotypic data, combining with high-density genotypes, which can be shared and used in worldwide hybrid breeding programs through open-source breeding strategy, will provide a great opportunity for whole genome prediction of heterosis and hybrid performance.A maize MHP was developed by using diallel and NCD II mating designs consisting of 28 temperate and 23 tropical inbred lines, representing a broad selection of breeding germplasm from temperate and tropical regions (Wang et al., 2017). The 724 hybrids were developed, which were divided into three subsets, 325 temperate hybrids derived in Griffing IV involving 26 parental lines, 136 tropical diallel hybrids involving 17 parental lines, and 263 NCD II hybrids generated between 13 temperate and 21 tropical parental lines. Among the 28 temperate inbred lines, 15 were from China and 13 were from United States, which included six heterotic groups, Reid, SPT, LRC, Lancaster, PA, and PB (Wang et al., 2017). Among the 15 Chinese temperate lines, six are common testers, including Ye478, HZ4, Dan340, Mo17, Tie7922, and Qi319, which have been widely used in Chinese maize breeding programs. The rest nine Chinese temperate inbreds have been also playing a very important role in hybrid breeding across maize zones in China. The 23 tropical lines have been widely used as parents across worldwide breeding programs in China and CIMMYT, three of which, Jiao51, Chuan29 Female, and 18-599, are from China.The temperate diallel hybrids, NCD II hybrids and their parental inbred lines were phenotyped in 3 years (2013)(2014)(2015) and two locations, Shunyi, Beijing (116.6 • E, 40.2 • N) and Xinxiang, Henan (113.8 • E, 35.1 • N) in randomized block design with two replications. The tropical diallel hybrids were phenotyped in Jinghong, Yunnan (100.8 • E, 22.0 • N) in 2014 and Sanya, Hainan (109.2 • E, 18.4 • N) in 2015. In each replication, each entry was planted with two 4-m rows with 25 cm between plants and 60 cm between rows. Thinning was done at the fifth leaf stage to maintain a density of 66,600 plants/ha. Traditional agronomical practices for local maize production were adopted in each trial to manage the experimental plots.Eleven traits of agronomic importance for hybrid performance were investigated. Two flowering related traits, days to silk (DTS) and days to anthesis (DTA) were scored. At harvesting stage, plant height (PH) and ear height (EH) were measured and seven yield-related traits, including ear length (EL), ear diameter (ED), row number (RN), grain number per row (GNPR), grain number per ear (GNPE), hundred grain weight (HGW) and grain weight per plant (GWPP), were measured after the harvested ears were air-dried. PH and EH were measured as the average height from ground to the top of the tassel and from ground to the node of the ear, respectively, each with five consecutive plants after excluding the edge ones. DTS and DTA were measured as the number of days from sowing to 50% silk and 50% anthesis, respectively. EL, ED, and RN were measured as the length from the ear bottom to tip, the diameter in the ear middle, and RN per ear, respectively. HGW was estimated with three samples of 100 kernels randomly selected from the total kernels and measured to give the average.(1) SCA and GCA effects were calculated as described by Sprague and Tatum (1942) and Griffing (1956):where g i and g j are the GCA effects for i-th and j-th lines, respectively; s ij is the SCA effect for ij-th hybrid; y ij is the trait value of ij-th hybrid; ȳi. is the average of the hybrids among i-th line crossed with a series of parents; ȳi.. is the overall mean.The genetic variances of GCA and SCA effects were obtained in a joint linear mixed model analysis of MHP over all tested environments by following Riedelsheimer et al. (2012):where y ijkl is the phenotypic observation for the i-th environment, µ is the overall mean, L i is the i-th fixed environment effect, b j(i) is the effect of j-th block within the i-th environment, gca k and gca l are the random GCA effects of the k-th female and the l-th male, sca kl is the random SCA effects of the k-th and the l-th parents, L × gca ik and L × gca il are the random GCA by environment interaction effects, L × sca ikl is the random SCA by location interaction effect, and e ijkl is the random error.GCA/(GCA + SCA) ratio was calculated using the equation modified from Baker (1978) by Hung and Holland (2012):where σ 2 GCA is the variance of GCA effects derived from the mean square of GCA and σ 2 SCA is the variance of SCA effects derived from the mean square of SCA. Since the total genetic variance among F1 hybrids is equal to twice the GCA component plus the SCA component, the closer this ratio is to unity, the greater the proportion of a specific hybrid's performance can be predicted based on GCA alone (Baker, 1978).(2) Heterosis was estimated based on two criteria, mid-parent heterosis (MPH) and high-parent heterosis (HPH), using the following formulae:where F1 is the mean performance of F1 hybrids, MP is the parental mean, and HP is higher parent values for all tested traits.(3) Analysis of variance (ANOVA) for phenotypic performance was performed based on combined data and linear mixed model by following Hallauer et al. (2010):where y ijkl is the i-th phenotypic observation for the j-th year, kth environment, and l-th block, µ is the overall mean, v i is the effect of i-th cross, y j is the effect of j-th year, s k is the effect of k-th environment, (vy) ij is the interaction effect between i-th cross and j-th year, (vs) ik is the interaction effect between i-th cross and k-th environment, (ys) jk is the interaction effect between j-th year and k-th environment, (vys) ijk is the interaction effect among i-th cross, j-th year, and k-th environment, r l(jk) is the effect of l-th block within j-th year and k-th environment, and e ijkl is the error. The genetic effect v i is considered as fixed effect while all other effects as random.Broad sense heritability (H 2 ) was calculated for each trait by following Knapp et al. (1985):where σ 2 G is genotypic variance of the hybrids, σ 2 GL is genotype × environment interaction variance, σ 2 E is error variance, L is the number of environments and R is the number of replications per location.The ANOVA was performed to evaluate the effects of genotype (G), environment (E), and the interaction (G × E) using the PROC MIXED procedure of SAS R . 1 Best linear unbiased predictions (BLUPs) were used to estimate phenotypic traits across multiple environments based on a linear model (Brown et al., 2011). Calculation of GCA, SCA, MPH and HPH were conducted based on the BLUP value for each trait. The correlation coefficients were assessed by the \"cor.test\" function in R, and the significance of the correlation coefficient was tested with t-test.Phenotypic performance across environments and years with tested traits for inbreds and hybrids is shown in Table 1. Significant genotype effects were found for all measured traits (P < 0.01), indicating significant genetic variation among parental lines and hybrids (Supplementary Table 1). For the temperate diallel and NCD II hybrids, environment and year had significant effects on all traits except DTS and DTA, and genotype by environment effect was significant for all traits except RN. Significant genotype by year interaction (P < 0.01) were also found for all traits but PH and HGW. Therefore, the phenotypic performance of inbreds and hybrids was significantly affected by genotype, environment and genotype by environment interaction (Supplementary Table 1). Highly significant GCA and SCA effects were found for all tested traits (Table 2). Significant GCA × E and SCA × E interaction effects were revealed for all the traits but RN. GCA/(GCA + SCA) ratios indicate that the tested traits were predominantly controlled by additive gene effects. Broad-sense heritability estimated was high (0.77-0.93) for all traits except GWPP (0.59), suggesting that phenotypic variation observed in flowering time and yield-related traits was highly inheritable (Table 2). GCA effects were highly variable across the traits (Supplementary Table 2). In the temperate diallel, 13 temperate inbreds showed negative GCA effects for PH and EH, suggesting that these inbreds had genetic potential for reducing plant and EHs. Two inbreds, P11 (HZ1) and P22 (Qi319), showed positive GCA effects for GNPE, HGW, and GWPP. P26 (Zheng58) exhibited positive GCA effects for HGW and GWPP but negative effects for PH and EH, indicating its value in increasing GY and deceasing plant sizes. The line P2 (AS6103) showed negative effects on PH, EH and flowering related traits, with stress tolerance at early flowering stages. P19 (PH4CV) and P20 (PH6WC) had positive effects on yield traits. For 28 temperate inbred lines, American inbred lines had desirable GCA effects on HGW and GWPP, while Chinese ones had desirable GCA effects on other yield-related traits with shorter plant and EHs. For tropical parental lines, CIMMYT inbred lines had much better GCA and performance than Chinese lines. P38 (TR0415), P41 (622016-ZCN-2), P43 (CML312SR), and P48 (DTMA227B) contributed to shorter plant and EHs. P38 (TR0415), P43 (CML312SR), and P45 (CML330) contributed to early flowering. P39 (TR0423), P40 (18-599), P46 (CML504), and P50 (TR0582) contributed to higher yield-related traits. In the NCD II, temperate inbred lines had desirable GCA effects on EL, ED, HGW, DTT, and DTS, while tropical ones had more favorable effects on EH, RN, GNPR, GNPE, and GWPP. Several widely used inbreds showed higher desirable GCA effects, and SCA analysis demonstrates that the hybrids with elite materials as parents have been identified as combinations with higher desirable SCA effects (Supplementary Table 3). As shown in Figure 1 for the hybrids from different heterotic groups, the hybrids from LRC × PA showed the lowest SCA effects on PH, EH, GNPR, and GNPE but the highest SCA effects on DTS and DTA. PA × PB hybrids had the lowest SCA effects on yield-related traits, including ED, HGW, and GWPP. Reid × LRC hybrids had the highest SCA effects on PH, EH, and RN. Reid × SPT and Lan × PB hybrids had the lowest SCA effects on flowering related traits than the hybrids derived from other heterotic groups. There was no significant difference found in SCA effects for the hybrids between tropical and temperate groups. From the aforementioned analysis, Reid × SPT, Reid × PB, Reid × LRC, and SPT × PA had favorable SCA effects for yield-related traits, while Reid × SPT and Lan × PB had lower SCA effects for flowering related traits.Significant MPH and HPH were observed for all the tested traits (Tables 3, 4). Two flowering related traits, DTS and DTA, exhibited negative heterosis, while others exhibited positive heterosis. For all the tested traits except HGW, a higher level of heterosis was observed in NCD II hybrids than in temperate and tropical diallel hybrids, indicating a higher level of heterosis in between-ecotype hybrids. NCD II hybrids showed a higher level of negative heterosis for flowering related traits, indicating that compared to tropical by tropical hybrids, NCD II (temperate × tropical) hybrids, with shorten growth period and improved stress tolerance, have advantages allowing them to be planted in temperate conditions. Overall, NCD II hybrids showed high levels of heterosis for EH and yield-related traits, indicating that temperate by tropical hybrids showed obviously stronger heterosis than intra-ecotype hybrids. Temperate diallel hybrids showed the lowest level of heterosis on flowering related traits, illustrating that they flowered earlier than other hybrids. The result revealed that tropical hybrids showed stronger heterosis on vegetative traits, while between-ecotype hybrids, i.e., temperate by tropical hybrids, showed a higher level of yieldrelated heterosis.The correlation of heterosis among traits varied greatly (Figure 2). MPH showed highly significant correlation (0.87) between two flowering traits, DTS and DTA. Conversely, the correlations of the flowering traits with other traits were lower than 0.30. Yield-related traits exhibited highly significant MPH  correlation with each other except HGW. A very similar trend was observed for HPH (Figure 2). Highly significant correlation was observed between MPH and HPH for all the tested traits, and the correlation for yield-related traits was higher than 0.77 (Table 5). Thus, observed heterosis largely depends on the genotype and could be correlated with related traits. Heterosis per se (MPH and HPH) can be treated as a phenotypic trait and used for genome selection and heterosis prediction.In temperate diallel hybrids and NCD II hybrids, significantly different levels of MPH were observed between two environments, Shunyi and Xinxiang, for all tested traits except ED, GNPR, and HGW (Figure 3A). Significantly different levels of HPH were also observed for all tested traits except GNPR and HGW (Figure 3B). Parents, hybrids and their combined effects contributed to the varied heterosis levels across environments. The response of maize parents and their hybrids to environmental factors may result in different levels of heterosis. We used the coefficient of variation (CV) to evaluate the stability of parents and their hybrids across the two environments. For 8 of the 11 traits, parents exhibited significantly higher CVs than hybrids (Supplementary Figure 1), indicating that for these traits the unstable heterosis across environments was driven more significantly by unstable parental lines. The rest three traits, including GNPR, HGW, and GWPP, did not exhibit significantly different CVs between hybrids and parents. These results indicate that a great variability existed in hybrids and parental lines across environments for all tested traits, and hybrids were more stable than parental lines. From the above results, environmental variables affect heterosis and hybrid performance greatly when maize hybrids and inbred lines respond differently to environmental stimuli.We evaluated the average levels of heterosis across heterotic groups for the tested traits (Figures 4, 5). The Reid × LRC  hybrids showed higher MPH for PH, but higher HPH for RN. The Lancaster × LRC hybrids had higher MPH for EH, and GNPE. The SPT × LRC hybrids had higher MPH for RN. Therefore, LRC group can be used to increase heterosis for yield-related traits. Both Reid × PA and Reid × PB hybrids had lower MPH and HPH for yield-related traits. SPT × LRC and Reid × SPT hybrids had lower MPH for DTS and DTA. Nonsignificant difference was found in MPH for DTA, EL, HGW, GNPR, and GWPP, or in HPH for EL, ED, HGW, DTA, GNPE, GNPR, and GWPP, among heterotic groups. Tropical × Lancaster, tropical × SPT, tropical × LRC hybrids showed higher MPH for GNPR, GNPE, and GWPP, but higher HPH for HGW, GNPE, and GWPP. Therefore, the hybrids from specific heterotic groups tended to exhibit specific trait advantages. For example, LRC group showed favorable heterosis for yield-related traits, while LRC, SPT and Lancaster groups had lower heterosis for flowering related traits.Yield was evaluated based on GWPP. The tested hybrids showed significant MPH and HPH for both yield and six yield-related traits (Tables 3, 4). GWPP in temperate diallel hybrids showed 141.30% (MPH) and 116.21% (HPH) on average over parental lines. Moreover, the hybrids showed significantly higher yieldcomponent traits than both parents. The means and ranges of seven yield-related traits in three subset populations were shown in Supplementary Figure 4. The result indicates that apparent heterosis for yield-related traits was observed in the three types of populations. The average performance of hybrids in the temperate diallel was higher than that in the NCD II and tropical diallel hybrids for ED, RN, GNPR, GNPE, while the performance in NCD II was higher than that in other two populations for EL, ED, and HGW. Temperate × tropical hybrids exhibited better yield performance and heterosis than within-ecotype hybrids for most of yield-related traits. Maize yield is determined by GNPR, GNPE, RN, and HGW. Improvement of GNPE related traits is an effective way for breeding yield heterosis. As GNPE is the multiplication of GNPR and RN, in-depth analysis of the traits related to GNPE has important theoretical and practical impacts on hybrid breeding. However, GNPR and RN are two traits that interact with each other, and GNPE is determined by both GNPR and RN. MPH showed highly significant correlation between GNPR and GNPE (0.95), between GNPE and RN (0.75) and between RN and GNPR (0.55) (Figure 2). GNPR and GNPE were two most important traits which determine yield heterosis.Heterosis for GNPR and GNPE in the temperate diallel was 58.80 and 77.18%, respectively. Heterosis for RN and HGW (13.39 and 12.14%, respectively), was relatively low, even with negative effects (Supplementary Figures 2, 3). When compared across years and locations, heterosis for GY and yield-related traits were varied significantly. Correlation analysis of heterosis between the two environments, Shunyi and Xinxiang, indicates that heterosis for yield-related traits was significantly affected by environments.The correlation of heterosis between Shunyi and Xinxiang was more significant for GNPR and GNPE than for RN and HGW (Supplementary Figures 2, 3). As heterosis for RN and HGW was relatively low (Tables 3, 4), no steadily MPH or HPH across the environments was observed. When these observations are considered together, yield heterosis can be largely explained by two major yield-related components, GNPE and GNPR, which in most cases have to offset the negative effects of RN and HGW. By examining the top 5% hybrids ranked by MPH and HPH of GWPP and four representative commercial hybrids from China, Xianyu335 (P19 × P20), Zhengdan958 (P21 × P26), Yedan13 (P10 × P16), Ludan981 (P06 × P22) (Figure 6), significant yield heterosis (MHP and HPH) was observed in all the selected hybrids, and GNPE was a major contributor to yield heterosis. GNPR was also an important determinant for yield heterosis in most hybrids. In contrast, no consistent heterosis (MPH and HPH) across environments or hybrids was observed for RN and HGW. Thus, the results suggest that both MPH and HPH for GNPE and GNPR were highly stable or consistent across these high-yielding and commercial hybrids, whereas those for RN and HGW were case-dependent.Simple linear correlation coefficients were used to reveal the relationship among MPH, HPH, GCA, SCA, and F1 hybrid performance (Table 5). MPH was highly significantly correlated with SCA, and also positively correlated with GCA for all tested traits expect PH, EH, and ED. HPH was positively correlated with the sum of parental GCAs for all the tested traits except EH, DTA, ED, and GWPP. Hybrid performance showed stronger correlation with the sum of parental GCAs than with hybrid SCA. The strong correlation between heterosis (both MPH and HPH) and SCA suggests that SCA could be used to predict hybrid performance and heterosis. In contrast, no significant correlation was found between heterosis and GCA for most tested traits. The correlation of hybrid performance with SCA was higher than that with heterosis (MPH and HPH) for PH, EH, DTA, DTS, ED, and GWPP. We found that both MPH and HPH were significantly correlated with SCA, while their correlation with the sum of parental GCAs was not consistent across the tested traits. Meanwhile, we also found that both SCA and the sum of parental GCAs were highly significantly correlated with hybrid performance, and SCA was highly significantly correlated with heterosis (MPH and HPH).Combining ability and heterosis among maize lines and correlation between combining ability, heterosis and hybrid performance provide important insights for developing breeding strategies, defining heterotic groups, and predicting hybrid performance. Complex trait dissection and crop improvement for combining ability and heterosis need to use diverse germplasm resources and large populations. Although required phenotypic variability exists in diverse maize germplasm, most researches have been using relatively small sets of inbred lines (Fan et al., 2014;Badu-Apraku et al., 2015), largely due to the fact that the number of hybrids that can be produced increases exponentially with the increase of parental lines. The MHP used in this study, consisting of 724 hybrids, was developed with Griffing IV diallel and NCD II designs using temperate and tropical elite maize inbreds as parental lines, which is suitable for combining ability and heterosis analysis and can be used for breeding different ecotypes by taking the advantages of different maize germplasm resources. Both diallel and NCD II designs can provide detailed genetic information, including dominance-recessiveness relationships and genetic interactions.In this study, an MHP could be used to reveal useful information about combining ability, heterosis, hybrid performance and genotype × environment interaction.On the other hand, the parental lines, which have been genotyped using 55K SNP markers and resequencing (Wang et al., 2017), can be shared with international collaborators. By inferring hybrid genotypes from their parental lines, various sets of MHPs can be developed for a specific target environment or research purpose, by sharing the 51 parental lines, from which any set of hybrids, up to 1275, can be generated. If the number of parental lines increases to 200, which is manageable for many breeding programs, up to 19,900 potential hybrids can be generated to meet the requirement of worldwide breeding programs. The genotyped parental lines can be used worldwide as proposed for open-source breeding programs (Xu et al., 2017(Xu et al., , 2020)).A full understanding of genetic basis of heterosis and combining ability remains elusive (Birchler, 2015), which, however, does not affect the vital role heterosis and combining ability play in maize breeding. Combining heterosis in different traits such as yield-related traits and stress tolerance could improve gain yield (Fujimoto et al., 2018). As shown in the present study, heterosis varied across environments as maize hybrids and inbred lines responded differently to environmental stimuli. Although heterosis was greatly affected by environmental variables, it is a quantifiable, trait-specific phenotype. In the temperate maize with six heterotic groups, the hybrids from different heterotic groups tended to exhibit trait-specific advantages. To be commercially advantageous, a hybrid should outperform its parents with respect to agronomic traits, especially the traits related to GY. Normally, GY heterosis is an important indicator of yield potential. In the present study, we demonstrated that heterosis was contributed mainly by two outperformed yield components, GNPE and GNPR. Moreover, heterosis was compromised in few cases by the negative effects of other component traits, RN and HGW. Therefore, GNPE and GNPR can be used as direct selection criteria for yield heterosis. Based on our analysis, nine elite inbred lines, HZ1, PH4CV, PH6WC, Qi319, Zheng58, TR0423, 18-599, CML504, and TR0582, had highly significant positive GCA effects for yield-related traits, which should have contributed to the improved hybrid yield. Six inbred lines, AS6103, PH4CV, PH6WC, TR0415, CML312SR, and CML330, manifested negative GCA effects for DTS and DTA, responsible for early flowering. The hybrids between heterotic groups exhibited various levels of dominance across traits, which were inconsistent among identified heterotic loci. In the elite maize hybrid Yuyu22 (Zong3 × Yu87-1), 13 heterotic loci were identified, including three for GY, seven for EL, one for RN and two for HGW (Tang et al., 2010). Several QTL were identified for seedling weight (SW), number of kernels per plant (NK), and GY in a cross between two elite inbred lines, B73 and H99 (Frascaroli et al., 2007). Using the elite maize hybrid Zhengdan958 (Zheng58 × Chang7-2), 38 heterotic loci for ear-related traits were identified, suggesting that the combination of heterotic loci in tested hybrids was genotype-dependent (Li et al., 2017). In another report, 156 QTL, 28 pairs of epistatic loci, and 10 QTL × environment interaction regions were identified, and the inheritance of yieldrelated traits and their MPH in Reid (PA) × Tem-tropic I (PB) hybrids with improved heterotic pattern is trait-dependent (Yi et al., 2019). The hybrids from different heterotic groups, Reid × SPT, Reid × LRC, SPT × PA, and Lancaster × LRC, showed highly significant positive SCA effect and heterosis. Considering combining ability (GCA and SCA), performance and heterosis together will help identify the hybrid combinations with comparative advantages for maize breeding. P05 × P21 (Lancaster × SPT), P07 × P21 (Reid × SPT), P32 × P23 (Tropical × SPT), P37 × P21 (Tropical × SPT), P39 × P21 (Tropical × SPT), P45 × P27 (Tropical × LRC), and P51 × P26 (Tropical × PA) contributed a highly significant positive SCA effect to GWPP and relatively high yield, MPH and HPH (Supplementary Table 3). As a result, these hybrids could   be used in breeding for high yielding and wide-adaptability. Consequently, elite inbred lines with improved combining ability and associated heterotic patterns could be explored for efficient hybrid breeding.Introduction of exotic and diverse germplasms into breeding programs is of great importance in broadening genetic variation and thus improving breeding efficiency. Tropical maize germplasm, which come from the location of maize origin, host rich genetic diversity that can be used for temperate maize breeding. With the development of molecular markers and high-efficient genotyping technologies, researches have been introgressing favorable alleles from tropical into temperate maize, as shown in GY, grain moisture content and lodging resistance (Lewis and Goodman, 2003) and resistance to maize lethal necrosis disease (Gowda et al., 2015). Introgression of temperate maize germplasm into tropical lines did not disrupt the existing heterotic groups, because the introgressed lines remained genetically inclined towards the original heterotic groups from which they were derived (Musundire et al., 2019). In the present study, we observed higher average heterosis in NCD II (temperate × tropical) hybrids than that for within-ecotype hybrids for all yield-related traits except HGW, with higher hybrid performance for EL, ED, and HGW. Introgression of favorable genes and alleles from tropical maize germplasm can be explored to broaden the genetic basis of temperate maize, improve biotic and abiotic stress tolerance, optimize heterotic patterns, and develop improved temperate-tropical hybrids (Teixeira et al., 2015). Thus, large-scale analysis of combining ability and heterosis can facilitate improving targeted breeding efficiency using different ecotypes by broadening the genetic base of commercial hybrids.","tokenCount":"5585"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"86fa85a7dbd6bd3517ce37421c3270bb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/38d9ee9a-3d80-421e-9b8f-a186250b124b/retrieve","id":"-888643527"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b88feed9-8eb0-4c66-9897-f391330abefa","pagecount":"23","content":"AICCRA-Ghana focuses on br idging the gap between research insti tutes that develop improved t echnologies and organizations that pr omote the adoption of developed technologies for the purpose of enhancing the resilience of t he countrys's agr iculture and food systems in the face of climate change while improving livelihoods of of farmers. AICCRA -Ghana mutualizes existing expertise to strengthen the t echnical, instit utional, and human capacity needed to move CGIAR innovat ions off the she lf and achieve impacts i n the country. The project will specifically launch a \"O ne -health platform for climate -driven pests and diseases\". It is an advanced climate -informed One -health innovation that builds on CGIAR's track records in this area, framing the nexus of the crop, li vestock, soil, and water health for improved human and ecosyste m health, food safe ty and nutrition, and climate change as a complex public health issue. The project is anchored to CGI AR's mult i -stakeholder platform of the Biorisk Management Facility (BIMAF ) hosted by IITA's station in Benin, West Africa. AICCRA -Ghana will use the CGIAR's Scaling Readiness Tool to undertake assessments of CSA options for accelerated upt ake of innovat ions. NFCS and innovation platforms including the private sector, Nour ishing Africa network, and farmer s will be capacitate d towards identi fication, promotion and implementation of suitable CIS and bestbet CSA and One -health innovations. Media and mass -campaign awareness will be launched while developing business models and engag ing champion wome nand youth-led enter prises. Pilot sites will be identified and training provided t o farmers for successful implement ation of One -health and CSA technologies.Building community resilience to climate risk through demonstration plots is a priority in sub-Saharan Africa, where the agricultural system is mainly rainfed and underdeveloped due to multiple underlying causes, such as limited access to information, improved seeds/inputs, modern production practices, and technologies. The use of demonstration plots serve as a platform to promote validated climatesmart and One health technologies. Under the current project, demonstration plots were used to provide training on good production practices of the various AICCRA-Ghana value chains. Thirty-one (31) demonstration plots were established across eighteen (18) communities in four agroecologies (Coastal savannah, Transition, Guniea savannah, and Sudan savannah) of Ghana. The value chains piloted were maize (13 pilots), yam (6 pilots), cowpea (8 pilots), and sweet potato (4 pilots). These value chains were chosen because of their socio-economic importance in Ghana. Maize and cowpea technologies constituted 42 and 26% of the number of demonstration plots established, respectively.Twenty-one field days were organized to introduce beneficiaries and other stakeholders in the project intervention communities to the various technologies the project demonstrated (i.e climate-smart seeds, One health innovations, and good agronomic practices). A total of one thousand one hundred and thirteen (1113) people directly participated in the field days. Four hundred and fifty-nine of the participants, representing 41% were female. While farmers from intervention communities expressed gratituted to the project, farmers from other communities that participated in the field days have requested for the project to extend the demonstrations to their communities. Generally, participants expressed their satisfaction and willingness to adopt these new technologies and incorporate them into their farming business next year and beyond.Food security is a major development challenge in Africa. Demand for food has been growing rapidly and will continue to do so in the conceivable future, exceeding 3% per year through 2025 (Ademola Braimoh, 2020). However, food production does not meet the pace of food demand. Multiple factors such as climate variability, pests and diseases, poor soil fertility, and low adoption of improved agronomic practices owing to inadequate access to information limit the pr oductivity of crop production. These challenges are not peculiar to isolated communities but are also major characteristics of communities selected to benefit from AICCRA project intervention. A major step towards the scaling up of CSA technologies is through the establishment of demonstration plots across communities to showcase community-specific technologies.Demonstration plots enable beneficiaries to observe improved technologies and their associated benefits as well as interact with researchers, extension staff , and other actors towards technology adoption.The study was undertaken in ten districts in six regions of Ghana including Central (Cape Coast and Komenda, Edina Equafo, Abirem District), Bono East (Kintampo North, Kintampo South, and Techiman North Districts), Northern (Tolon Districts), Upper East (Kassena Nankana and Bongo Districts), Upper West (Jirapa and Lawra Districts). Pilots/demonstration plots were established in twenty-two (22) communities in four of the six agroecological zones of the country ( Figure 1). The agroecological zones include the Coastal savannah, Transition Zone, Guinea, and Sudan Savannah agroecological zones of Ghana. Crop production in the transition zone is mainly rainfed and farmers remain vulnerable to climate change manifested in unpredictable rainfall patterns and elevated temperatures. The area is associated with low rainfall caused by drought stress, low soil fertility, and inappropriate seeds. The soil in the savannah area is fragile and liable to dry out rapidly due to free drainage. Guinea and Sudan Savanna Zones are characterized by a single rainfall season lasting from May to October with an average annual rainfall of about 700-1000 mm (MoFA, 2020). The area is characterized by short dry spells of three to five weeks which sometimes result in serious crop damage or complete failure. Rainfall is the main determining environmental element of the Sudan and Guinea Savanna zones. The vegetation is dominated by relatively short trees with grass, shrub and scrub undergrowth. The soils of Sudan and Guinea Savanna are mainly Ochrosols and Groundwater Laterites (SARI, 1996). The soils generally have a low organic matter that imparts a low fertility status to the soil (SARI, 1996). The Coastal Savannah area has an average annual rainfall of about 920 mm with bi-modal rainy seasons. The Agroecology is characterized by high population density and grassland savanna vegetation. The vegetation is grass interspersed with shrubs and, at times, residues of crops cultivated during the previous crop season.Five value chains namely maize, yam, cowpea, sweet potato, and tomatoes were piloted. These crops were prioritised and chosen by stakeholders in various intervention communities due to their socioeconomic importance in Ghana. They are regarded as food security crops as well as gender-friendly crops as they are highly consumed by households and produced in all the agro-ecologies in Ghana. The value chains were also selected due to their high potential to improve household nutritional food security. The matrix of the regions, districts, communities, selected value chains, and a number of pilots are shown below (Table 1). A total of thirty-one (31) demonstration plots were established in eighteen (18) communities across the four agro-ecologies (Fig. 1; Table 1) to test the different technologies under the various value chains (Table 2). Majority (42.0%) of the demonstration fields exhibited maize technologies four fields representing 12.9% of exhibited technologies on sweet potato weevil management technology (Figure 2).   Thirteen (13) stress-tolerant maize varieties and hybrid demonstration plots were established (Figure 2). Certified seeds of each of the maize variety (Table 3) tested in demonstration plots was sourced from CSIR-Crops Research Institute, Kumasi and CSIR-Savannah Agriculture Research Institute, Tamale.Local varieties popularly cultivated by farmers in each community was tested along side. Seeds of local varieties were obtained from community agrochemical dealers. The plot size per treatment was 20m x 20m for each variety and the demonstrations were rainfed. All recommended activites such as nutrient, pest and weed management practices were carried out with farmers. To facilitate technology transfer, farmers were invited at various stages of the season to inspect demonstration fields (figure 3). Generally across all locations, it was observed that maize varieties introduced by the project outyielded local varieties (Figure 4). Mean grain yield of 4868 and 4841 kg were recorded by Opeaburo and Suhudoo respectively (Table 5). This was followed closely by Denbea and Abotem. Although Denbea and Abotem are early maturing compared to Opeaburo, they produced comparable maize grain yield.In all the communities, the local check produced the lowest grain, which ranged between 38 to 62% less compared with the other varieties tested. The highest yield of Suhudoo, Opeaburo, and Denbea, Abotem were observed in Dahyia, Offuman, Dompoase, and Adiemmra respectively.  Across the various intervention communities, farmers appreciated, selected and expressed their preference for the maize varieties introduced by the project to local varieties. This was because they found them to be early maturing and tolerated stress better than the prefered local variety. With respect to the improved varieties however, farmers ranked Suhudoo and Denbea as the most preferred variety (Table 4) and requested the project to facilitate the provision and supply of seeds for cultivation in their farms. Their preference for Suhudoo and Denbea was based on the fact that these varieties, produced good yield, were early maturing, drought tolerant and biofortified. Demonstration fields were established (Figure 5) in ten AICCRA intervention communities to promote four cowpea varieties with various characteristics (Table 5). These were planted alongside locally preferred farmer varieties. Certified seeds of the four cowpea varieties were sourced from CSIR-Crops Research Institute, Kumasi and CSIR-Savannah Agriculture Research Institute, Tamale whilst the local variety was obtained from input dealers in each community. Each cowpea variety was planted on a plot size of 20 m x 20 m (400 m 2 ) and the demonstrations were established under rainfed conditions. The highest average cowpea seed yield of 1919kg was recorded by Nketewade (Table 6). This was followed closely by Padi-tuya, Zamzam, and Kirkhouse. In all the communities, the local check produced the lowest grain, which ranged between 40 to 52% less compared with the other varieties that were tested.  The aim of the demonstration was to introduce farmers to ecological friendly low cost technologies to manage sweet potato weevils. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the intervention, an orange-flesh sweet potato variety susceptible to the sweet potato weevil was selected and vines obtained from farmers in the various intervention communities. Four demonstration fields in the Central Region were established (Table 1; Figure 6). Sweet potato vines of 20-30cm were cut from healthy parents showing no signs of insect damage and symptoms of viral attack and planted on ridges. Two technologies were exhibited along side farmer practices (Table 7). The plot size per treatment was 20 m x 20 m (40 m 2 ) for each treatment. The demonstrations was rainfed and harvesting of sweet potato was done 12 weeks after planting of vines. Across the communities, it was observed that tubers harvested from CS One Health plots were generally larger and cleaner than tubers from farmer practiced plots (Figure 7). The highest average tuber number and weight per plant was recorded at Dompose. This was observed in plots where sweet potato vines were treated in crude neem extract, soil amended with 40 g neem powder and onion used as border plants. On the contrary the lowest tuber number and weight was recorded at Cape Coast under farmer practice treatment (Table 8). While no incidence of damage tubers were observed in neem+ onion border treatment at Dompoase, 46.7% of harvested tubers in the farmer practice at CapeCoast were damaged and unmarketable. Using neem leaf powder amendment and onion as border plants showed positive effect on weevil infestation. It was realized at all locations that, applying neem leaf powder amendment plus onion border resulted in higher tuber weight and numbers compared with sole neem powder amendment and farmer practice. However, at all locations, the two CS-One health intervention practices demonstrated resulted in higher tuber numbers,weight and low incidence and severity of weevil infestation than the farmers' practice.   9) with farmer practices in yam production. For the the bundle CSA-One health practice, yam minisettes (50g) were treated with a cocktail of insecticides and fungicide before planting. At planting, 40g neem leaf powder was applied per stand on the rideges as soil ammendment. For the farmer practice, the conventional means of cultivating yam was followed.Generally for all locations, raised mounds (~1m high) were constructed, seed yam of approximately 250-300g was used with no form of seed treatments or soil amendment practice followed. At every location, the two technologies (Bundle CSA-One Health and Farmer) were set at 5m apart for easy monitoring and comparism. Each practice occupied a land size of 300m 2 (20m x 15m). An average of 14 ridges and 150 mounds were constructed on bundle CSA One Health and farmer practice plots respectively. An average of 45 plants were planted per ridge. Famers expressed delight about the number tubers harvested (Figure 9) from the size of land utilized for the demonstrations. It was however more thrilling as more tubers were harvested from bundle CSA One Health plots than farmer practice plots in all the communities (Figure 10) although the number of ridges constructed were less than the number of mounds formed on farmer plots. The total number of tubers harvested from bundle CSA-One Health plot was about 30% more than farmer practice plots.Similarly, higher tuber weights were recorded in majority (67%) of the bundle CSA One Health plots compared to farmer pratices plots except in Adiemra and Tanoboase where, tuber weight from farmer practice plots were higher than bundle CSA One health plots (Figure 11). Treating seed yam coupled with the application of neem leaves powder resulted in lower incidences of nematodes infestation as well as activity of yam beetles damage. As high as 84 and 44.5 % tubers from farmer plots showed varied symptoms nematodes infestation and arthropod pest damage respectively (Figure 12-13). A total of twenty-one field days were organized in the AICCRA intervention communities to showcase the potential of the various varieties (Figure 14). One thousand one hundred and thirteen (1113) participants were reached directly through the field days. Also, four hundred and fifty-nine participants, representing 41% were female. During the field days, participants were introduced to various technologies (i.e climate-smart seeds and good agronomic practices). The capacities of participants were also strengthened on best production practices and post-harvest handling technologies.Discussions were also organized around current challenges and opportunities with regard to access and cost of climate-smart seeds. Participants also assessed the technology to indicate their preferences.  This document has provided summary of demonstration activities successfully organised to transfer different adoptable bundled CSA One Health technologies to small scale resource poor farmers in 22 communities in 6 regions of Ghana. In all the piloting activities, farmers were engaged in all stages of implementation such as the planning process, site selection, land preparation, field establishment and maintenance and harvesting. The farmers had the opportunity of meeting and interacting directly with researchers and other stakeholders. Results and observations from the demonstrations have clearly shown that the adoption and utilization of improved technologies have the potential to increase productivity and improve livelihood of farmers. All the 1113 farmers reached out to, through the various field days confidently attested to the fact that using technologies introduced by the project can help build resilience against both biotic and abiotic conditions. The stress tolerant maize and dual purpose cowpea varieties tested did not not only prove to be tolerant to major stresses such as striga, pest and diseases and drought in the communities but also outyielded all farmer preferred and popular varieties in each locality. Similarly, application of one health technologies such as application of neem leaves powder improved tuber health quality of both yam and sweet potato. More interesting, the use of onion Demonstration pilots are effective means of scaling up technologies. Engaging farmers and letting them own the process ensured full participation and success of the activities. Again for technology to be accepted, it should be readily available and the beneficiaries will need to easily relate to. Neem leaves from which neem leaves powder was prepared was found and accessible in all the communities making it easier for beneficiaries to appreciate it. To reap the full benefit of the demonstration activities, seeds of maize and cowpea varieties should be accessible to farmers in the community to facilitate adoption of the technologies promoted. ","tokenCount":"2660"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"da0edf04ee2e81d469bebcaa7cd4813b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/940ebaa6-613b-49e0-8096-171b37428b25/retrieve","id":"1739516356"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"415556e1-4de3-4c84-96dc-2a7e18d878b5","pagecount":"17","content":"The discovery and use of genetic markers associated with carotenoid levels can help to exploit the genetic potential of maize for provitamin A accumulation more effectively. Provitamin A carotenoids are classes of carotenoids that are precursors of vitamin A, an essential micronutrient in humans. Vitamin A deficiency is a global public health problem affecting millions of people, especially in developing countries. Maize is one of the most important staple crops targeted for provitamin A biofortification to help alleviate vitamin A deficiency in developing countries. A genome-wide association study (GWAS) of maize endosperm carotenoids was conducted using a panel of 130 diverse yellow maize tropical inbred lines genotyped with Genotyping by Sequencing (GBS) SNP markers. Numerous significant association signals co-localizing with the known carotenoid biosynthesis genes crtRB1, lcyE and ZEP1 were identified. The GWAS confirmed previously reported large effects of the two major carotenoid biosynthesis genes lcyE and crtRB1. In addition, significant novel associations were detected for several transcription factors (e.g., RING zinc finger domain and HLH DNA-binding domain super family proteins) that may be involved in regulation of carotenoid biosynthesis in maize. When the GWAS was re-conducted by including the major effects of lcyE and crtRB1 genes as covariates, a SNP in a gene coding for an auxin response factor 20 transcription factor was identified which displayed an association with b-carotene and provitamin A levels. Our study provides a foundation for design and implementation of genomics-assisted selection strategies for provitamin A maize breeding in tropical regions, and advances efforts toward identification of additional genes (and allelic variants) involved in the regulation of carotenoid biosynthesis in plants.Carotenoids are diverse organic pigments that are naturally found in plants and other organisms (Cazzonelli 2011;Moran and Jarvik 2010). The b-ionone ring(s) containing carotenoids, known as provitamin A carotenoids (e.g., b-carotene, b-cryptoxanthin and a-carotene), are precursors of the essential micronutrient vitamin A in humans (Fraser and Bramley 2004;West and Darnton-Hill 2008). However, humans cannot synthesize vitamin A de novo, and therefore need to obtain the nutrient from dietary sources either as preformed vitamin A (retinol) from animal-based foods (e.g., liver, whole milk, and egg), and/ or as precursors of vitamin A from colored vegetables and fruits (e.g., carrots, dark green leaves and papaya) in the form of provitamin A carotenoids (West and Darnton-Hill 2008).Vitamin A deficiency is a global public health problem. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 190 million pre-school children and 19 million pregnant women worldwide were vitamin A deficient (in the period [1995][1996][1997][1998][1999][2000][2001][2002][2003][2004][2005] with a prevalence rate of 33 and 15%, respectively, based on low serum retinol content (,0.7 mmol/ liter) (World Health Organization 2009). Almost half a million children lose their sight every year due to xerophtalmia caused by vitamin A deficiency, the leading cause of preventable blindness (Sherwin et al. 2012). Millions of child deaths annually are attributed to vitamin A deficiency coupled with other undernutrition problems (Black et al. 2003).Genetic improvement of staple crops for improved nutritional quality (e.g., enhanced level of micronutrients) has been termed biofortification and is a promising approach for reducing vitamin A and other micronutrient deficiencies in human populations. Maize represents a significant proportion of the total calorie intake of people in many African countries, accounting for 30% of the per-capita calorie consumption in Eastern and Southern Africa, even reaching as high as 56% in some of the southern African countries (FAO, 2011). The biofortification of maize with higher levels of provitamin A carotenoids could play a significant role in reducing vitamin A deficiency in regions where maize is a major staple crop (Wurtzel et al. 2012;Burt et al. 2011;Meyers et al. 2014). While breeding lines of maize that can accumulate up to 26 mg/g b-carotene (and 30 mg/g of provitamin A carotenoids) in the endosperm have been reported (Pixley et al. 2013), commonly cultivated maize varieties contain low levels of provitamin A carotenoids ranging from 0.5 to 1.5 mg/g (Harjes et al. 2008).Understanding the genetic variation, genes and regulatory mechanisms controlling maize endosperm carotenoid levels is important for biofortification of maize with high levels of provitamin A carotenoids. Genome wide association study (GWAS) approaches are a powerful approach for ascribing gene-phenotype relationships (Huang and Han 2014;Yu and Buckler 2006;Zhu et al. 2008), while genotyping by sequencing (GBS) is a next-generation sequencing (NGS) based genotyping approach that has dramatically facilitated large-scale genomewide marker development and GWA studies in crop species (Chia et al. 2012;Davey et al. 2011;Elshire et al. 2011;Varshney et al. 2014).A number of GWA studies have identified loci controlling agronomic traits such as plant height, yield and yield components, flowering time and plant architecture in a range of crops, including barley (Pasam et al. 2012), tomato (Shirasawa et al. 2013), wheat (Edae et al. 2014;Wang et al. 2014), and maize (Thornsberry et al. 2001;Wang et al. 2012). GWA studies have also identified loci associated with grain quality traits including oil content in maize (Li et al. 2013), protein contents in wheat (Edae et al. 2014;Wang et al. 2014) and essential micronutrients such as a-tocopherol (vitamin E) and b-carotene in maize (Harjes et al. 2008;Li et al. 2012;Lipka et al. 2013;Yan et al. 2010). In particular, two key carotenoid biosynthesis genes, namely LCYE and crtRB1 (HYD3), have been found to be significantly associated with accumulation of provitamin A carotenoids in maize endosperm (Harjes et al. 2008;Yan et al. 2010). Different allelic variants of these genes can affect the flux of substrates through the carotenoid biosynthesis pathway leading to synthesis of higher levels of provitamin A carotenoids (e.g., b-carotene). The total provitamin A carotenoid proportion in maize endosperm is affected by the level of total carotenoids accumulated in the endosperm which is a function of substrate flux into the carotenoid pathway and downstream catabolic steps involving degradation of carotenoids (Rodríguez-Concepción 2010;Vallabhaneni et al. 2010) There have been only a few GWA studies for carotenoid composition and content in maize endosperm to date (Owens et al. 2014;Suwarno et al. 2015). In our study, we have used a GBS-based GWA approach to identify loci associated with carotenoid content and composition of maize endosperm. Uniquely, our study used a collection of genetically diverse yellow maize inbred lines (with a mixed genetic background of both tropical and temperate germplasm) developed by the maize breeding program of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). In addition, we factored in the effect of already identified provitamin A alleles as covariates to detect additional association signals. Our findings contribute to ongoing efforts to identify allelic variants that can be used for genomic selection to develop maize lines with higher levels of provitamin A carotenoids.A panel of 130 diverse yellow maize inbred lines previously described in Azmach et al. (2013) was employed for the GWAS. This panel had inbred lines with kernel colors ranging from light yellow to dark orange. White maize lines were not included, since our focus was to investigate the genetic variability underlying composition and content of the various carotenoids in maize endosperm. We did not investigate the variation between white and yellow lines, which is largely determined by a mutation in the psy1 locus (Palaisa et al. 2003). This maize germplasm panel was composed of inbred lines developed by IITA from eight bi-parental crosses, four broad based populations, and 28 backcrosses of tropical inbred lines, involving five temperate lines as donors of high b-carotene alleles (Azmach et al. 2013). The inbred lines were considered to represent the allelic diversity underlying the variation in carotenoid composition and content in both the temperate and tropical maize gene pools, since each line contained both tropical and temperate maize germplasm in its genetic background.Field trial evaluation of the maize inbred lines was performed at IITA's research station, Ibadan, Nigeria (7°29911.99$N, 3°5492.88$E, altitude 190 m above sea level) for two seasons, in 2010 and 2011. The trial was arranged in (10,13) alpha-lattice design with two replications. Each line was planted in a 5 m row plot, with 0.75 m spacing between rows and 0.25 m within each row. The fields were managed as per the recommended agronomic practices (Menkir et al. 2008) which included fertilization at the rates of 60 kg N, 60 kg P, and 60 kg K ha 1 at the time of sowing, with an additional 60 kg N ha 1 applied as top dressing 4 wk later; plus weed control using Primextra and Gramazone herbicides applied as pre-emergence herbicides each at 5 liter ha 1 . Subsequent manual weeding was done to keep the trials weed-free. The environmental conditions during the first season were as follows: Total rainfall of 310 mm (supplemented with irrigation); temperature ranged from 19.4 to 33.8°with average 27.7°; relative humidity ranged 28-97% with average 67%; and solar radiation ranged from 19.4 to 21.2 MJ/m 2 /d. During the second season the total rainfall was 1022.5 mm; the temperature ranged from 21.7 to 32.4°with average 25.8°; the relative humidity ranged from 40 to 97% with average 78%; and the solar radiation was from 15.2 to 20.2 MJ/m 2 /d. The dominant soil type of the trial site is Ferric Lixisols (FAO 1991), which is a sandy loam soil, moderately drained with a PH of 6.2.Seed samples for carotenoid analysis were generated by controlled self-pollination of all plants in each plot. The self-pollination protocol employed consisted of covering the shoots with shoot bags before emergence of the silks to avoid cross pollination, once the shoots were ready for pollination, the tassels were bagged with pollination bags a day before pollination. The next day fresh pollen was collected and applied on the silks of the same plant using the pollination bags, after which the shoots were covered with the same bag used for self-pollination. The shoots remained bagged until harvesting. The ears of each self-pollinated maize line in each plot were harvested, dried under ambient temperature with minimal exposure to direct sunlight, and separately shelled. Samples of 100 kernels were used from each seed lot for carotenoid analysis.The carotenoids from kernel samples of each of the 130 maize inbred lines were extracted and quantified with HPLC at the University of Wisconsin, USA. The extraction protocol used was the method of Howe and Tanumihardjo (2006) for carotenoid analysis of dried maize kernels, as previously described in Azmach et al. (2013). Extraction was performed using finely ground 0.5 g samples of each inbred line's kernels. The internal standard consisted of 200 ml of b-Apo-8'-carotenal (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO), which was added at the beginning of the analysis for calibrating losses of carotenoids during extraction and the entire work-flow process. Fifty microliter aliquots of each extract were injected into the HPLC system (Waters Corporation, Milford, MA). The gradient was applied for 30 min from 70% solvent A:30% solvent B, to 40% solvent A:60% solvent B. Each carotenoid type was quantified based on calibrations using its respective external standard. Total carotenoid content was calculated as the sum of concentrations of a-carotene, lutein, b-carotene, b-cryptoxanthin, zeaxanthin. Provitamin A was calculated by summing the concentrations of b-carotene, and half concentrations of each of b-cryptoxanthin and a-carotene, since b-cryptoxanthin and a-carotene can provide only one molecule of retinol each as opposed to two molecules of retinol for b-carotene (US Institute of Medicine 2001). Other derived carotenoid traits were also calculated as indicated in Harjes et al. (2008), Yan et al. (2010): i.e., ratio of carotenoids in b to a branch of the carotenoid pathway, ratio of b-carotene to b-cryptoxanthin and ratio of b-carotene to all carotenoids (b-carotene + a-carotene + lutein + zeaxanthin + b-cryptoxanthin). The data for the ratio traits were transformed using natural logarithm (log e ) before being subjected to statistical analysis to correct for the non-normal distribution of the data. All carotenoid concentrations were measured in microgram/gram dry weight (DW). BLUEs (best linear unbiased estimates) calculated for each trait based on the two season carotenoid data were used in the GWAS. BLUEs were calculated using the GLM option of TASSEL software version 4 (Bradbury et al. 2007) with a statistical model Y = Xb + e, where Y is matrix of the dependent or response variables, i.e., each carotenoid type; X is the design matrix; b is vector of fixed effect parameters, and e is vector of the random errors that are assumed to be normally distributed and independent of the other variances.Genome wide SNP marker generation using GBS DNA samples were isolated from freeze-dried leaf samples of each inbred line using Qiagen DNeasy plant mini kit following the protocol supplied with the product. DNA samples were quantified using a NanoDrop 2000 Spectrophotometer. Samples having at least 10 ng/ml DNA each were prepared and sent to the Genome Diversity Facility (GDF), formerly Institute for Genomic Diversity (IGD), Cornel University, USA, for GBS genotyping. Genotyping by sequencing (GBS) libraries were prepared, analyzed and sequenced at GDF, according to Elshire et al. (2011). SNP calling from the sequenced GBS library was also performed at GDF using the GBS production pipeline (Version: 3.0.134), an extension of the Java program TASSEL (Bradbury et al. 2007;Glaubitz et al. 2014) which used aligned short reads of GBS (tags). The GBS pipeline options used for calling SNPs consisted of: 0.1 minimum locus coverage, 1 • 10 6 maximum number of SNPs per chromosome, duplicate SNPs above 0.05 mismatch rate were not merged, and 0.8 cutoff frequency between heterozygote vs. homozygote calls. Tags were aligned to the reference genome B73 refgen_v2 (Schnable et al. 2009).The GBS pipeline generated a data set containing a total of 619,596 unfiltered SNPs. This SNP dataset had a total of 51% missing data points possibly caused by biological presence-absence of sequences between the reference and each test genome, or errors introduced in the GBS procedures (Glaubitz et al. 2014;Poland and Rife 2012). The dataset was further filtered in TASSEL 4 on the basis of missing data proportion and minor allele frequency (MAF) cutoff thresholds (Bradbury et al. 2007). The cutoff thresholds used to filter the dataset for the GWAS allowed only those SNPs showing a maximum of 20% missing data, and 1% minimum MAF (MMAF). This resulted in a dataset of 109,937 SNPs. The diversity and genome-wide Linkage Disequilibrium (LD) analysis were performed using datasets obtained by filtering with criteria of no missing data points and 1 and 10% MAFs which resulted in 3532 and 1658 genome-wide SNPs, respectively. SNP data summary and basic diversity parameters were calculated using TASSEL 4 (Bradbury et al. 2007) and PowerMarker 3.25 (Liu and Muse 2005) softwares.The two commonly used measures of LD are Lewontin's D and the squared pairwise correlation coefficient R 2 (Chen et al. 2006;Flint-Garcia et al. 2003). Although D' is a good measure of recombination history, it is severely affected with reduced sample size. R 2 summarizes both recombination and mutation history (Flint-Garcia et al. 2003). In our study, LD was estimated using R 2 , since it helps detect LD with minimal error despite small sample size and low MAF (Khatkar et al. 2008;Yan et al. 2009). In addition R 2 is a more relevant measure of LD for conducting association analysis between genotype and traits (Flint-Garcia et al. 2003).To determine the degree of resolution achieved in the association analysis (Yu and Buckler 2006), both genome and chromosome wide linkage disequilibrium (LD) were estimated using the squared allele frequency correlation coefficient (R 2 ) for all possible pairs of SNPs in a dataset. For genome-wide LD, SNP datasets of the 10 maize chromosomes were combined and filtered with cutoff threshold of no missing data and 10% MMAFs yielding 1658 SNPs typed across all inbred lines. On the other hand, LD estimation within each chromosome was performed using the SNP data of each chromosome filtered at 10% maximum missing data per marker and 10% MMAFs. Missing data in all the SNP datasets used for chromosome wide LD analysis were not imputed. The software used to estimate LD was TASSEL 3 (Bradbury et al. 2007), which uses permutation tests to determine the P-values for each pairwise correlation. LD estimate significance levels were considered at a = 0.001 (Pasam et al. 2012). Genome-wide and chromosome wide rate of LD decays were estimated by plotting localized regression curves (LOESS) of the R 2 values vs. the corresponding physical distances between the SNP pairs, followed by observation of the intersection point between the fitted LOESS curve and a critical R 2 values (Cleveland and Devlin 1988;Breseghello and Sorrells 2006). Two background critical R 2 values for estimating LD decays within and across chromosomes were considered in the present study to offer comparison. The first baseline critical R 2 was determined by taking the parametric 95 percentile of distribution of R 2 values for unlinked SNPs, taking SNPs on different chromosomes and SNPs beyond 50 Mbp apart on the same chromosome as unlinked (Breseghello and Sorrells 2006;Pasam et al. 2012). The second baseline R 2 value was 0.2, an arbitrary value often used to describe LD decay (Zhu et al. 2008). Scatter plots and fitted smooth curves for estimating LD decay were plotted using a base scatter plot function of R version 3.0.3, \"scatter.smooth\" (R Core Team 2014). The function plots and adds a smooth curve to a scatter plot computed according to LOESS (R Core Team 2014). LD patterns of all SNPs significantly associated with carotenoids and local LD patterns in regions surrounding significant genes were visualized using LD plots generated with HaploView (Barrett et al. 2005).Associations between genome-wide SNPs and carotenoid content was identified using the R (R Core Team 2014) package GAPIT (Genetic Association and Prediction Integrated Tools) (Lipka et al. 2012(Lipka et al. , 2013)). GAPIT package uses a unified mixed linear model (MLM) to calculate genome-wide association between traits and large number of markers by employing methodologies that maximize statistical power, provide high prediction accuracy, and run in a computationally efficient manner (Kang et al. 2010;Lipka et al. 2012Lipka et al. , 2013;;Yu et al. 2006;Zhang et al. 2010). A unified MLM incorporates both population structure (Q) and relative kinship (K) inferred from marker data into the GWAS to control for the confounding effect of Q and K and thus minimize spurious associations due to both type I and type II errors (Yu et al. 2006). Since the panel used in this study was composed of groups of inbred lines that were extracted from many backcrosses and single crosses involving diverse parental germplasm, multiple level relative kinship and non-random population structure was expected. Thus, the unified MLM model was applied to compute accurate associations. The analysis was executed mainly with the default settings of the software which automatically calculated both K and Q using the entire SNP marker data. The default setting implements VanRaden's algorithm option (VanRaden 2008) to calculate the K matrix, and uses principal component analysis (PCA) to define Q. It applies optimum compression levels using default kinship clustering and grouping values \"average\" and \"mean,\" respectively. The model selection option was used to estimate the optimum number of principal components (PC) covariates using Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) (Schwarz 1978).n Table 1   The variation explained for a trait by the model and a particular SNP in question were determined using the likelihood R 2 statistics calculated in GAPIT. SNP data used for GWAS was filtered in TASSEL 4 with maximum missing data of 20% and MMAF of 1%. Missing data were imputed automatically within GAPIT using the conservative option of \"major allele,\" which replaces missing data points with the major allele of the SNP. Different significance cut-off thresholds were used to assess the effect of the SNPs on carotenoids. The statistical significances of the SNPs were evaluated at 5 and 1% critical thresholds of the false discovery rate (FDR) adjusted P-values (Benjamini and Hochberg 1995) and the Bonferroni procedure was used to control the experimentwise type I error rate at both a = 0.05 and a = 0.01. FDR values generated with the GWAS result in GAPIT were used.Variations in carotenoid content and composition of the association panel caused by allelic variants in the two genes, lcyE (Harjes et al. 2008) and crtRB1 (Yan et al. 2010) were accounted for by including marker score data of the three allele-specific markers of each gene as covariates. These marker data were scored in the same inbred line panel used in the current study to validate the allele specific markers by Azmach et al. (2013). To incorporate these markers into the GWAS the six allele specific marker data were first transformed to principal components. Components explaining the largest proportion of the variation were then included as covariates in the unified mixed model for calculating the second GWA using GAPIT.The genotype and phenotype data for this GWAS population are available in Supplemental Material, File S1 (hapmap file containing GBS generated SNP data for the 130 maize inbred lines, filtered with maximum of 20% missing data and 1% minimum allele frequency) and File S2 (an excel file containing BLUEs of carotenoid contents for the 130 maize inbred lines).The carotenoid composition and content of maize lines used for this GWA study has been described in Azmach et al. (2013). The panel displayed considerable diversity in carotenoid profile. The ranges of least square means of the carotenoid concentrations (over two growing seasons) are presented in Table S3 in File S3 (can also be referred in detail in Azmach et al. (2013)). The BLUEs of the carotenoids are available in File S1. The concentration of a-carotene was low across the inbred lines, with poor repeatability, and hence a-carotene was not included in the GWA study.The summary of the 110 k SNP data set used for the GWAS and its diversity parameters are presented in Table 1. The average missing data for this data set was 10%. SNP distribution across the genome was not uniform but attained significant coverage (Figure S1). The MAF displayed a uniform distribution across the 10 maize chromosomes n Table 3  (average = 0.13-0.14, median = 0.06-0.8). The rare allele frequencies (,0.05) represented the largest proportion of the MAFs (Figure S2).The average inbreeding coefficient (f) estimates per locus ranged from below zero to one, while the genome-wide mean f was 0.82. a Representative significant SNPs selected based on their positions and approximate LD decay. Significant SNPs were selected at FDR 1%, except for chromosome 8 SNPs associated with lutein -which were selected only at Bonferroni 1%. For zeaxanthin and total provitamin A the threshold was set at 5% FDR to be able to detect significant SNPs. Some SNPs may appear two to four times as they were associated with multiple related traits. and f had more or less uniform values across the chromosomes. The genome-wide polymorphic information content (PIC) of the SNPs ranged from 0.02 to 0.38, while the average was 0.18. PIC is one of the diversity parameters that is used to measure the informativeness of genetic markers. A large proportion (.40%) of SNPs used for diversity analyses in this study had PIC values higher than 0.2, suggesting informativeness of the GBS generated SNPs for the association study.The Bayesian Information Criteria (BIC) suggested the population structure calculated (based on PCA) had only a small contribution to the variation in carotenoid profile of the panel (Table S2 in File S3). The kinship heat map indicated a low level of overall relatedness in the panel (Figure S3). The genome-wide extent of LD estimate was 0.83 Mbp at baseline R 2 = 0.2 and 0.65 Mbp at R 2 = 0.25 (Figure S4, Supplemental Information in File S3, and Table 1). There was heterogeneous distribution of LD decay across the genome, as was evident from the pattern of LD heat-map generated using the same SNP dataset (Figure 1).Of the 110 k SNPs tested, 386 unique significant SNPs were detected at 5% FDR (Table 2). At this significance threshold, at least two significant SNPs were identified on each of the 10 chromosomes. The number of significant SNPs declined to 168 at 1% FDR correction rate, discarding all the significant SNPs on chromosomes 1, 5 and 7. Application of the conservative multiple comparison correction term, the Bonferroni test, at 5 and 1% levels further reduced the number of significant SNPs to 81 and 32, respectively. The vast majority of significant SNPs were found on chromosome 8 followed by chromosome 10, which were mainly associated with lutein and b-branch carotenoids, respectively. Except for significant SNPs on chromosome 6 and 9, the average MAFs of the significant SNPs at FDR 1 and 5% were above 10%. Only 5% of the significant SNPs at FDR 1% had their MAFs below 10% (Figure 1). The number of significant SNPs in relation to each carotenoid across each chromosome is summarized in Table 3. The allelic variants and effects selected for the most significant SNPs in the GWAS are indicated in Table 4, while the associated candidate protein coding genes along with their genomic positions are listed in Table 5. Figure 2 illustrates the GWAS result for each carotenoid trait, complemented by Figure S5 which summarizes the association using the lowest P-values attained at 5% FDR threshold. The strongest association was detected for lutein content. At the significance level of 1% FDR, a total of 129 SNPs distributed on chromosomes 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 9 were associated with lutein levels, with the largest fraction of SNPs (.90%) located on chromosome 8. The most significant SNPs associated with this carotenoid scored the lowest of all the P-value (SNPs S8_138938983 and S8_138938949, P = 9.81E212). The model containing each of these SNPs explained 53% of the variation in accumulation of this carotenoid. The majority of significant SNPs that survived the stringent significance threshold of 1% Bonferroni were also associated with lutein (27 SNPs on chromosome 8). Many of these SNPs were also associated with the ratio of ato b-branch carotenoids at FDR 5%. The second most significant association was detected for the ratio of b-carotene to b-cryptoxanthin derived carotenoid trait. Twenty six SNPs were associated with this derived trait at FDR 1%, the most significant SNP (S10_136007578) scoring P-value of 6.75E210 and R 2 of 60%.Using the Bonferroni approach to adjust the family-wise type I error rate at a = 0.01, 13 SNPs on chromosome 10 were associated with carotenoids of the b branch and some of the derived ratio traits (b-carotene, b-cryptoxanthin, b-carotene to b-cryptoxanthin and/or b-carotene to zeaxanthin). The ratio of a to b branch carotenoid was significantly affected by 10 SNPs on chromosome 8 at FDR 5%, the most significant SNPs in the group accounting for 33 and 36% of the variations in the derived trait, respectively. These SNPs were also significantly associated with lutein.Associations with zeaxanthin (12 SNPs) and provitamin A (3 SNPs) could only be detected when relaxing the significance cutoff threshold to 5% FDR. The variances explained by the model involving the most significant SNPs were 33% for zeaxanthin (SNP S10_136840488, P = 5.53E207) and 51% for provitamin A (SNP S10_134601800, P = 6.39E207). These SNPs were also associated with b-carotene and its derived ratio traits.The genomic locations of significant SNPs were investigated to identify what protein-coding genes the SNPs were located in or adjacent to, zooming in based on SNP data retrieved from online databases for maize genome (http://www.maizegdb.org/ and http://ensembl.gramene.org/ Zea_mays/). The list of all annotated genes, including those encoding uncharacterized proteins, within circa 0.8 Mb of the most significant SNPs are presented in Table S4 in File S3. Here only those candidate genes the closest to the most significant SNPs listed in Table 5 are described.The most significant SNP in the association signal for lutein content 16 Mbp on chromosome 8 (SNP S8_16743428, P-value = 8.65E209) was located within a putative gene GRMZM2G143211 (Figure 3a). This gene model contains a WD domain and displays sequence similarity to the yeast autophagy 18 (AtATG18) gene class in Arabidopsis thaliana. Two additional significant SNPs (S8_16444572 and S8_16444587) in this region were located within another candidate gene GRMZM2G380414, which encodes a protein called Ultraviolet-B-repressible which is likely involved in photosynthesis. The association peak between 110 and 144 Mbp on the same chromosome for the same trait contained three highly significant SNPs, namely S8_111289041 (P-value = 5.82E209); S8_124434722 (P-value = 3.97E210), and S8_138938949/S8_138938983 (P-value = 9.81E212) that were in strong LD to one another, with R 2 value ranging from 0.31 to 0.67 (Figure 4). These SNPs were located within three different protein-coding putative genes GRMZM2G333079, GRMZM2G330693 and GRMZM2G463133, respectively with the first and third genes having some evidence of expression in maize endosperm (Sekhon et al. 2011). The two SNPs, S8_138938949 and S8_138938983, are 50 kb distal from one of the major carotenoid biosynthesis genes, lcyE. Pairwise LD among these highly significant SNPs on chromosome 8 varied from R 2 = 0.23 to 0.67 (Figure 4).On chromosome 10, the strong association peak surrounding the 138 Mbp region for b-carotene (Figure 2 and Figure 3b) contained two closely spaced and significant SNPs S10_136007575 and S10_136007578, P = 6.75E210. These SNPs are the closest significant SNPs to the major candidate gene of carotenoid crtRB1 (40 kb distal), but are physically located within a putative RING zinc finger domain protein coding gene, GRMZM2G397684 (Figure 3b). The other significant SNPs in this region were S10_134650981 (P-value = 1.99E208) and S10_139877594 (Pvalue = 5.12E208), residing within candidate genes GRMZM2G018314 and GRMZM2G080516, respectively. The latter encodes an AP2-EREBP transcription factor which is expressed in maize seed endosperm (Sekhon et al. 2011). LD among the peak SNPs on chromosome 10 ranged from 0 between SNPs S10_134650981 and S10_139877594, to 1, between SNPs S10_136007575 and S10_136007578 (Figure 4).A smallbut significant SNP association was detected on the short arm of chromosome 2 coinciding with a gene involved in the conversion of carotenoids to abscisic acid, namely zeaxanthin epoxidase 1 (ZEP1, GRMZM2G127139). Two of the six SNPs that were significantly associated with total carotenoids at FDR 5% (S2_44448438, P = 1.11E206) and S2_44448432 P = 1.11E206) were physically located within the ZEP1 gene (Figure 3c). However, the most significant SNP, S2_44473758, P = 1.78E207, was located circa 33 kb downstream of the ZEP1 gene within another protein-coding gene GRMZM2G062559 that encodes an uncharacterized protein. All of these SNPs were in high LD forming a haplotype block (Figure 4) when considered without the non-significant SNPs in the region. We consider that the significant effect most likely arises from ZEP1 (or some of these SNPs could be linked with regulatory regions or control elements). The other SNP on the same chromosome around position 139 Mbp that showed a strong association with total carotenoid (S2_139644276, P-value = 2.53E207) was located in a putative gene GRMZM2G066213 (Figure 3c).Strong and extensive pairwise LD was observed among the significant SNPs selected at 1% FDR (Figure 5a and Table 6). Seventy percent of the pairwise comparison among the SNPs led to statistically significant LD (P , 0.001) of which 21% was comprised of inter-chromosomal correlations. LD for within chromosome Figure 5 LD plots of significant SNPs and LD blocks surrounding the genes lcyE, crtRB1 and ZEP1. (a) LD plot of all significant SNPs selected at FDR 1%. Labels 2, 3, 4, 8 and 10 refer to the chromosomes of the SNPs that reached significance at this threshold; (b) an LD block on chromosome 2 surrounding the gene ZEP1; (c) an LD block on chromosome 8 surrounding the gene lcyE; (d) an LD block on chromosome 10 comprising the gene crtRB1; (e) LD plots that included non-significant SNPs in regions +/2 of crtRB1, lcyE and ZEP1 where significant associations were detected. Haplotype blocks were defined with the option of confidence interval (Gabriel et al. 2002). Green highlighted SNPs are the closest SNPs to the carotenoid genes indicated, with the most significant ones enclosed with oval shapes. The grayscale shading pattern of LD plot reflects the strength of linkage as it increases from the lightest to the darkest shaded cells paralleling the range of no LD (R 2 = 0%) to absolute LD (R 2 = 100%). Plots generated using HaploView software (Barrett et al. 2005).comparisons ranged from 0.37 to 1, both on chromosome 3, with genome-wide average of 0.42. For inter-chromosomal comparisons, LD ranged from 0.18 in chromosome 10 to 0.5 in chromosome 3, with a genome-wide average of 0.25. Significant SNPs on chromosomes 3 and 4 displayed strong inter-chromosomal LD with those on chromosome 8, but was negligible for SNPs on chromosome 10. The confidence interval algorithm deployed in HaploView software generated 11 haplotype blocks based on LD of the significant SNPs on chromosome 8, five blocks for those on chromosome 10 and one block for those on chromosome 2. Haplotype blocks were identified for each of the three carotenoid genes crtRB1, lcyE and ZEP1 when analyzing the significant SNPs in regions surrounding their corresponding genomic locations. Further analysis of LD for regions comprising these three genes, with the inclusion of non-significant SNPs revealed heterogeneous LD. This suggests that the LD among the significant SNPs residing in regions of these major genes could be functional, rather than tight genetic linkage occurring as a result of long range average LD decay in the association panel.GWA re-calculated with the allele specific markers of crtRB1 and lcyE included as covariates GWA was re-calculated by incorporating the allele specific markers of the two genes lcyE and crtRB1 as additional fixed effect covariates in the MLM model. As expected, the number of SNPs significantly associated with the traits in this analysis was drastically reduced from 386 in the previous analysis to 38 SNPs (excluding the four SNPs significant at 10% FDR), at a cut-off threshold of 5% FDR (Table 7). Numerous SNPs on chromosome 8 and 10 previously associated with lutein and b-carotene (plus its derived traits) became statistically non-significant, even at a lower significance threshold of 10% FDR (Figure 6 and Table 7). Using this approach, chromosome 10 was devoid of significant SNPs, and only two SNPs on chromosome 8 (SNP S8_138938949 and S8_138938983) were strongly associated with lutein (P-value = 7.66E208; R 2 = 0.53). These SNPs were also the most significant SNPs in the initial GWAS result. The SNPs were physically located within a putative gene GRMZM2G463133 encoding an HLH binding domain protein. Since these two SNPs were in high LD with SNPs in the lcyE region (Figure 5c), it is possible that the significant effect arises from linkage to this known carotenoid biosynthesis gene. However, functional studies would be required to unequivocally ascribe the significant effect to these SNPs.On the other hand, the re-run GWAS detected new significant associations on chromosome 5 for b-carotene and provitamin A. In particular, SNPs S5_78384689 and S5_78427240 were associated with provitamin A at 5% FDR (P-value = 1.81E207; R 2 = 68) and one of these SNPs S5_78384689, was associated with b-carotene at 10% FDR (P-value= 7.08E207; R 2 0 = 81). The SNP S5_78384689 lay within an auxin-response factor 20 gene (GRMZM2G102845, 5:78,381,834-78,389,884, Table 5). In addition, seven SNPs on chromosome 2 were significantly associated with zeaxanthin content at FDR 1% (Table 7). Three of the zeaxanthin associated SNPs (44,473,748, S2_44473758, and S2_44473801) were located within the gene ZEP1 while the other two were located 23 kb upstream of the ZEP1 gene.Genome-wide and candidate-gene based association studies are powerful approaches to identify nucleotide variants that functionally underlie important agronomic and nutritional traits. Such nucleotide variants can be harnessed in breeding programs to develop improved cultivars through marker-or genomics-assisted selection (Babu et al. 2013;Hamblin et al. 2011). Association mapping using large population sizes and high marker densities can be used for successful and reliable prediction of LD and associations between alleles and target phenotypes (Yu and Buckler 2006;Khatkar et al. 2008;Zhu et al. 2008).As a major staple crop, maize has been the focus of both candidate gene and GWA studies for a number of agriculturally and nutritionally significant phenotypes (Cook et al. 2012;Li et al. 2012Li et al. , 2013;;Lipka et al. 2013;Yan et al. 2010;Yu and Buckler 2006). In our GWA study, we have used a panel of 130 diverse and partially related inbred lines of maize where we have used genome-wide GBS to generate a highly-dense SNP map for association analyses. Our use of inbred lines combining the genomes of both temperate and tropical maize germplasm has allowed us to capture small to large effect carotenoid allelic variants that are present in the two gene pools within IITA's maize breeding program.Despite its predisposition to large levels of missing data (Heslot et al. 2013), GBS generates large number of SNPs with dense coverage and potentially less ascertainment bias, which is ideal for consistent GWAS (Crossa et al. 2013;Elshire et al. 2011). The SNP data set used in our GWA study had acceptable level of missing data of only 10% (which was predicted with conservative imputation criteria in GAPIT genetic analysis software to allow reliable genome-wide associations). A minimum MAF criteria of 1% was used to filter out potential spurious SNPs stemming from sequencing error (Glaubitz et al. 2014).The frequency of minor alleles is an important factor that can affect the accuracy of LD analysis and GWAS especially when using small samples (Tabangin et al. 2009;Yan et al. 2009). The filtered data set had a large proportion of MAFs distributed uniformly across the genome, frequencies ranging between 1 and 5% accounting for the largest proportion. However, the MAFs of the vast majority of the significant SNPs were above 10% which might be indicative of the positive detection power of the GWAS as the biasness associated with rare alleles when using small sized samples for association mapping was eliminated (Schnable et al. 2009). This could suggest that alleles associated with carotenoid content and composition may be segregating in our panel at frequencies higher than 10% (Hamblin et al. 2011).The average genome-wide LD decay in our study was estimated at circa. 830 kbp at a background critical R 2 = 0.2. Previous studies in maize reported LD extent to be ,1000 bp for maize landraces, .2000 bp for diverse breeding lines, and 100 kb for commercial elite inbred lines (Yu and Buckler 2006). Although it can lack the power for high precision mapping, a mapping panel with persistent LD can be considered ideal, if low-resolution mapping is targeted (Flint-Garcia et al. 2003). The long range LD in this panel was expected since such extensive LD is characteristics of advanced maize inbred lines that have experienced strong recent selection (Yu and Buckler 2006). Also, small populations are prone to genetic drift leading to loss of rare alleles and increased LD (Flint-Garcia et al. 2003). Nonetheless, there was considerable localized variation in LD structure across the genome suggesting that the map-ping resolution also vary. The extensive LD in our study could lead to the identification of SNPs in genes that are either causal or contributory to the carotenoid phenotype, or which act as linked markers associated with the carotenoid phenotype.The two MLM GWAS models we employed detected a number of small to large effect known carotenoid biosynthesis genes, as well as several putative genes encoding characterized or uncharacterized proteins. The first MLM GWAS considered population structure (Q) and relative kinship (K) only, while the second incorporated the allele specific markers of lcyE and crtRB1 major carotenoid genes as additional fixed effect covariates. The identification of known carotenoid biosynthesis genes in our study indicates that our study had sufficient power to identify causal or contributory genes.The vast majority of highly significant hits in the first GWAS were on chromosome 8 associated with lutein, followed by chromosome   4, and Table 5). The large effects of these genes on carotenoids within the maize panel used in our study were expected, as the markers designed to detect the allelic variants of these genes were previously confirmed (Harjes et al. 2008;Yan et al. 2010) to have significant impact in the same mapping panel (Azmach et al. 2013), indicating the successful introgression of the favorable alleles of these two genes into the tropical yellow maize genetic background. While the most significant SNP (P = 9.81E212; Table 4 and Table 5) on chromosome 8 was located 49 kb downstream of the lcyE gene, another significant SNP (SNP: S8_138888278, P = 3.19E28) was detected within the gene 1 kb upstream of the 39indel functional polymorphism that was previously reported by Harjes et al. (2008). Despite no SNP was found within the gene crtRB1, the closest SNPs (S10_136007575 and S10_136007578) significantly associated with b-carotene to b-cryptoxanthin ratio (P-value = 6.75E210) and other ratio involving b-carotene were located 50 kb upstream of this gene.The inclusion of the allele-specific marker information for lcyE and crtRB1 as additional fixed effect covariate allowed to control for the large effects of the two genes. Using this approach, 10% of the significant SNPs detected at 5% FDR in the first GWAS survived the correction for the allele specific markers. The two most significant SNPs on chromosome 8 detected in the first GWAS still displayed a strong association with lutein levels, which could be due to a stronger LD of the SNPs with larger-effect functional polymorphisms in the 39TE untranslated region of lcyE not captured with the present genotyping and possibly different from the polymorphisms previously described by Harjes et al. (2008). This could explain the relatively low effect of the known allele-specific markers of lcyE in our previous marker validation study (Azmach et al. 2013), although the strongest association was still detected in this gene region in our GWA study.The controlling of the effects of lcyE and crtRB1 in the GWAS including marker covariates led to the detection of significant associations for zeaxanthin levels on chromosome 2 at 1% FDR. The significant SNPs co-localized with a known downstream carotenoid biosynthesis gene ZEP1 (chromosome 2: 44,440,449,237). These SNPs were detected in the first MLM GWAS, but they were then significantly associated with total carotenoid content at a 5% FDR. In the GWAS without covariates, zeaxanthin was significantly affected by SNPs only from the large association signal detected on chromosome 10. This could suggest that increases or decreases in the rate of conversion of b-carotene to zeaxanthin through b-cryptoxanthin may be more pronounced than that of decreases in the rate of conversion of zeaxanthin to violaxanthin by ZEP1 in the maize inbred line panel used in our study. This would provide a reason for the greater impact of crtRB1 on the level of zeaxanthin than ZEP 1. This could be interpreted as a scenario where reduced function of crtRB1 leads to accumulation of b-carotene at the expense of zeaxanthin synthesis, reflecting the larger effect of crtRB1 on the concentration of zeaxanthin.Indeed, recent association studies have reported similar associations of SNPs within the gene ZEP1 with zeaxanthin content (Owens et al. 2014;Suwarno 2012). In addition a small effect QTL underlying kernel color close to the gene ZEP1 has also been reported and suggested as a target for allele mining by Chandler et al. (2013). This locus can therefore be considered as one of the loci potentially contributing to the variation in total carotenoid in the mapping panel used in this study and can be the next target gene for allele mining. Allele-combinations of ZEP1 and other genes in the biosynthesis pathway can be used in breeding programs to increase accumulation of provitamin A and total carotenoid in maize endosperm.Our GWAS including marker covariates also identified an association between SNPs on chromosome 5 and provitamin A at 5% FDR and b-carotene at 10% FDR. These SNPs were co-localized with a gene encoding an auxin-response factor 20 (arf20) protein (5:78,381,834-78,389,884). Auxin-response factors are transcription factors that target auxin response DNA elements (AuxRE) in the promoters of auxinregulated genes (Li et al. 2016). The key enzymes involved in carotenoid biosynthesis in cereals are well known and have been previously reviewed; e.g., figure 1 in Zhai et al. (2016). This family of transcription factors is known to have a role in conditioning carotenoid biosynthesis through coordinated regulation of transcription of genes involved in the pathway (Meier et al. 2011). As the ARF20 gene is highly expressed in the maize endosperm (Sekhon et al. 2011), the gene may constitute a novel target for further unraveling of the regulatory mechanism of carotenoid biosynthesis in maize endosperm.Using a panel of IITA's tropical maize inbred lines that incorporated high b-carotene alleles introgressed from a temperate maize germplasm, our study detected SNPs co-localizing with known major and small effect carotenoid biosynthesis genes, demonstrating the detection power of our GWA analyses. In addition, a number of associations were detected for novel candidate genes encoding transcription factors, which might have roles in regulation of the carotenoid biosynthesis in maize endosperm. As our study is based on IITA's tropical maize breeding program, it can contribute to transitioning of the maize biofortification efforts of the breeding program toward molecular-marker assisted approaches. Our findings pave the way for additional allele mining efforts and greater understanding of the genes involved in regulation of expression of carotenoid biosynthesis genes, which is necessary to further exploit the genetic potential of maize in accumulating provitamin A in maize endosperm.","tokenCount":"7474"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"77efea2d443c4bd1356f4a3e7316ec39","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f2dc7f60-68b1-4ad3-afa5-14c5ac443fad/retrieve","id":"713993260"},"keywords":["TSBF-CIAT's achievements and reflections","2002-2005. Cali","CO : Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT); Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility (TSBF) Institute","2006. 95 p. --(CIAT publication no. 350) ISBN 978-958-694-088-7 AGROVOC descriptors in English: 1. Soil fertility. 2. Soil management. 3. Cropping systems. 4. Soil biology. 5. Soil organic matter. 6. Genetic resources. 7. Land management. 8. Socioeconomic environment. 9. Water management. 10. Capacity building. 11. Sustainability. 12. Organization AGRIS subject category: P35 Soil fertility / Fertilidad del suelo LC classification: S 596 .7 P7"],"sieverID":"3199f4f6-310e-4bb5-b8a2-2d0c171b38b3","pagecount":"101","content":"CIAT encourages wide dissemination of its printed and electronic publications for maximum public benefit. Thus, in most cases colleagues working in research and development should feel free to use CIAT materials for noncommercial purposes. However, the Center prohibits modification of these materials, and we expect to receive due credit. Though CIAT prepares its publications with considerable care, the Center does not guarantee their accuracy and completeness.The Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Programme (TSBF) was founded in 1984 to develop capacity for soil biology as a research discipline in the tropical regions, and to conduct research on the role of soil biology in maintaining or improving soil fertility and combating environmental degradation, on the premise that biological management of soil fertility is an essential component of sustainable agricultural development.In 1997, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT, or Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical) created a soils team in Latin America to focus on identification of strategic principles, concepts and methods for protecting and improving soil quality through the efficient and sustainable use of soil, water and nutrient resources in crop-pasture-fallow systems in tropical savannas and hillsides agroecosystems.In December 2001, an agreement between CIAT and the TSBF Programme led to the latter's becoming an institute of CIAT (TSBF-CIAT). Today, the Institute operates as an integral part of the CIAT research programme, and the TSBF Director reports to the CIAT Director General. TSBF-CIAT staff are located in two major target areas in the tropics (Africa and Latin America), with the directorate housed on the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) campus in Nairobi, Kenya.The 2005-2010 TSBF-CIAT strategy is aligned with the Millennium Development goal: \"to help create an expanded vision of development that vigorously promotes human development as the key to sustaining social and economic progress in all countries, and recognizes the importance of creating a global partnership for development.\" The strategy also encompasses the CGIAR's agricultural and environment mission: \"to contribute to food security and poverty alleviation in developing countries through research, partnerships, capacity building and policy support, promoting sustainable agricultural development based on environmental sound management of natural resources.\" The strategy is also aligned with CIAT's three Development Challenges: (1) Enhancing and Sharing the Benefits of Agrobiodiversity, (2) Improving the Management of Agroecosystems in the Tropics and (3) Enhancing Rural Innovation.TSBF-CIAT's programme goals are: to strengthen national and international capacity to manage tropical ecosystems sustainably for human well-being, with a particular focus on soil, biodiversity and primary production; to reduce hunger and poverty in the tropics through scientific research leading to new technology and knowledge; and to ensure environmental sustainability through research on the biology and fertility of tropical soils, targeted interventions, building scientific capability and contributions to policy. However, successful resource management and sustainable agricultural productivity need to go still further, into the realms of markets, health and policies. The central hypothesis is that natural resource management (NRM) research will have more leverage if the apparent gaps between investment in the natural resource base and income generation can be bridged. Therefore, TSBF-CIAT's new strategy has been to take ISFM an additional step forward by addressing the full chain of interactions from resources to production systems to markets and polices-the \"Resource to Consumption\" (R-to-C) framework [547]. Under this framework, investment in soil fertility management represents a key entry point to agricultural productivity growth, and a necessary condition for obtaining positive net returns to other types of farm investments.TSBF-CIAT is pursuing the following three objectives under our new strategy:• To improve the livelihoods of people reliant on agriculture by developing profitable, socially-acceptable and resilient agricultural production systems based on ISFM.• To develop sustainable land management (SLM) practices in tropical areas while reversing land degradation.• To build the human and social capital of all TSBF-CIAT stakeholders for research and management on the sustainable use of tropical soils.To achieve these objectives, all of TSBF-CIAT's work can be conceptualized using seven strategic pillars:1. Improving fertilizer efficiency and developing soil and water management practices.2. Improved germplasm as an entry point for managing soil fertility.3. Managing the genetic resources of soil for enhanced productivity and plant health.4. Understanding farm level social dynamics.5. Linking farmers to markets, nutrition and health.6. NRM strategies to move from plot to landscape scales.7. Strengthening scientific and institutional capacity of partners for ISFM.The following sections present the background, achievements, gaps, and potential opportunities and challenges for the research of TSBF-CIAT over the period 2002-2005 and are reviewed with reference to citations of work published (or in progress). With few exceptions, the panels found the quality of the staff and of the research at CIAT to be high. The major substantive recommendations were: to more tightly focus the research program; to attain greater integration of that program; and to improve lines of authority and responsibility. Specific recommendations made by the review team and responses by TSBF-CIAT staff are given in Annex 1 and the TSBF-CIAT staff are listed in Annex 2.1. Improving fertilizer efficiency and developing soil and water management practicesThe technical backbone of ISFM advocates the integration of mineral and organic sources of nutrients, thereby using locally available sources of inputs and maximising their use efficiency. TSBF-CIAT has embraced ISFM research to reverse land degradation and improve the livelihoods of people reliant on agriculture. What is needed is to break the cycle between poverty and land degradation in SSA by employing strategies that empower farmers economically and promoting sustainable agricultural intensification using efficient, effective and affordable plant nutrients.Such affordable management systems should be accessible to the poor, small-scale producers and the approach should be holistic and dynamic in order to foster both technical and institutional change.Nitrogen and phosphorus deficiencies are widespread in all SSA agro-ecosystems, with 80% of the soils deficient in P despite the availability of phosphate rocks in many parts of the continent. The main research highlights on soil characterization in the recent years have been on soil fertility gradients within farms [59,72,74,116,120]. While these studies have shown strong relationships between households' social categories, their production of organic materials, and the intensity with which inputs are applied to \"homefields\" or \"outfields\", variance of soil fertility status within farms is much greater than that observed between farms. For example, in Western Kenya, 58% of the variance in soil organic C was due to variability within farm compared to only 9% for variability between farms [74]. Total N decreased in all sites with distance to the homestead (from 1.30 to 1.06 g/kg), as did Olsen-P (from 10.5 to 2.3 mg/kg). Grain yields in the no-input control plots followed the decrease in soil fertility status with distance to the homestead (from 2.59 to 1.59 t/ha). In the NPK treatments, however, this difference between field types disappeared (from 3.43 to 3.98 t/ha), indicating that N and P are the major limiting nutrients in the target areas [116]. In another study in the drylands of Niger, West Africa, variation of soil C at farm level ranged from 0.1% to 3.2% from the bush fields to the homestead. The fertilizer use efficiency increased with increasing soil C, indicating the need to improve soil with organic amendment in order to increase the fertilizer use efficiency [287].Similar soil constraints (soil acidity, aluminium toxicity, P and N deficiencies) are the major chemical constraints together with soil compaction and erosion as physical constraints for crop-livestock production in tropical savannas of Latin America. In acid savanna soils of Colombia, deep-rooted tropical pastures enhanced soil quality by improving the size and stability of soil aggregates when compared with soils under mono-cropping. Increasing intensity of production systems resulted in improved soil physical conditions but decreased soil organic matter (SOM) and macrofauna populations with the exception of agropastoral systems evaluated where an overall soil improvement was observed [122,220,236].Several studies addressed the dynamics of N, P and C in the soils across the different agro-environments and sustainability indicators were determined from longterm soil fertility management trials [8,220,236]. The rate of decline of soil C has been determined and the importance of the fine fraction in the protection of soil organic carbon assessed. The use of vertical tillage and agropastoral treatments contributed to the build-up of an arable layer in low fertility savanna soils of the Llanos of Colombia as indicated by improved soil physical properties and nutrient availability [55,517,518]. Influence of contrasting agropastoral systems and related P fertilizer inputs on size of P fractions in soil and their isotopic exchangeability were determined in acid savannas of Colombia and the results showed that organic P dynamics are important when soil P reserves are limited [211]. Recent work has shown that additions of charcoal to low fertility, acid Oxisols increases soil pH, cation exchange capacity, BNF and availability of various soil nutrients and result in a net increase in crop and plant yield. Another significant achievement was that the nitrification inhibition activity of accessions of Brachiaria humidicola was similar to the commercial apomictic cultivar indicating the possibility for genetic regulation of this important trait to improve nitrogen use efficiency in crop-livestock systems [318].The quality of organic inputs and their interaction with mineral fertilizers have been the main focus [161,162,175]. A decision tree for selecting organic inputs for nitrogen management have been developed based on their N, lignin and polyphenol contents [51], as has one on manure use in southern Africa [39]. Fertilizer equivalency values of organic materials have been determined and it was found that organic leaves of Tithonia, Senna and Tephrosia had fertilizer equivalencies near 100% [82]. Decision guides have been developed in response to on-farm adaptive research that translate into simple assessments of resource quality to be used by extension agents and farmers, which have been tested with community-based learning activities [112]. Combining organic and mineral inputs has been observed to sometimes result in added benefits in terms of extra crop yield, compared with sole applications of organic and mineral inputs at equivalent rates [78]. In some cases, these benefits were the result of improved soil moisture conditions or reduced wind erosion after application of organic inputs [11,78,80,89]. In other cases, however, mechanisms underlying the creation of positive interactions were not understood.Except for a few phosphate rocks (e.g. Tahoua in Niger, Tilemsi in Mali and Mijingu in Tanzania), most of the phosphate rocks in Africa are low in reactivity and not suitable for direct application. Field work indicated that the P use efficiency from the unreactive rocks can double when phosphate rock was combined with the micro-dose technology.The dry mixture of 25% of P as water soluble P and 75% of P as phosphate rocks gave yields comparable to the use of 100% water soluble P [330].Research on the micro-dose application of fertilizers has focused on evaluating and promoting point or hill application of 4 kg P/ha at planting time of millet and sorghum [233,330]. The combination of strategic hill application of fertilizer with complementary institutional and market linkages, through an inventory credit system (\"Warrantage\") offers a good opportunity to improve crop productivity and farmers' incomes [233].The considerable research invested in water harvesting techniques (e.g. the zaï, stone bunds, contours, tied ridges, etc.) frequently neglects the role of soil nutrients, which in many cases are the most limiting factors. Our research in nutrient and water harvesting in Western, Southern and Eastern Africa has clearly indicated that application of nutrients greatly increased the water use efficiency [100]. In Ethiopia, extremely eroded farm plots were not responding to direct application of organic biomass, however, use of \"zai\" (small ditches to trap water and nutrients) increased yields up to 450% in comparison to the control [120].Given the successes of conservation agriculture in Latin America and elsewhere, AfNet has established network field trials of various conservation agriculture options in 12 sites in East and West Africa. Crop yield was lower with no-till than with tillage practice in continuous cereal, intercropping and rotation systems. There was no difference in maize yield between no-till and tillage practices when crop residue was added in the no-till in Western Kenya. In Burkina Faso, even with crop residue, no-till had lower yields compared to tillage practice and this is attributed to the crusting nature of these soils. Nevertheless, taking advantage of the reduced labour in the no-till, it is likely that the no-till could be more profitable.The concept of \"building up an arable layer\" of improved soil quality addresses the physical and chemical constraints of acid savanna soils, using corrective tillage, amendments, and fertilizers, and deep-rooting plants in rotational systems to recover water and nutrients from the subsoil. Such arable layer technologies lay a foundation for implementing no-tillage systems on infertile tropical soils; research in close collaboration with CORPOICA and other partners in the Llanos of Colombia show the concept is both technically feasible and economically attractive to farmers [5]. Long-term field experiments are testing the effects of grain legumes, green manures, intercrops and leys as possible components that could increase the stability of systems involving annual crops. No-till treatments have consistently provided lower bulk density, higher total porosity, and significantly higher maize yields than the minimum tillage system. Maize yields on native savanna soils were also markedly lower than in the rest of the treatments, indicating the need for improved soil conditions in subsoil layers for root growth of maize [55,94,303,404].• Increase fertilizers' use efficiencies in order to make them more profitable.• Contribute to the development of the local fertilizer sector through feasibility studies (e.g. on the use of the indigenous phosphate rocks).• Investigate and quantify fertilizers' effects on global change, green house gas (GHG) emissions, water quality, deforestation and land degradation, interactions with pest and diseases and carbon sequestration.• Use decision support tools to improve fertilizer use efficiency (e.g. NuMaSS expert system). Field trials conducted in Nicaragua and Honduras have shown that farmers can optimise fertilizer use when they take into account previous crop management, crop and soil characteristics, expected yields and resources available.• For the concept on building an arable layer to be functional, more attention needs to be given to the driving forces behind farmer decision making and the existing policies for intensifying agriculture on infertile savanna lands.The traditional starting point for soil fertility management is developing options that improve nutrient availability (i.e. the supply of nutrients). Whilst the research that TSBF-CIAT has conducted along this logic has added much to our knowledge of these processes, it is increasingly recognised that investments in soil fertility can only realise their potential in the presence of plants that are able to incorporate nutrients in their biomass (i.e. with sufficient demand for those nutrients). For example, given the soil acidity and soil physical constraints in tropical savannas, CIAT researchers realized that selection and development of acid tolerant crop and forage germplasm was the logical way to manage low fertility acid soils and to contribute to food security and poverty alleviation. In close collaboration with rice, beans, forages and other CGIAR commodity programs and regional partners, significant research for development efforts were made to introduce, test and disseminate productive and adapted germplasm. Finally, it should be noted that due to the short-term benefits associated with improved varieties, targeting better soil fertility management in integration with such varieties usually results in immediate interest from farming communities. Consequently, the integration of resilient germplasm is a full component of the ISFM research for development paradigm.These improved crop and forage germplasm options interact with rural livelihoods and soil fertility management in a number of ways:(1) through direct improvement of the natural resource base (soil fertility, soil and water retention), e.g. by integration of legumes in existing cropping systems and dual purpose live barriers, (2) through enabling crop production under conditions where local germplasm produces little yield, e.g. by integration of acid-tolerant varieties on soils with low pH, novel crop rotation system, (3) through generation of cash income that maybe re-invested in soil management, and (4) through provision of nutrient-dense (biofortified) edible components that can substantially enhance the health status of people engaged in agriculture with obvious consequence on the availability of labour.The original mandate of TSBF in Africa before joining CIAT focussed on the management of organic inputs, rather than their production per se, the latter being the mandate of the institutes that are engaged in breeding activities. These activities culminated in the development of the Organic Resource Database, the Decision Support System for Organic N Management, and initiatives aimed at validating these concepts [39,51,81,82,120]. While validating the above concepts with farmers, it became apparent that most organic inputs available at the farm level are of medium or low quality and that the total amount of organic resources available was insufficient to sustain or increase production. The mandate of TSBF-CIAT therefore broadened to include activities aimed at producing organic resources, such as the integration of N-fixing legumes, among them, Mucuna and other cover crops [28,29,43,155], cereal-legume rotations, (e.g. cowpea-sorghum in West Africa [97,123], maize and soybean in southern Africa [156]).Through these activities, it also became apparent that not all legumes grow equally well across all plots within a farm and that farmer interest in certain legumes was driven by issues far beyond soil fertility improvement in itself. Niches can be identified at the farm and landscape scale where specific production options can be optimized, applied and evaluated [1,13,43,112,142,143,150,151,154,155,156,183]. In Latin America, fertilizer availability is greater and emphasis on biomass production is lower, except when used to improve soil fertility in planted fallow systems. Short-term planted fallows on volcanic ash soils in the Andean hillsides restored soil fertility by enhancing nutrient recycling through the provision of SOM. Field and greenhouse studies indicated that a significant diversity exists in decomposition and nutrient release patterns of several organic materials and highlighted the value of screening new farming system components to achieve efficient nutrient cycling [19,20]. In Vitro Dry Matter Digestibility (IVDMD) was identified as a quality parameter of plant materials that significantly correlated to nutrient release rates [19,76,77] and can be easily and cheaply used to assess forage quality in animal nutrition studies to predict decomposition and N release. Studies on the impact of improved fallows on soil fertility also indicated that Tithonia diversifolia slash/mulch system has the greatest potential to improve SOM, nutrient availability, and P cycling because of its ability to accumulate high amounts of biomass and nutrients [6] possibly due to strong symbiotic association with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi [8,56,68,220]. The Calliandra calothyrsus slash/mulch fallow system proved to be the most resilient as it produced similar amounts of biomass independent of initial level of soil fertility and was thus a candidate for wider testing as a potential source of nutrient additions to the soil and to generate fuelwood for resource-poor rural communities.Specific constraints to crop production can halt the utilisation of other nutrients that are not in short supply. Germplasm that is adapted to adverse biotic and abiotic stresses have been evaluated in various regions-e.g. new Lablab accessions [43], aluminium-resistant beans and Brachiaria grasses [40,60,117,209,220,316], drought tolerant crop and forage options [2,3,229,447,448], herbicide-resistant maize for striga control, dual purpose soybean varieties [64,125], tissue culture bananas inoculated with specific arbuscal-mycorrhizal fungi [104], and acid soil adapted crop and forage options to the tropical savannas of Latin America [168,317]. New drought tolerant beans, upland rice for hillsides and early maturing soybeans are currently under testing in novel rotational systems hillsides of Nicaragua [122]. Genetic variability was found among accessions of Brachiaria humidicola regarding the nitrification inhibition activity of root exudates [149].Situating improved germplasm within a full context of economic, socio-cultural, and policy conditions has developed within TSBF-CIAT to the point that research on how to link improved germplasm is now a full-fledged strategic pillar of its own (cf.2005-2010 Strategic Document and the discussion of \"Linking farmers to markets, nutrition, and health\" below). Whilst this is a new area, initial research has shown that linking germplasm demand to markets can greatly facilitate and guide research on technology choices and soil fertility constraints. Examples include the marketoriented evaluation, adaptation, integration of dual-purpose soybean in cropping systems in Kenya and Uganda [125,126], and the evaluation of cowpea, sugar bean and soybean varieties linked to market types and market demand in Zimbabwe [137,154]. Other activities have successfully developed and linked improved NRM with export markets though smallholder farmers producing for certified organic markets in Europe [286]. In Latin American hillsides, the approach has been to combine improved soil fertility management (high fertility trenches) with market oriented high value crops. Net income increased by several fold in prototypes developed in San Dionisio, Nicaragua [122].This theme is also a new research priority, but initial progress has focussed on understanding the implications of changing production priorities at the farm level on household food (energy and protein) security and their implication on nutrient balances and household income [4,154].Developing more profitable and resilient production systems in the coming years will require the application of the knowledge and understanding of nutrient management processes in the following areas:• Managing biomass:(i) Quantification of the multiple benefits of organic inputs for specific environments;(ii) Quantification of the long term impact of organic resource quality on the quantity and quality of the SOM pool; (iii) Use of drought tolerant germplasm for increasing dry season feed supply and coping with climate change; (iv) Further evaluation of organic resource production options with farming communities in relation to their current and future priorities and constraints.• Germplasm that is adapted to low fertility conditions:(i) Quantification of the overall contribution of improved germplasm to the sustainability and profitability of the systems and to rural livelihoods as a whole using simulation modelling tools and trade-off analysis (e.g. DSSAT, NUANCES, IMPACT, APSIM); (ii) Drought tolerance will be an increasingly important trait in new germplasm together with resistance to major biotic constraints.• Linking improved germplasm to markets:Evaluating and quantifying the soil-based implications of the market-led hypothesis (e.g. does inclusion of improved germplasm result in better soil management practices or does it merely enhance nutrient mining? Does the increased income from market sales lead to increased investment in agriculture and NRM? Is it feasible to produce high value crops without investing in IPM+INM?)• Linking improved germplasm to nutrition:(i) Evaluating relationships between soil fertility status, soil management practices, and the post-harvest and nutritional quality of the produce (especially for the much advocated bio-fortified germplasm (e.g. Zn and Fe-dense beans) promoted by the HarvestPlus challenge program);(ii) Investigating the linkages between improving access to high-quality (i.e. nutrient dense) diets and improved health status and labour availability at the household level.Soil microbiology is facing a number of challenges in the new century. There are societal demands for more information on sustainable resource management in forestry, rangelands, and intensive agriculture, and on maintaining biological diversity in those ecosystems. Below-ground biodiversity (BGBD) is dramatically reduced when forests are converted to agricultural land, and when agricultural land use is intensified. Reduced BGBD may decrease agricultural productivity and reduce the \"resilience\" of agricultural systems, which then become more vulnerable to adverse climatic events, erosion, pests, diseases, and other threats. Sustainable management of BGBD will enhance the resilience and sustainability of agroecosystems and, at the same time, help conserve soil genetic resources for bioprospecting. The recognition of global climate change as a research priority raises many questions about the role of SOM and macro and micro-organisms in C cycling and the production and consumption of radiative gases. While there has been great progress in molecular biology and in the procedural aspects of genetic engineering, the problem is much more one of \"what to do\" rather than \"how to do it\".The urgency to slow down BGBD losses and better assess the potential uses of soil biodiversity in ecosystem management and bio-prospecting underpin the \"Conservation and Sustainable Management of Below-Ground Biodiversity\" (CSM-BGBD) Project. During the first phase, an inventory of soil organisms (from micro-organisms through macro-fauna, including bacteria, fungi, protozoa, insects, worms, and other invertebrates), has been carried out in the seven participating countries (Brazil, Côte d'Ivoire, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Uganda) [164]. This inventory has identified and described many new species-e.g. 11 belowground biota groups were recorded in Lampung, Indonesia: 53 ant genera, 59 beetle families/subfamilies, 37 termite species, 10 earthworm species, 44 collembolla species, 113 nematodes genera, 26 arbuscular mycorrhizae fungi/ AMF morphospecies, 9 plant pathogenic fungi genera, 4 lignin degrading fungi genera, 7 cellulose degrading fungi genera and 228 legume nodulating bacteria isolates. In some cases, these organisms may ultimately be useful to society (e.g. as inoculums for improving yields). For example, the inoculation of soil with earthworms for improving the formation of soil aggregates has been tested with promising results [200].According to the importance of the soybean activities within TSBF-CIAT and the presence of a new staff soil microbiologist in TSBF-CIAT, some new activities have started on the utilization of rhizobial inoculums for improving plant growth. A soil Microbiology Laboratory has been set up in TSBF-CIAT (Kenya) where it is possible to isolate and cultivate rhizobial strains in both solid and liquid culture. Ongoing projects on both grain and tree legumes require the capacity to characterize the indigenous rhizobia present in the nodules harvested in the field. In the absence of indigenous strains capable of nodulating the host plant, we need to inoculate with selected rhizobia. Interesting results were obtained in the field with tree legumes [24,36,66]. With banana production, initial work has shown that it is possible to significantly increase the growth of banana plants produced in vitro (tissue culture) by inoculation with well-identified arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) isolates.The combination of soil fertility and pest and disease management approaches provides a unique opportunity to exploit synergies allowing better control of these limitations to crop productivity [376].Organic matter management can benefit soil biota (e.g. through erosion protection, nutrient cycling, control of pathogens) but can have complex impacts on the balance between the populations of harmful and beneficial organisms. Work studying pathogens, microregulators and microsymbionts during cultivation of common bean in soils infested with pathogenic fungi has shown that despite the relatively limited time of green manure treatments, application of 6 t/ha of Calliandra houstoniana biomass to root-rot infested soil significantly reduced incidence (about 15%) and simultaneously increased yield (about 10%) in rootrot susceptible bean variety (A70) compared to control plots [519].However, while application of Tithonia diversifolia reduced the root-rot incidence by close to 30%, it also reduced yield significantly.Further studies are in progress to understand the interactions among soil fertility, soil biota (pathogenic and beneficial), and crop yield.Soil structure influences multiple dimensions of soil fertility such as erosion, infiltration, drainage, water holding capacity and aeration, as well as nutrient and carbon cycling and biological activity. Earthworms, ants and termites constitute the soil macrofauna with greatest effects on soil structure while AMF, soil bacteria and plant roots have received increased attention in recent years as key determinants in soil aggregate formation and stabilization in the 'aggregate dynamic model'. This model directly links aggregate formation and breakdown in soils to the turnover of particulate organic matter (POM) as mediated by microbial and macrofauna activity proposes that in tropical soils several biological processes lead to the formation of \"biological macroaggregates\" through the activity of fungi and bacteria, plant roots and macrofauna (e.g. earthworms). Earthworms have pronounced effects on soil structure as a consequence of their burrowing activities as well as their ingestion of soil and production of biogenic structures or casts. Several studies have shown a strong relationship between AMF hyphal length and water stable aggregation in different soil types. Our studies in Colombia [144] have developed a bioassay in which we confirmed this relationship in volcanic-ash soils for a mixed inoculum.On going studies have focused on the functional diversity of three AMF genera (Entrophospora, Gigaspora, Glomus) in the production of external hyphae and soil aggregation [392].A key question when trying to link soil organisms with their soil structure modification function is the need to define the origin of different types of aggregates found in soils and their temporal and spatial dynamics. Recent studies have developed a visual method to separate soil aggregates that is sensitive to land use change [152]. Additionally, the use of near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) on visually separated soil aggregates in this study has also shown the capacity to link such biogenic structures to the organisms that produced them. This is a major step forward that will allow exploring the relative importance of soil organisms in soil structure modification as well as the study of their temporal and spatial dynamics as affected by land use change along intensification gradients.The \"Quesungual\" slash and mulch agroforestry system of southern Honduras presents an opportunity for studying the effects of trees on soil macrofauna dynamics in time and space [436]. While at a broad scale soil macrofauna communities are highly variable, preliminary results found positive associations between tree distribution (and tree management, such as pruning), the distribution of leaf litter, and the distribution of ant and earthworm activity. This has important implications for farm management, as it shows that farmers do not have to increase the density of large trees (which compete with crops for sunlight, water and nutrients) in order to increase litter cover and soil fauna activity.In the seven CSM-BGBD project countries, the response of BGBD to different land use intensities varied from forest land to agricultural land. For example, the richness and abundance of ants, beetles and termites decreased with increasing land use intensification in Indonesia. Meanwhile, the abundance and biomass of earthworms were not affected by land use change, although intensification tended to reduce the individual earthworm size. \"Exotic\" earthworm species thrived in agricultural land, whereas \"native\" species were encountered only in forest. The ecological importance of exotic vs. native earthworms was unclear and will be studied in the second phase of the BGBD project. Nematode abundance was not affected by land use change although its richness decreased. Intensification reduced the AMF spore numbers but did not affect the richness of other fungi [164].Building the capacity of partners in soil microbiology, linking soil biology and broader ISFM research (including integration with social science research), and improving communication and collaboration between partners in multi-site research.• Linking the management of SOM and soil functions (ecosystem services) to either direct or indirect manipulation or control of soil organisms (e.g. CSM-BGBD, WOTRO, and MICROBES projects).• Investigating the effects of climate change on land use and the soil's genetic resources (e.g. the effect of extreme oscillations in rainfall and temperature on nutrient cycling and biologically moderated carbon sequestration).• Initiating new research on the biology of dryland soils, including microsymbionts in dryland agroforestry systems (Gum Arabic) and the effects of climate change on dryland production systems.• Improve understanding and opportunities for biological farming within the framework of ISFM.From its beginnings, TSBF-CIAT has been known for leading edge biophysical research in soil fertility management. Its contributions to understanding the sociocultural and gender dynamics of soil fertility have been more modest, but TSBF has been committed from its inception to including social sciences in its research agenda [446]. Pioneering work where social scientists took the lead in research addressed the dynamics of agrarian and land-use change [21], the gendered nature of ISFM decision-making [176], the role of social institutions mediating farmers' access to resources [520,521,523] and the interaction of local and scientific knowledge on soil fertility management [227,228].The growth of TSBF-CIAT and its expanding research agenda confronts the broader problem of a lack of social science research capacity (in our partner NARES as well as within CIAT) able to contend with NRM issues. Efforts to build rigorous social research capacity within AfNet, MIS, and within the partnerships of research projects are on-going but require sufficient resources and the support of multidisciplinary \"champions\" from outside the social sciences.Work addressing the existing knowledge base of local communities has been led by both social and biophysical scientists, in Latin America and Africa [7,43,93,112,153,159]. These activities have served both to investigate and value local knowledge and to provide forums for studying the dynamics of the interaction between scientists and farmers. For example, understanding local soil management units has provided a logic for developing land-use plans [46] and for sampling soil biota [148,436,528]. On studying the dynamics of the interaction between local knowledge(s) and that of outsiders, the Strengthening \"Folk Ecology\" project in Western Kenya has tested and studied a community-based methodology with local partners and community groups [112]. Particular attention has been paid to how knowledge is generated, shared, and withheld within social networks [216]. This approach uses on-going dialogue between scientists and farmers to build a \"dynamic expertise\" on soil fertility management that shares the strengths of disparate knowledge bases. Key outputs include: documenting ecological knowledge (including local indicators of soil quality and of ecosystem change); and empowering communities to continue conducting and evaluating ISFM experiments without the presence of a project.This body of research was started by Simon Carter and Eve Crowley, through their work on land use change and the role of off-farm income and social institutions in farming livelihoods and the sustainability of the soils in Western Kenya. The research explored the dynamics of special micro-niches on the farm high in soil fertility. The gender dynamics of land and livelihoods were researched further, with focus on the changing nature of the gender division of labour, land tenure and social relations [176]. This work further nuanced understandings of labour availability, the increasing demands to generate cash incomes and farmers' priorities and constraints. It also demonstrated how land tenure played a key role in determining how resources (especially soil fertility inputs) are invested in the special micro-niches high in soil fertility.Another area of innovation has been in the area of methodologies. This has been carried out through the use of ethnographic work, the collection of personal narratives, participatory photography, on-farm experimentation, household typologies, social-network and diffusion mapping [28,72,133,406,424]. Many of the experiences of the Strengthening \"Folk Ecology\" project have been compiled as a Manual of Interactive Techniques [529], intended to serve not as a template for others to follow but to provide situated examples of how certain efforts at engaging researchers or farmers in experimentation succeeded or failed. Most recently, social scientific programming is including a special fund (the \"Sikana fund\", in memory of the late Patrick Sikana who first proposed the idea), equal to 5%-10% of total project funds that will give farmers the opportunity to decide for themselves how to invest the funds. How farmers choose to apply the funds will itself be part of the research process, and shed further light on their constraints and priorities, as well as the social dynamics (including the negotiated and contested nature of decision making).Interdisciplinary collaboration ensures that social scientific research priorities and hypotheses inform and influence the broader bodies of biophysical research (and vice versa). Such co-learning can be immensely rewarding when it succeeds but must such efforts should not \"drown out\" social scientific research in it own right, which be carried out in conjunction and at the same time as this service provision role [214]. Examples of the positive influence of social scientific ideas within interdisciplinary projects include: (i) the analysis of the role of both social differentiation and local knowledge bases in the generation and maintenance of soil fertility gradients [72,74,133]; (ii) social scientific research in aspects of BGBD in all seven countries; (iii) plot to landscape level research (different scales, farm characterization and household characterization to target technologies) in Ethiopian highlands focusing on strengthening bylaws and collective action schemes for soil and water management [159]; (iv) research on the formation, restructuring, and scaling up processes of farmer field schools in Uganda and Kenya [43,196].• Social science in the lead role:(i) Gender and land tenure (expanding on past research, as well as contributing to work spear-headed by IDRC);(ii) Rural-urban linkages, resource flows and dynamics of vulnerability; (iii) Special micro-niches (soil fertility gradients);(iv) Relationship between indigenous and scientific knowledge; (iii) Approaches and knowledge required for scaling out of technologies (e.g. how up-scalable are ISFM technologies and the farmer-scientist interactions).• Documenting and show-casing the institutional memory of the Institute in terms of social science (a \"social sciences symposium\", interactions with the Anthro-No-Apology network-e.g. edited volume \"Beyond the Biophysical\" [166]).• Developing other partnerships (e.g. with ERI, Latin America, AHI, AfNet) through NGOs, extensions, farmers groups, local-level partnerships.In the past, increasing agricultural production occupied the central position in all agricultural development efforts. This emphasis held land as the most important factor of production and explains why agricultural productivity (yield) was commonly expressed in terms of output per unit area. Little attention was given to the productivity of the other traditional factors of production such as labour and capital.In the last few years this focus has changed in TSBF-CIAT, as the research for development paradigm has evolved and as it has been increasingly recognized that increased production alone cannot solve the multiple problems of smallholderfarmers. There is now strong research focus on improving their general livelihood dimensions (income, improved well-being, reduced vulnerability, improved food security, more sustainable use of natural resources, more access to external inputs, etc.). Linking farmers to markets, nutrition and health is an important entry point for improving livelihoods and address the fact that intensification of agricultural production cannot be sustained without linking farmers to input and output markets. Production has also been constrained through (i) unorganized marketing structures, whose conduct and performance has badly affected farmers' access to farm inputs and profitable agricultural production (ii) low value-addition (processing, grading, bulking, inspection, certification, standardization, branding, etc.) along the market chain has also reduced the profit potentials of farmers' agricultural production. Poor nutrition and health have also been linked with both inadequate farm labour availability and low factor (including labour) productivity, especially with the advent of HIV/AIDS pandemic. All these explain the need to link farmers to input and output markets, nutrition and health. Improvements in technology, with no change in the product that is to be consumed locally or traded, will not be sufficient to radically alter this situation. High value crops offer a solution to this problem.Whilst the majority of TSBF-CIAT's research outcomes have concentrated on production constraints, this strategic pillar of our research focus has only gained momentum in the last 2 years. Previous work in this area has been through support to broader CIAT-Africa research activities through their ERI program under the Rural Innovation Institute and has focused on the market-led hypothesis that tests whether increased incomes leads to increased investments in NRM [64,283,285].Soybean: Results (unpublished) of the inventory data aimed at understanding why many past efforts to promote soybean (a well-known versatile crop) in the farming systems of Kenya led to limited success and impact on soybean development implicated: (i) low productivity, (ii) lack of know-how on soybean processing and utilization, and (iii) lack of markets. Following this understanding, we have developed an action plan and strategy to address problems of low productivity through farmer-led screening and participatory evaluation of improved promiscuous dual-purpose varieties obtained from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Nigeria. Farmer evaluation of eight dual-purpose soybean varieties tested in five locations in western Kenya identified varieties best suited to each environment and community. Only one variety (SB19) was ranked amongst the top four selected in each of the five locations. Some of the remaining varieties were only selected in specific locations.With respect to lack of knowhow on soybean processing and utilization and lack of market for soybean, we developed a \"three-tier approach\", for comprehensive soybean processing and market development in Kenya. The first tier is on household-level soybean market development centred on training on various processing methods for household food consumption. The second tier is a community-level soybean market development centred on soymilk production. A two-price scenario (pessimistic and optimistic price scenarios) analysis of soymilk production shows that this value addition leads to 4 to 14 times (US$1946-7069) more net returns than if the soybean is sold as grains without any further processing. The third tier improves on earlier work [433] on value addition, emphasizing the training of stakeholders on processing soybean into products with good market potential.Although gum Arabic has a strong market potential, there are significant differences in the level of organization of its market (cf. Fagg and Allison, 2004). The contribution of TSBF-CIAT is the link to the effect of some microbiological interventions such as rhizobia inoculation and mycorrhiza symbioses on the survival and yield of the acacia trees producing gum Arabic.Results from 2-year on-farm trials in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger showed that average grain yields of millet and sorghum were greater by 44%-120%, while farmers' incomes increased 52%-134% when using hill application of fertilizer than with the earlier recommended fertilizer broadcasting methods and farmers' practice. Farmers using the \"Warrantage\" inventory credit system realized substantial net profits: revenue obtained from the micro-dose treatment was greater than that from the recommended practice (3x greater for millet, 2.5x greater for sorghum) [233].The strategy in Latin America has been to work closely with other CIAT projects such as the Agro-enterprise project to identify most suitable crop-oriented options Selected crops (tomato and green pepper) were planted in Yorito, Honduras, and San Dionisio, Nicaragua, in high fertility trenches with combined organic and inorganic inputs [122]. Recent results showed a significant increase in gross income compared to traditional maize-bean rotations.An area of increasing interest for market linkages is through organic and Fair-Trade certification of production to take advantage of premium prices paid by exporters. Whilst it is recognized that this is a niche market that can not be entered into by all farmers, its potential as a growth market is huge and in turn this will impact on many more farmers: in Uganda expansion is around 20% a year, with 46,000 farmers currently certified. Examples from pilot sites in Uganda and Mozambique have shown how this approach has enabled farmers to access new market information (e.g. prices, quantities, quality) and new research products (e.g. disease resistant germplasm, variety evaluation for export, investing in natural resources and soil fertility) on critical aspects of production and how they have used this new information to develop competitive and profitable export organic agroenterprises. Building farmers' capacities to learn about biological and ecological complexity using participatory approaches and involving farmers in experimentation is a critical success strategy for empowering farmers to be able to learn and to innovate [286,291].• Understanding and scaling up knowledge and methods to other crops and systems (e.g. the \"three-tier\" approach with soybean, the micro-dosing and \"warrantage\" revolving credit system).• Quantifying the following relationships:(i) between good market access and soil fertility improvement;(ii) between HIV/AIDS and nutrition and HIV/AIDS and the consumption of soybean products;(iii) between soil fertility status and nutrition and between soil fertility status and postharvest quality of produce;(iv) between fertilizer use/soil fertility and food quality; (v) between bio-fortification and food quality.• Ensuring the sustainability of the institutional linkages for promoting crops.• Linking TSBF-CIAT activities with other regional and global initiatives.• Linking productivity resulting from the manipulation of the biodiversity under the BGBD and Microbes projects with markets.• Develop strategic alliances with the private sector to warrant economically beneficial prices and provide inputs for small farmers.• Address trade agreements (CAFTA for Central America and TLC for Colombia) and diversification of current cropping systems with the introduction of high value crops under user friendly IPM and ISFM strategies.5. Linking farmers to markets, nutrition and healthLand and resource degradation encompasses a complex of soil and water loss, nutrient depletion, depleted forest resources, scarce and inefficient water use, declining livestock contributions to the systems and infrastructure limiting access to markets. Up to very recently R4D actors did not also realize the need for developing various technological options for various landscape scenarios and the non-linear scaling relationships of different processes from plot to watersheds and from farmer to communities and vice versa. Plot and farm level interventions are typically less influenced by externalities (e.g. the need for collective decision and management of resources) than cross-boundary issues. Furthermore, the economic conditions and policy environment have not provided the necessary incentives for communities to make long term investments in better management of their resources to arrest this degradation scenario at plot, farm and landscape scales.Farm and landscape characterization tools and models for targeting technologies in various farm niches have been tested and validated in both Africa and Latin America. Work with farmer research committees (FRC) in the highlands of East Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda) has used scenario analyses to identify and characterize NRM constraints, landscape positions and production options, which can then be used to target suitable technologies and solutions [4,28,29,118,120]. Such interventions began rather conservatively with a focus on crop varieties but with ongoing support from modelling and scenario analysis FRCs have broadened to more complex issues, such as soil and water conservation with elephant grass contour strips, and farmer experiments with herbaceous and agroforestry legumes for fodder in improved dairy production, soil fertility and mixing early-and latematuring maize varieties opened a niche for a legume relay [118]. Modelling in Ethiopia has also shown how the current risk of food insecurity and erosion could be reversed (while still satisfying household food and cash requirements) by reallocating land from low biomass producing cereal-dominated cropping to high biomass producing perennial food and cash crops [4,119]. A decision guide which combined biophysical and socio-economic determinants was developed and validated to facilitate the identification of social and biophysical niches for the integration and landscape level adoption of legumes [182].In the Colombian Andes, farm and landscape characterization was involved in the identification and classification of local knowledge about soils and their management [46]. The characterization of land-use distribution facilitated uncertainty analysis and risk management by local farmers (e.g. Potrerillo microwatershed of Cauca) [411,477]). In the Amazon region, characterization and modelling tools have quantified the impacts of land-use change on soil C to enhance plant productivity and C sequestration in soils in areas where slash and burn is still 6. NRM strategies to move from plot to landscape scales a common management practice [30]. Preliminary results from the Quesungual Slash and Mulch Agroforestry System (QSMAS) in Honduras indicated that soil losses under QSMAS of different ages (2, 5 and >10 years) were less than 2 Mg/ha in 14 weeks in comparison to the 30 Mg/ha soil losses observed in the traditional slash and burn control treatments [264]. Finally, application of these tools to the Llanos of Colombia and Venezuela has shown that intensification of agriculture, livestock and forestry in the region in the next 2 decades could result in a net increase of 160 Tg of C in the soil stocks, demonstrating the high potential of the region for providing environmental services [221].In hilly landscapes soils and nutrients are washed away by run-off following heavy rains, particularly before crop establishment, and a strategy was tested to trap nutrients that could be otherwise lost. In farms where there is a tree cover and/or where the homestead is surrounded by perennial food and fiber crops at the head of the slope, nutrient loss in the outfields was successfully reduced by fast growing fallow crops (e.g. Vetch) while in farms where there was no vegetation at the head of the slope, nutrient could be trapped by fast growing multipurpose legumes and other herbaceous shrubs planted as a hedge at the lowest end and the middle of the slope following conservation ditches. Cut-and-carrying of this biomass can then effectively recycle nutrients to the original plots [8,19,181].Work with partners and community-based organizations has highlighted the complexity of ways in which local and external factors can facilitate or impede collective action for ISFM [170,213,214,323]. There are no general principles that obtain everywhere under all conditions, but generally working with existing institutions and networks is preferable to creating new structures. ISFM knowledge in many communities is treated as a privileged resource not to be shared indiscriminately, which means that scientists seeking to promote new technologies need to provide settings that validate both the new knowledge itself and existing knowledge [7], as well reinforcing the positive value of knowledge dissemination within multiple social networks [424]. Some farm-level activities provoked interfarmer boundary conflicts (e.g. construction of soil bunds), which demand a process of collective management and negotiation to build the confidence needed to address higher-scale community issues. In Ethiopia, this scheme was used not only to organize labour and encourage the communities to put bunds, trees, waterways, etc. across the landscape, but also to develop and strengthen bylaws to help manage collective benefits [159].Work in the seven countries of the CSM-BGBD project (Brazil, Côte d'Ivoire, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Uganda) has used comparative sampling with landscape level systematic grids to begin establishing and testing the relationships between land management intensity and BGBD [164]. The rich database (biophysical, biological and socio-economic) has data collected that transcends scales and can be ordered according to plot and landscape attributes that target differentiated beneficiaries some at plot level and others at landscape level. These experiences show the dependence of farmers on common land (e.g. BGBD project experience in India and Mexico where portions of community of land is set aside for shared interests such as for water catchments and other ecological and social needs). From this experience, lessons will be learnt on how to address land-uses that require communal participation and conservation at the landscape level.The project \"Payment for Ecosystem Services\" (financed by the Water and Food Challenge Program-WFCP) is applying a methodology for integrated watershed analysis in pilot watersheds of Colombia and Peru [113]. Scenario analyses of economic payments for ecosystem services determined the cost of each ton of reduced sediment. In the Miskiyacu micro-watershed, for example, it was calculated that only 2 months of payments were required to cover the cost of promoting coffee under shade in the prioritized area [443]. A multi-criteria optimization model permits ex ante analysis of multiple land-use options, calculating the socioeconomic and environmental costs of changes in land use and technology under different spatial and temporal scenarios. This approach is being applied with stakeholders in analysing the five pilot Andean watersheds (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia), to support the identification of land use alternatives and management practices that internalize externalities [173].One of the key elements in devising payments or compensation schemes for environmental services is through knowledge about the environmental service itself and the changes or modifications this is facing [443]. This is the case for the water quality of Fuquene Lake in Cundinamarca, Colombia, which is eutrophying with nutrients from urban and agricultural activities. Research with multiple partners is clarifying the origin and quantities of pollutants, using standard monitoring and modelling techniques as well as the use of stable isotopes [113,173,440,442,443].To accelerate interpretation of soil quality, NIRS analysis methods have been validated for different agro-ecosystems in both Colombia and Kenya [69,72,83,152]. The calibration of different NIRS signatures with soil chemical and biological properties show the high potential of NIRS for evaluating soil quality in large areas, rapidly, reliably and economically, thereby facilitating decision-making with respect to soil management and conservation.• Addressing soil fertility and carbon-sequestration and GHG emissions at higher scales (e.g. new project to rehabilitate degraded lands through silvopastoral systems and reforestation with native timber species in the Caribbean savannas of Colombia under the Biocarbon Fund).• Erosion and water management at higher level (addressing conflicts because of erosion and deposition, Upstream down stream conflicts).• Under what conditions will the landscape level interventions work and under which conditions will it not work (e.g. fragmented land ownership across watersheds makes it difficult to consolidate landscape level activities and interventions).• Convincing farmers to invest in collective action at landscape level using crossboundary technologies and interventions.• Building the case for farmers and communities to participate in BGBD conservation at landscape, regional and global levels (based on BGBD processes and expected benefits).• Trade-offs between economic considerations and environmental concerns (i.e. degradation/regeneration) for selected interventions (e.g. growing Eucalyptus spp.) on the landscape vs. the economic benefits presented by presence of the trees.Most African countries allocate less than 2% of GDP for agricultural research and the annual growth in agricultural research spending since 1990 has continued to decline.This situation is similar in Latin America, except in Brazil. Most NARES in both SSA and Latin America have therefore suffered a dramatic reduction in human and financial resources. Tertiary education has also not been spared the erosion caused by decades of underinvestment, loss of staff incentives and failure to recruit replacements for an ageing cadre of professors. Education programmes in agriculture, forestry and environment delivered to most scientists use dated, narrowly defined, and specialized perspectives that do not produce scientists with the scope and analytical skills and techniques needed to solve real development issues.TSBF-CIAT established its AfNet in 1988 to exploit the advantages of networking as a means of building the capacity of African institutions to conduct interdisciplinary ISFM research at regional and international levels. The Consortium for the Integrated Management of Fragile Soils (MIS) in Central America was likewise formed in 1998 with the participation of 19 institutions that embraces the full spectrum of research, education and development. These two networks are adopting participatory and gender perspectives in research, technology testing and adaptation in addition to conducting process research. Partnerships, collaboration and multidisciplinary approaches are enabling a holistic and comprehensive problem and opportunity analysis, taking into account different stakeholder perspectives and socio-economic limitations to solutions. Both networks are increasingly adopting a market-oriented approach in order to diversify production systems and support ISFM through increased farmer income.A range of network trials are being implemented in over 100 sites across SSA. Implementation of the trials is undertaken by scientists and partners from NARES. Such network trials cover all aspects of the ISFM research agenda and contribute significantly to the strategic understanding of how specific management options perform, as influenced by agro-ecological conditions. Research activities include management of mineral and organic inputs, the integration of legumes in cropping systems, biological nitrogen fixation, BGBD, conservation agriculture and soil and water conservation. The research highlights from these trials have been presented in previous sections of this report.In the case of MIS, partners developed a common logical framework that put emphasis on three aspects: (1) collection and synthesis and of available information • In Africa a total of 101 MSc and PhD students have been trained during the period.• In Latin America, a total of 64 BSc, MSc and PhD students have been trained.• An innovative initiative between AfNet and the International Foundation for Science (IFS) has helped young MSc and PhD graduates throughout SSA to develop project proposals for IFS funding on TSBF-CIAT's major research and development themes. At present about 20 researchers have received the grants and this effort will be further strengthened. The Below-Ground Biodiversity Program (BGBD) has also organized a range of international training workshops on: \"Ecology and taxonomy of termites and ants\", \"Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) and Ectomycorrhiza (ecology, taxonomy and methods of inventory)\", \"Ecology and taxonomy of earthworms\", \"Nematodes\", and a training course on \"Molecular techniques for BGBD\".Training courses organized by MIS include: soil quality indicators, water quality, SWAT modelling, nutrient management (NuMaSS), desertification processes, and field monitoring systems on land degradation. Eight soil-plant-water laboratories from Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua made initial steps to develop a sub-network to foster quality control and information comparison/exchange on analytical procedures for nutrient management recommendations. Twelve field days were organized in Cauca and three training courses were organized in the Colombian Llanos.Numerous projects have addressed the challenges of building farmers' capacity for improved soil fertility management. For example, the exchange of ISFM knowledge within farmer field school and farmer research groups in East Africa has been facilitated and studied in diverse settings, including with farmers' own 7. Strengthening scientific and institutional capacity of partners... evaluation of the learning process [29,43,112,119,406]. The \"Payment for Environmental Services\" project of the WFCP has used training courses held in the conservation agriculture pilot site in Fuquene and subsequent courses at the extrapolation sites to build skills and capacity in farmer groups and partner organizations (development agencies, NGOs). Finally, in developing the guide for integrating local and technical indicators of soil quality, Latin American and East African universities, NGOs, and local communities participated in the process, exchanging information and updating the knowledge base [93].• Restructuring AfNet under the umbrella of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), managed by TSBF-CIAT, to accommodate the growing membership. Multidisciplinary, regional research teams will coordinate and facilitate research in three regions (East Africa, West and Central Africa and Southern Africa). Interdisciplinary country-level proposals will be developed to further strengthen the country and regional teams.• MIS is concentrating on developing proposals where the role of the Consortium as the key component for capacity building could be sold (e.g. Quesungual Agroforestry System and NuMaSS projects). Partners are now leading the consortium (e.g. the Executive committee is now driven by experienced researchers from Honduras and Nicaragua).• Institutionalizing capacity in universities and other training institutions. AfNet members in selected universities will develop and implement curricula on soil biology and fertility.• Implementing the \"T-shaped skills\" approach to capacity building (specialization within a context of broad multidisciplinary ability), using multi-disciplinary and participatory research approaches, increased integration of training with field experiments/practice (\"Learning by doing\"), with follow-up activities after training to assess impact.• The networks will play a major role in the advocacy of the problem of soil fertility depletion and the role policy makers need to play to redress the situation. 2. Further strengthen research in TSBF on practical strategies and decision support tools for integrated water and nutrient management, including organic and mineral nutrient sources. Add such components to the existing organic resources DSS/database and include social science aspects in the decision-making process and tools to better understand actionable management strategies, their knowledge requirements, and economics.Agreed. At the moment, TSBF is undertaking research to address the water and nutrient issues within the newly funded project from SDC-Switzerland under the Water and Food Challenge Program (WFCP). Efforts for the next 3 years will be intensified to build the capacity of TSBF and its partners in the application of decision support tools. Linkages with the BP2 Decision Support Project of CIAT could be an important resource. Efforts are being made to build the capacity of TSBF-CIAT and its collaborators in the application of decision support tools including the role of water in the interaction between the organic and inorganic inputs on crop productivity especially in semi-arid areas in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).3. Improve linkages with the private sector to improve access to fertilizer and develop recommendations for its use that are of mutual benefit to all stakeholders involved. TSBF should become the lead institution for providing scientific information to the industry on realistic markets. These will incorporate: data on soils and cropping systems, optimal fertilizer formulations for balanced crop nutrition, fertilizer packaging and information content provided to farmers, practical ISFM concepts, the decision support tools needed for their implementation, and socio-economic research on needs for fertilizer marketing infrastructure, integration with local knowledge to enhance adoption, economic benefits for farmers, and societal costs as a whole. Seek collaboration with BP-2 on developing a joint digital soil mapping project for the SSA region, which could include non-destructive soil measurement methods such as VNIR-DRS.Agreed. TSBF-CIAT soil research is based on the ISFM model and the in-built concepts and integrates local communities and their 'real worlds'. In this regard, TSBF will continue to simplify soil classification in terminologies and farming aspects that farmers easily identify with. TSBF-CIAT is already assembling soil characteristics spatial datasets, spatial climatic datasets, spatial altitude datasets in East Africa with emphasis to Kenya with a view to combining the datasets to aid in decision support for areas most suitable for soybean cultivation in Kenya. These datasets are available and will be shared with BP-2 and other CIAT projects to aid in decision making for other crops and germplasm and for formulating research agenda. TSBF-CIAT in collaboration with ICRAF is already having projects that are going to use VNIR-DRS spectroscopy in soil characteristics mapping and developing markers for other soil attributes that are not yet characterized to aid TSBF-CIAT in technology up-scaling and out-scaling. Agreed. Yes indeed there are already lessons learnt from the soil fertility gradient research in TSBF-CIAT with results that have generic attributes that can aid in formulating cropping generic decision rules that can be applied to new areas with minimal validation as inputs to the ISFM approach. Further on this, work by TSBF-CIAT at the farm and the landscape levels have already been initiated in new project proposals one to SSA Challenge Program for the lake Kivu pilot learning site including Rwanda, Uganda and East DRC. Plans to scale up results of this pilot learning site to the other two sites (i.e. in West Africa and Southern Africa) are being discussed with FARA. The other project is with WFCP in which collective action on watersheds and larger landscapes are emphasized. Collaboration with PE-3, BP-2 and ERI will strengthen the understanding of landscape level interactions that will aid in the development of most appropriate impact pathways for land use decisions as well as for quantifying the impact magnitudes. emphasis on improving crop adaptation to soil acidity and other abiotic stresses.Agreed. CIAT intends to maintain a small Latin American soils research capacity supported mostly with regional funding sources while attempting to reinvigorate this line of research with a view to tapping funds to expand this work in the future.  14. CIAT needs to ensure that the administrative support systems allow TSBF to operate as an institute. Likewise, we recommend the inclusion of the CIAT Regional Coordinator for Africa as an ex oficio participant in the annual scientist evaluation and project development process so that he/she is fully informed and can contribute to team development, as well as linkages with other CIAT programs and potential donors. The Regional Coordinator should not have a staff evaluation authority for TSBF scientists.Partly agreed. There has been for some time an established exchange of visit from the administrative staff of CIAT-HQ to improve the financial management of TSBF-CIAT in Nairobi and the TSBF-CIAT administration staff periodically visit CIAT-HQ to familiarize with administrative and financial issues. There is an ongoing daily exchange of financial information through electronic means. Nonetheless, considerable effort remains to be made to further improve these systems. As for information exchange with the Regional Coordinator for Africa, besides ongoing information between the RCA and the Director of TSBF, there is also an annual joint meeting between CIAT Africa and TSBF-CIAT to coordinate implementation of joint projects. There are ongoing joint projects and new projects are being developed to integrate both CIAT and TSBF-CIAT research portfolios. Reporting relations are reviewed annually and will be modified as needed. 15. Decision Support Tools are an important component of crop, soil fertility and nutrient management research and extension. TSBF should ensure that some of its strategic research includes high-quality field studies and data collection that would allow to validate and further improve processbased DST such as crop simulation or more complete agroe-cosystem simulation models. Understanding of prediction uncertainties must be a key component of such research. • FTE = full time equivalent (person-years).• Senior staff time FTE = SS + SRF + VS time allocations to the each project.• Grant funding per senior staff FTE = includes restricted core, special projects and Challenge Programs.• Refereed journal publications per FTE senior staff = all journal articles published from the project (numbers provided by projects).• Senior staff journal publications track record = based on all refereed journal papers published by each SS, SRF or VS during 2002-2005/6(derived from CVs provided; only includes SS, SRF and VS with more than 2 years work in the project, also counting papers they have published from other work outside the projects reviewed here).* PE-1 = numbers are not fully correct because outputs from five SS with voluntary participation in PE-1 are included, whereas those SS have no official resources (inputs) allocated. A pro-forma FTE of 0.3/yr was included for this in the analysis, but this does not reflect the true contributions and still results in inflated estimates of students/FTE/yr and publications/FTE/yr. Senior staff journal publication track record is a better measure of scientific quality and directly comparable with the other projects. ","tokenCount":"10650"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"695059b0655b7f998880efcaf10e1cf4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c08d74ae-fd5c-4236-b5a3-224ae0e50f97/retrieve","id":"1059150777"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d8d5bf2a-2361-4c93-8345-7dcac89741f8","pagecount":"7","content":"The cMonic food-deficit situation in the province resulta in a cycle of poverty leading to hunger, and hunger leading to even greater poverty, which is very difficult to reverse. Because of its remoteness, very few assístance agencies are abre to work in the province.In response lO the food deficit in the region, FOCUS is implementing a relief programo The program has included the distribution of 10,000 tons of food aid to 250,000 people over the last years. Food rations were provided for every household in about half of the province. In sorne dístricta, food was provided in a food-for-work programo FOCUS ís able to carry out ¡ls activíties in Badakshan for several reasons: FOCUS is affiliated with the Aga Khan Development Network, wruch has been active in Tajikistan and Pakistan on the northem and southem borders of Badakshan. During the last three years, good working relationships bave been established with localleaders and wíth international organizations. A participatory model for rehabilitation comprising situation assessment, health, food assistance, village organization, agriculture, physical infrastructure, education, and economic initiatives is being considered.Only 2% of eastern Badakshan is suitable for agriculture, and its soil quality is ofien poor and deficient in nutrients. A large portion of the agriculture is based on irrígation from rivers and torrents. Extensive systems of irrígation ehanne1s have been developed by the communities over centuries, bringing water long distances along tbe mountainsides. Tbere is also a considerable amount of farrning tbat depends on moisture from rainfall and melting snow, which ís less productive.Tbe general constraínts on crop and livestock production in tbe area include the followíng:• lack of access to good, pure seed for cereal crops• lack andlor cost of inputs such as fertilizers and plant-protection materials• diseases, pests, and weeds• lack of írrígation water and the state of tbe water system• remoteness of markets and lack of transport facilities• lack of agricultural and livestock services• taxes (generally as a part of their crop yield)• displacement of technical staff and farrners and destruction of institutionsIn all formal and informal agricultural surveys, the farrners' priorities have always been fertilizers and good seed of improved varieties. Most farrners are aware of tbe possibilities of increasing their production through these inputs, especially fertilizers. The soH is generally very shallow and lacks sufficient nutrients to support intensive crop production. Witb shortages of fuel, especially firewood, most of tbe available animal dung is used for cooking and for heating in winter. Tbe population of trees remaining is barely sufficient for watershed purposes and needs to be replenished. Lack of sufficíent fodder for feeding livestock during the winter also limits tbe amount of animal dung available for the household. Small amounts of fertílizers are sometimes available in the markets but are usually of poor quality and very costly. Mos! farrners lack resources at planting time and have to pay hígh ínterest to borrow money for purchasing small amounts offertilízer against the expected harvest.Tbe attitude of farrners towards weeds ís ratber tolerant, as many are abo seen as serving a useful purpose. At a certain level, weeds in tbe wheat are considered to improve the quality oftbe straw as fodder. Tbe presence of sorne wild rye is saíd to improve the quality ofbread. Wild mustard is harvested separately by tbe women and processed for lamp and cooking oí!. Sorne families consume plants of edible specíes weeded in tbe fields, such as Chenopodium spp.Wheat is a staple food in all the cornmunities of eastern Badakshan and is grown on botb irrígated and rain-fed land. Altitude and snow cover tends to dictate whether wheat is sown as a spring or an autumn crop. Wakhan, Ishkashem, Zebak, and southern Sheghnan grow mostly spring wheat, whíle nortbern Sheghnan and Darwaz grow winter wheat.Overall, wheat yields per hectare vary from 0.5 to 2.0 tons under itrigation and from 0.3 to 0.7 tons in rain-fed areas. Tbe yields vary enormously with location, altitude, soil quality, the availabilíty of farrnyard manure (chemical fertilizer in tbe area is a rarity), susceptibílity to fungal diseases such as rust and smut, pests such as locusts, weeds, and the gene tic origin and purity of the seed planted.Little or no íntroduction of ímproved varieties had taken place in eastern Badakshan prior lO 1979. AfghanAid has recently estahlished demonstration plots of ímproved varietíes from the Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo (CIMMYT) as part of an integrated development program in Badakhshan, including the districts ofIshkashem and Zebak Almost all farmers grow a number landraces tbat are onocal origin and of very mixed appearance, ofien heavily infested wilh weeds, particularly wild wheat, wild oats and mU5tard. Sorkhak, an indigenous red-grained wheat, 15 generally planted in Ihe autumn, while safidak, an amber/light-grained wheat, is planted in the spring. A few farmers have par! oftheír fields under seed from other districts, inc1uding from Pakistan and Tajikistan. Sorne ofthis is of ímproved origín but by now very mixed wilh other varieties and weeds.In Darwaz, different types of wheat are cultivated wilh different lengths of straw, sorne wilh awns and sorne awnless. Winter-wheat types c1early owe their origin to Russian varieties and to the facultative varieties introduced elsewhere in the province under various United Nation and aid programs. Local cultivars are almost exclusive1y sown on rain-fed land. .Seed security (farmers' access to adequate, good-quality seed oftbe desired type at Ihe right time) is the first defense for food security (the access by all people at all times to enough food to maintaín an active and healthy life). This is especially true for war-torn Afghanistan in general and for neglected Badakhshan in particular. As recognized at the World Food Surnmit held in Rome (F AO  1996), poverty and impoverishment precondition people to a state of vulnerability-vulnerable to life-cycle hunger, vulnerable to seasonal hunger, and vulnerable to the impact of disaster. Thís also, describes the state of food security today in eastern Badakshan,The loss of access lo seeds and food are ofien interconnected. While seeds are crucial to agricultural recovery, human energy í5 equally important. Seed reHef is being viewed as an integral par! of the emergency package. There are several examples from other parts of tbe world that show that tbe action taken to restore seed security quickly afier disaster is an effective way to help restore food security in an area. During Ihe 1991192 drought in Soutbern Africa, an emergency seed-production project,jointly coordinated by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and tbe International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), was highly successful compared to tbe projects in which seed was imported. Their success was due to the distribution of better-quality adapted varieties. The Seeds ofHope initiative helped rebuild domestic food security through the rehabilítation of seed security following tbe civil war in Rwanda in 1994. Adapted varieties and landraces were assembled and multiplied in neighboring countries and reintroduced into Rwanda.The seed program aims to ensure avaílability of the right kínd of seed in tbe right place. Adapted varieties are obtaíned from similar agroclimatic conditions in Tajikistan and delivered across the Panj River lo severa! distribution points. Transportation within Afghanistan i5 mostly by volunteers, by donkeys made avaílable by the cornmunities for tbis purpose. This helps to keep the costs of introducing tbe varieties to a minimum. The amounts being distributed have been mínimized to enable the local seed-production and -distribution systems to continue functioning smoothly.Early in spring ofthis year, seeds ofhígh-yielding varieties ofwheat, maíze, otber cereals, potatoes, and vegetables appropriate to the agroecological conditions of the area were introduced through on-farm, fanner-managed observation sites in the target districts. Al! the villages in the Wakhan, Ishkashem, Zebak, Sheghnan, and Darwaz districts are participating. The farmers are selected through village committees, traditionally known as shuras. Attempts are being made to involve as many differen! farmers as possible by restricting the distribution of only one kind of crop commodity to each participating farmer.lnitially, for each kind of erop, varieties that are widely adapted and available in sufficien! quantity are being introduced. Ihis will be followed by varieties and landraces witb superior traits 5uch as higher yield, better adaptability, improved disease and pest resistance and stress tolerance, and more consumer acceptability. In future, dífferent kinds oflentils, forages, fiuit and timber trees, and herbs of medicinal value will also be íntroduced ínto the farmíng systems. It ís expected tbat the introductíon of useful germplasm will be repeated every growíng season whenever new potentíal rnaterials are available and tbe farmers-through their village eommíttees-are in favor of it.Rather tban replacing existing germplasrn, the goal is to increase the range of germplasrn available on-fann. This will contribute to enhancing on-farm genetie diversity arnong and within different erop specles.The ernphasis is on fanner and communíty ernpowerment. Participating fanners and theír neíghbors wiUjudge the usefulness oftbe rnaterials being introduced and tbeir subsequent rnultiplication and distribution. Fanner-to-farrner seed exchange forms tbe basis oftbe local seed system in the region. It is a part ofthe local culture tbat anyone with seed of irnproved varieties is obliged to share the seed produced at the first harvest with his extended family. Such acts of cooperatíon reinforce family ties witb distant blood relatives. In sorne cases, extra amounts of seed will be distributed on credit if tbe dernand for tbe varieties introduced cannot be met by tbe local seed systems. Credít systerns in wruch fanners pay for tbe inputs al harvest are also being used for supplying fertilizers.These activities will be gradually transformed into participatory breeding, allowing tbe cornrnunity to gain full control over the type and ｾ ｭ ｯ ｵ ｮ ｴ ＠ of varieties being produced and exchanged witb tbeir neighbors. Participation in tbe management and decision rnaking for seed security by the farming community will contribute to reestablishing local food security and peace in the area.Maize is one ofthe tbree most important cereal crops in the world. Global annual maize production nowexceeds 550 million toos. Oflhat, approximately 100 millíon tons are used directly for human food (CIMMYT 1999). Maíze is growíng in importance in Asia, primarily as a feed for animals. Nevertheless, there are significant areas of Ihe regíon where maíze is still the dominan! cereal in the human dieto In Nepal, for example, ofthe 1.4 míllíon toos produced annually, it is estimated thal 86% ís used directly as human food (CIMMYT 1999). The development ofhybrids ís one ofthe maín reasons for the phenomenal advances in maize productivity tbroughout !he world in Ihe past few decades. In mosl developed countries, the area planted lo hybrids approaches 100% of allland planted to como Growth in the use ofhybrids has been impressive in areas ofthe developing world as well. For example, 60% and 46% ofthe area planted to maíze is sown lo hybrids in Thailand and Vietnam, respectively. 80th within Asia and globally, there is a significant negative correlation between the percent utilization of maize for human food and the use of improved varieties (CIMMYT 1999). Ihis can partial1y be explained by the fact that subsistence farmers have limited cash and are reluctant to pay the premium price associated with improved seeds, particularly hybrid seed, which must be purchased each year. Single-cross hybrid seed in Asia costs on average US $3.12 per kg, in comparison to US $0.69 per kg for open-pollinated varieties (OPVs) (Gerpacio 1999). The development ofOPV s for areas of the world where maize is grown as a subsistenee erop makes good sense. Compared to hybrids, OPV seed is more readily produced, it can be made available to farmers at a lower cost, and ít can be generated by farmers themselves. Nevertheless, in large areas of the world where maize is a subsistence food erop, a large percentage ofthe area is no! planted to improved varieties (OPVs or hybrids) even though modern varieties with excellent adaptation are available from both the public and private sectors. The poor adoption of improved maize varieties can be attributed to many factors, primary among whieh may be the lack ofviable seed enterprises.Other factors, such as the varieties' lacking the eharacteristics that are important to farmers, also constrain adoption. Farmers in Nepal for example, prefer the-tr own varieties because they are ear-Iier, have better husk cover and culinary characteristies than improved OPVs. In order to improve adoption of modem varietíes, there is a need for greater farmer input ¡nto the development of genotypes that take these preferences into account. Thls paper discusses issues relative to developing and providing improved maize genotypes to farmers and describes a get111plasm-improvement scheme adopted by the National Maíze Research Program in Nepal to ensure that the products they develop are better targeted to the requirements of farmers.Maize is cross-pollinated under normal cireumstances. Therefore, a crop or plot of a desrred genotype must be earefully managed if the seed it produces is to be genetieally pureo Furthermore, in relatíon to participatory approaches lo plant breedíng it means that seed of genotypes !hat are tested or demonstrated in farmers' fields in a typical small plot are likely to be contaminated or genetically altered through the inflow of foreign pollen. Saved seed will, therefore, not produce a phenotype idcntícal to tbat observed the previous season. In a varietal-improvement program, be it through informal farmer selection or through a forrnally organized plant-breeding program, success is determined by the abílity of the breeder to find desirable charaeteristics and fix them in the population so that they can be expressed in subsequent generations. For traits that do not exist or that have little expression in an otherwÍse desirable populatíon, eonventional breedíng programs have a substantial competitive advantage over farmer-Ied approaches. In order to find favorable alleles for stress toleranee, for example, many thousands oflines and populatíons might need to be sereened in order to identif'y a few genotypes with the desired characteristics. Similarly, for alleles tbat are found in a very low frequency in a population, breeding techniques that inc\\ude selfing and extensive testing with reeombination of best lines can be used to increase their expression relatívely quickIy.Developing OPVs through conventional methods requires both time and land resourees. As an example, the following steps are required to develop a superior experimental variety using full-sibs developed from an improved population (which itself may have been improved through many cycles of selectíon). First, 250 full-sib progenies are generated by hand-pollinatíon. Ihese are tested in up to six locations, including sites where a stress of interest is presento Next, eight to 10","tokenCount":"2391"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e810cf528126f873853a7c2b940f044e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/260d28e5-dcdf-494e-b8ac-ced1bf5b0b2f/retrieve","id":"909429838"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"95149e1c-ae4e-4e8d-8bdd-f8521ba72dd2","pagecount":"1","content":"The African Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (Africa RISING) comprise three research for-development projects for West Africa, East and Southern Africa, and the Ethiopian highland supported by the United States Agency for International Development as part of the U.S. government's Feed the Future Initiative. Africa RISING in East and Southern Africa is being implemented in Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia.Tanzania and Malawi and soon, Zambia Tanzania Project sites:The project is being implemented in Babati and Kiteto districts in Manyara region of northern Tanzania and Kongwa district in Dodoma region, central Tanzania (Figure 1). The action sites were selected to acknowledge agroecological differences, allow appropriate targeting of technologies and strategies, and complement the development efforts of another USAID-supported program, the Tanzania Staples Value Chain (NAFAKA) project.The key constraints to agricultural productivity identified in these areas include poor soil fertility, limited access to improved seeds, climate variability, pest and disease infestations, low mechanization, weak linkages between research/extension and farmers, insufficient knowledge about healthy human nutrition, inadequate agroprocessing, and poor markets. For livestock, the challenges include in availability of improved breeds and better pasture and fodder species, overstocking, pests and diseases, conflicts between livestock keepers and farmers, and wildlife -livestock conflict among others. Africa RISING will, through a participatory approach, prioritize the challenges to address over time, allowing the sequencing and targeting of technologies to continually enhance farm-level outcomes.Through participatory action research, the project is identifying and pretesting the best management practices for integrating crops, livestock and land management, and linking farming and marketing practices to nutrition and health. These will then be widely disseminated by development partners for scaling up and wider adoption in the project area and beyond to significantly impact on food security, nutrition, farm incomes, and environmental sustainability. These practices comprise of single technologies or varied combinations of: Africa RISING aims to enhance farmers' knowledge and support intensification to increase productivity in maizelegume farming systems, beginning with integrating technologies that address soil and land degradation.The research in Malawi is coordinated by Michigan State University and builds on its past successes of promoting legume-diversified farming systems in northern Malawi through participatory action research using 'mother-baby' adaptive trials as platforms for knowledge dissemination.Mother trials: The researchers set up 'mother trials' on lead farmers' fields that demonstrate an array of existing technologies and technology combinations for sustainable intensification. These are:• Intensified grain legume production as sole crops in rotation with cereals or using various maize/legume intercropping options, and a unique intercropping of two grain legumes based on their complementary growth characteristics and plant architecture. This 'doubleup legume' technology hinges on pigeon pea's unique growth habit compared to the potential under-storey companion crops (groundnut, soybean, cowpea, beans), which ensures enhanced soil fertility benefits and grain for better nutrition. • Soil fertility and soil health management through application of organic, inorganic, or a mixture of both fertilizers, use of cover crops and short fallow rotation with green manure. Adaptive baby trials: Members of the farmers' groups involved in setting up the mother trials select their preferred Africa RISING Research Action Sites (sections) in Malawi options and set up 'baby trials' for experimentation on their farms. Livestock integration and intensification: While the livestock density in Malawi is very low, the project is exploring options for enhancing productivity across the interventions sites among the farmers who own livestock.Katete, Chipata, Lundazi districts in Eastern Province Challenges: low soil fertility conditions, frequent droughts, farmers can only make limited use of high yielding varieties and inorganic fertilizer, lack of capital and assets to invest in improved production methods.  \"Through this project we want to increase the productivity of smallholder farms while paying careful attention to avoid any negative environmental impacts and also address some of the challenges we are currently facing due to climate change. We want to use science to bring about a Green Revolution but avoid the negative consequences that are often overlooked.\"USAID Senior Sustainable Agricultural Systems Advisor Africa","tokenCount":"654"}

data/part_2/0109849062.json

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"48c64b19e56b842302a092b8989f8e57","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/274d8ed0-358e-49e9-89da-327c1b29ede9/retrieve","id":"-1901966257"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c47ad130-1a60-4473-bd94-e8134f56e6b1","pagecount":"22","content":"Annex 2 v Characterisation of crop-livestock production system and potential for improving productivity through improved feeding in Rubavu district, western province, RwandaThe study was conducted in Kanyundo cell in Rubavu District in Western Province of Rwanda. The main objective was to characterize the crop-livestock farming system using the Feed Assessment Tool (FEAST). Data was collected using focus group discussions (FGD) and individual interviews with farmers. The FGD was carried out with 16 participants (9 female). Farmers in Rubavu District practice zero grazing; they use a cut-and-carry system with forage from their farms or roadsides. The key issue is inadequate capital to construct cowsheds where animals could be tethered during feeding. Feed scarcity is a major issue and the quality of feedstuff (forage/pasture) is generally low. This is due to lack of knowledge on cultivating suitable forage and sub-optimal management, conservation and use of locally available feed resources (crop residues and all other resources). The problems mentioned by farmers may be used as entry points for further interventions in Kanyundo cell of Mudende sector.Livestock is an important part of the farming systems and other socioeconomic activities in Rwanda. Extensive, semiintensive and intensive systems of livestock farming are all practiced within the country. However, the availability of sufficient and quality feed resources in Rubavu District varies greatly throughout the year, depending on climatic conditions, particularly rainfall and the length of growing season. In addition, the limited farming land, limited use of byproducts in animal feeding, insufficient and non-controlled commercial feeds lower the level of animal production (MINAGRI 2012).The Feed Assessment Tool (FEAST) was used to characterise livestock production systems and locally available feed resources in Rubavu District. Kanyundo cell, Mudende sector of Rubavu District of Rwanda was selected in order to identify farming system constraints for livestock production, assess feed resources and propose suitable interventions in the district. The survey was conducted in cooperation with farmers affiliated with the Rwanda Dairy Development Project (RDDP) in collaboration with International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).The survey was conducted in Kanyundo cell, Rubavu District in Western Province of Rwanda located at an altitude of 1,780 meters above sea level. The total population of Rubavu District is 403,662 (about 208,673 are female) (Republic of Rwanda 2017). Rubavu District is densely populated with 1,039 inhabitant/km 2 and Kanyundo cell has 835 households. Data was collected using focus group discussion and individual interviews with selected farmers. Selection criteria included involvement in the crop-livestock farming system, landholding capacity, milk production zone, cattle population density and availability of feed resources. The focus group discussion was done with 16 representative participants (9 female) while individual interviews were administered to nine farmers representing each of the three farm sizes (small, medium and large) in Kanyundo, Muyange, Rubavu, Rebero, Nyamirama and Mugongo villages. Small farms were defined as farmlands with less than 0.5 ha of land, medium farms are between 0.5 and 1.0 ha and large farms had above 1 ha of land. The geographic coordinates (longitude, latitude and elevation) of the site were recorded using GPS. The assessment was conducted in February 2019. The information from the focus group was summarized and data from individual interviews were processed through the FEAST software (https://www.ilri.org/ feast).Figure 2: Group discussion with selected farmersThe majority (45%) of farmers in Kanyundo cell own medium landholdings used mainly for crop cultivation (Table 1). About 30% of the households had less than 0.5 ha land. The average number of household members is six. Cropping seasonsGenerally, in Rwanda, there are three agricultural seasons that correspond to the rainfall patterns. The first season is from September-December, the second season is from January-June and the third season is from July to mid-September (Table 2). The dominant food and fodder crops grown in Kanyundo cell are potato, maize, common beans and cowpea. The average area of land used for each of these crops is shown in Figure 3. Farmers in this area have small areas of land to cultivate and potatoes are the main crop grown in the area while maize is mainly grown in rotation with potato as a dual-purpose crop to provide green maize for food and green stover for livestock. Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum) is the only fodder crop grown in the area. A relatively large area is allocated to Napier by large farmers whereas medium and small landholding farmers grow it on limited border areas surrounding crop lands. Apart from Napier grass, some farmers revealed that they grow maize and harvest it at \"milk\" stage for animal feeding. Most farmers rely on collected fodder, Napier grass and crop residues for animal feed.In Kanyundo, farmers keep different types of livestock such as cattle and goats and the majority of farmers raise improved cattle (crossbreed of Friesian) as shown in Figure 4. The main reason for raising cattle is milk, manure and income generation.Animals are raised in different systems that involve stall feeding in poor cowsheds and open grazing. Farmers use maize stover, bean haulms and vegetable waste as livestock feed when they are available mainly after harvest. Farmers do not offer supplement feeds to their animals and storing of crop residues for feeding during time of scarcity is not common in the area.  The average daily labour cost ranged from FRw1,000-1,200 1 for most households. The activities are shared based on gender, whereby ploughing, manure transportation, cowshed cleaning, seeding, harvesting water, weeding and sowing are dedicated to women. The activities mainly done by men are milking, manure application, drug application, bush clearing and cut and carry of forage.The income of farmers is derived from various sources (Figure 5). Food crops account for 37% followed by off-farm business (27%), labour (23%) and livestock (13%). Diseases affecting animals are mastitis, anaplasmosis and East Coast fever (ECF). The services provided by different veterinary service providers are drugs, vaccines and artificial insemination (AI). These services are provided by government animal resource officers and private veterinarians. The amounts paid for these services range from FRw5,000-10,000 for treatment while AI service costs FRw3000. Vaccines cost FRw300. Most households use artificial insemination (62.5%) while bull service is also used (37.5%).The top two feed resources that contribute to dry matter (DM), metabolizable energy (ME) and crude protein (CP) content of dairy cattle feeding in Rubavu District are cultivated and collected fodder. In terms of DM, cultivated fodder contributes about 54% while collected fodder accounts for 40% (Figure 6A). The primary ME source for dairy cattle in the district is also cultivated fodder, contributing to 54% of the ME intake in smallholder dairy cattle (Figure 6B). About 62% of crude protein is supplied by cultivated fodder (Figure 6C). Farmers purchase small amounts of feeds throughout the year but the contribution is generally insignificant. Grazing does not contribute as most smallholder dairy farmers adopt a zero grazing system. The dominant purchased feed types by most households are maize thinnings, green maize stover and dry residues. The average amount purchased for green maize is estimated to be around 67 kg per year per household while the corresponding figure for crop residues is around 9 kg (Figure 7).Cropping 37%Labour 23%Figure 7: Average quantities of feed purchased per household over the yearFigure 8 shows rainfall pattern and the corresponding availability of different feed resources for smallholder dairy farmers in Rubavu District. According to the information collected from farmers, the highest rainfall occurs in March and November. During that period, farmers have full access to green forage and the chance to increase milk production. The months with the lowest rainfall are July and August, during which farmers face critical feed shortage in both quantity and quality to feed their animals. Green forage is the dominant feed source throughout the year. Crop residues, which include dried maize stover, green maize biomass and potato haulms are also important feed sources used by smallholder dairy farmers for a period of seven months. Due to the extremely small pieces of land used for cultivation, the primary source of feed for livestock is fodder collected from field margins, weeds and thinnings. Rainwater harvesting techniques are applied in the area to increase water availability from June-August.   The main challenges faced by farmers in Kanyundo cell are lack of standard cowshed, quality feed, water shortage, low quality of improved breeds and low milk price (Table 3). The first set of challenges mentioned by farmers was lack of cowshed (due to the expansion of cultivation land that limited land for building cowshed), conflict between farmers, low capital and the tradition of farmers in keeping their animals inside the living quarters. The second set of main problems mentioned included shortage of feed due to lack of skills and knowledge in conservation of forage and crop residues to be used in dry season and lack of enough land for cultivation of both food crops and forages. Water shortage observed during dry seasons was put in third place. Most farmers lack knowledge of rainwater harvesting technologies, and river and tap water sources are limited in the surveyed area. Lack of improved dairy cattle genetic supply is also among the challenges smallholder farmers face in Rubavu District.  In Rubavu District, Kanyundo cell, land used for cultivated fodder is reducing mainly due to increasing human population and encroachment on land reserved for growing food crops for livestock. This leads to a decrease in animal production. The potential intervention to curb this problem is intercropping grasses with other crops. Most farmers rely on collected fodder to feed their livestock and this needs to be improved by integrating suitable perennial cultivated forages into the cropping system, particularly in niches that are not used for cropping, such as ditches and terraces. Farmers can also overcome feed problems by plating annual forage crops such as oats, maize, sorghum and vetch.The farmers in the surveyed area do not use concentrates, which leads to a reduction in milk production and overall performance. Thus, there is need to support and motivate farmers to enable them to buy concentrates. However, low milk prices are a disincentive for farmers to invest in purchasing supplementary feed. Table 4 shows the potential of different interventions in relation to their capacity to solve specific feed challenges and relevance to smallholder dairy commodity. The characterisation of the crop-livestock farming system was conducted in Kanyundo cell, Rubavu District located in Western Province of Rwanda, where the farming systems is dominated by crop and livestock mixed subsistence farming.Based on the survey findings, households rely on cropping as their major source of income. Most households use collected fodder for feeding their animals and do not frequently purchase concentrate feeds. The milk production is constrained by:• inefficient production related to poor housing, breeds, diseases and water scarcity• weak genetic improvement extension system with low conception rate in the areaTo mitigate these constraints, different interventions are recommended:• Improve cut and carry systems (cut from cultivated fodder field under rainfed) and intercropping legumes with crops• Support farmers to establish associations that enable them to buy processed feed in bulk.• Promote cultivated forages which can adopt to the environment in western zones• Increase the use of crop residues, e.g. maize drying on the fields to be used and conserved for animal feed mainly in the dry season• Improve the efficiency of AI service by supporting private investment in AI• Support local milk processing and install milk feeding programs at school and village levels and advocate to increase milk price. ","tokenCount":"1891"}

data/part_2/0111837383.json

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b619a7c6311b8a9c449b9ba3ecbc9a24","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8b713999-6b5b-4033-b825-ced4024eda39/retrieve","id":"-925520701"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b78c7a19-189c-46e9-adf7-1d156e3c13c9","pagecount":"37","content":"To the Board of Governors of International Water Management InstituteWe have audited the accompanying statement of the financial position of International Water Management Institute as at 3 1'' December 2005 and the related statement of activities, changes in net assets and cash flows for the year then ended, together with the accounting policies and notes as set out on pages 3 to 24.The institute's management is responsible for preparing and presenting these financial statements in accordance with the recommendations made in the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research(CGIAR) financial Guidelines series No.2 CGIAR Accounting policies and Reporting practices manual (revised March 2004).0ur responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements, based on our audit.We conducted our audit in accordance with the International Standards on Auditing, which require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about weather the said financial statements are free . from material misstatement. An audit includes examining, 'on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the said financial statements, assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by the institute's management, evaluating the overall presentation of thehancial statements, and determining whether the said financial statements are prepared' and presented in accordance with the recommendations made in the CGIAR Guidelines. We have obtained all the information and explanations which to the best of our knowledge and belief were necessary for the purposes of our audit. We therefore believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.In our opinion, so far as appears from our examination, the institute maintained proper books of account for the year ended 31\" December>2005, and to the best of our information and according to the explanations given to us, the said financial position and related statements of activities, changes in net assets, cash flows and the accounting policies and notes thereto, which are in agreement with said books and have been prepared and presented in accordance with the recommendations made in the CGIAR financial Guidelines Series No 2-CGIAR Accounting polices and Reporting Practices manual(revised March 2004) and give a true and fair view of the Institute's state of affairs as at 31\" December 2005 and of its activities and cash flows for the year then ended. Supplementary information on pages 25 to 35 are not a required part of the financial statements and have not been subjected to audit procedures applied in the audihof the financial statements.  The principal accounting policies adopted in the preparation of these financial statements are set out below:1The financial statements are prepared and presented in accordance with the recommendations made in the CGIAR Financial Guidelines Series, N0.2: Accounting Policies and Reporting Practices Manual (March 2004).The financial statements are prepared under the historical cost convention.Transactions denominated in currencies other than reporting currency, US Dollars, are translated to US Dollars at the rates of exchange prevailing at the beginning of the month in which the transaction took place.Monetary assets and liabilities expressed in currencies other than US Dollars are translated to US Dollars at the rates of exchange prevailing at the balance sheet date. Non-monetary items denominated in foreign currency which are carried at cost is reported using the exchange rate at the date of the transaction.All exchange gains or losses resulting from such translations are treated as other revenues and support or other losses and expenses in the statement of activities.3 Revenue Revenue is the gross inflow of economic benefits during the period arising in the course of the ordinary activities of a Center where those inflow result in increase in net assets.Grants to the Centre may be categorized as either unrestricted or restricted.Unrestricted Grants Unrestricted grants refer to the revenue arising from the unconditional transfer of cash and other resources to the Center. Unrestricted grants are recognized as income for the year in which they have been pledged.Restricted Grants Restricted grants refer to the revenue arising from a transfer of resources to the Center in return for past or future compliance relating to the activities of the Center.Accounting Policies (contd..)Restricted grants as well as conditional promises to give grants are recognized as revenue only upon or until the conditions relating to its operating activities have been substantially met or the donor has explicitly waived the conditions.Revenue includes only the gross inflow received and receivable by the Center on its own account.Gross inflow of economic benefits include amounts collected on behalf of the principal and which do not result in an increase in the net assets are treated as \"Agency Transactions\" and are not recognized as revenue. Revenue is treated as the amount of any commission or management fee received.When the outcome of a transaction involving the rendering of services can be measured reliably, revenue associated with the transaction is recognized by reference to the stage of completion of the transaction at the balance sheet date.When the outcome of the transaction cannot be estimated reliably, revenue should be recognized only to the extent of the expenses recognized that are recoverable.Cash grants are recorded at the face value of the cash received or the US dollar equivalent.Grants in kind are recorded at the fair value of the assets (or services) received or promised, or fair value of the liabilities satisfied.Other Revenues Other revenues and gains are recognized in the period in which they are earned.Expenses Expenses are recognized when a decrease in future economic benefits related to a decrease in an asset or an increase in a liability has arisen that can be measured reliably.The Centre is exempt from income tax under the provisions of Section 8 of the Inland Revenue Act No28 of 1979 of Sri Lanka. The Centre is also exempt from USA (United States of America) tax under Section 501(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of the United States of America, as an organization described in Section 501 (c)(3).Accounting Policies (Contd..) 7 Inventories Inventories are valued at the lower of acquisition cost or net realizable value and charged when used. The acquisition cost includes the purchase price plus cost of freight, insurance and handling charges. Cost is determined by the First In First Out (FIFO) method.Provision is made where necessary for obsolete, slow moving and defective items.All individual tangible assets of US$ 500 or over in cost with an estimated useful life beyond one year are treated as fixed assets and designated property, plant and equipment. These are stated at cost. The cost of an item comprises its purchase price and all other incidental cost in bringing the asset to its working condition for its intended use.Property, plant and equipment acquired through the use of grants restricted for a certain project should be recorded as assets. Such assets are depreciated at a rate of 100% and the depreciation expense charged directly to the appropriate restricted project.Depreciation is recognized for all property, plant and equipment owned by the Center based on the full acquisition cost of the property, plant and equipment, net of salvage value.The straight-line method of depreciation is applied consistently from period to period unless altered circumstances justifL a change.The principal annual rates used for this purpose are:Heavy-duty equipment When property, plant and equipment are sold, the cost as well as the accumulated depreciation is removed from the books; any gain or loss from the sale is charged as other gains or losses.Depreciation of required assets is charged in the month the asset was placed in operation and is continued until the asset is fully depreciated or its use was discontinued.Accounting Policies (contd..) 8Subsequent expenditure relating to property, plant and equipment that has already been recognized are only added to the carrying amount of the asset when the expenditure improves the condition of the net asset beyond its original assessed standards of performance. All other subsequent expenditure are recognized as an expense in the period in which it is incurred.The initial lease agreement with IWMI and Government of Sri Lanka is for 25 years commencing from 1990. IWMI has the right to negotiate for extension of the lease period under the lease agreement upon the expiry of the current lease.Leasehold property and improvements thereon are amortised over the lease period or if shorter, the useful economic life of the property or improvement concerned.Receivables are stated at the amounts they are estimated to realize.When an Accounts Receivable -Donor, was deemed doubtful of collection, a provision is made based on past experiences and on continuing review of receivable aging reports and other relevant factors.Terminal Benefits (a) Severance and Gratuity.In accordance with the terms and conditions of recruitment, internationally recruited staff members are entitled to terminal benefits referred to as \"Severance\" on the completion of 3 full years of continuous service. Provision is made for \"Severance\" payable for all international staff members..Provision is made in the financial statements for gratuity benefits payable under the Centre's personnel policies to the nationally recruited staff. Nationally recruited staff qualify for gratuity on the completion of 5 years continuous service with the Centre. It is the policy of the Centre to recognize the liability for such benefits payable from the date of employment.Accounting Policies (contd..) (b) Repatriation In accordance with the terms and conditions of recruitment, internationally recruited staff members are entitled to repatriation benefits on the completion of contract period. Provision is made for repatriation payable for all international staff members based on the estimated cost of air fare, relocation charges, and fieight charges. purposes, such as a reserve for the future acquisition of property and equipment. Post balance sheet events No events have occurred since the balance sheet date which would require adjustment to or disclosure in the financial statements.Comparative figures Certain comparative figures have been reclassified to conform to the presentation of the current year. ","tokenCount":"1616"}

data/part_2/0157051768.json

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"85f65aba086592a6b3ae229bb0e4f02b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/77886f2d-6d06-4d76-8f24-904bb2e3b845/retrieve","id":"1457934904"},"keywords":["Adaptation","forage legumes","livestock production","soil degradation"],"sieverID":"064c35ec-f9fb-4e7d-8f33-3b1efad5ff56","pagecount":"1","content":"Climate vulnerability is affecting livestock production in the tropics. In addition, poor management practices such as overgrazing, overstocking and deforestation are converting livestock production in one of the main drivers of soil degradation, resulting in expansion of the agriculture frontier looking for fertile lands. An alternative to reverse soil degradation is the use of improved forages (i.e., legumes and grasses) with the ability to grow in degraded soils and recuperate them rapidly.Aiming at evaluating the agronomic performance of hebaceous forage legumes under the conditions of Patía Valley-Cauca/Colombia, four species were stablished under dry subhumid climate and low fertility soils of various stages of degradation. The species tested were: Canavalia brasiliensis CIAT 17009, Centrosema molle CIAT 15160, Stylosanthes guianensis CIAT 11995 and Desmodium heterocarpon CIAT 13651. Previous studies have shown a broad adaptation of these species to marginal/ stressed environments and the production of high nutritious forage. As control a naturalized forage grass was included (Dichanthium aristatum). The field sites were cleared using glyphosate (Roundup TM 1.5 L ha -1 ) and fertilised with P, K, Mg and S (22, 41.5, 20 and 20 kg ha -1 ). Legumes were sown in 2016 at three locations with different levels of degradation (high to low) Piedra Sentada, Mercaderes and Patía, under the following conditions: average rainfall 1616 mm year -1 mean temperature 32 • C, at an altitude of 800 m asl for Mercaderes and 500 m asl for the two other sites. A complete randomised block design with 3 repetitions was used. Each plot was 100 m 2 with a sowing density per hectare of 25 kg for C. brasiliensis, 2 kg for C. molle, 3 kg for S. guianensis and 1 kg for D. heterocarpon. Once established (2017), forage dry matter productivity (DM ton/ha/42 days) was assessed in the wet season. Results showed that S. guianensis hat the highest productivity at all 3 locations (3.2, 2.2 and 4.8 DM ton/ha/42 Day, respectively) compared to C. brasiliensis (2.1, 0.8, 3.9), D. heterocarpon (3.0, 2.2, 1.8) and C. molle (2.5, 1.6, 2.6 respectively). Productivity during the dry season will be measured to valuate performance under drought conditions, anticipating a higher drought tolerance of the deep rooted legumes.","tokenCount":"365"}

data/part_2/0166266165.json

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e307710bd4812100618eeda83d3d840d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a882582f-9ab4-4414-84cf-f3b8622eeeba/retrieve","id":"-986319044"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"81704a17-708b-4a08-99e2-31ce45803f81","pagecount":"7","content":"Climate security pathways in GUATEMALA -The diagram shows the relationships between drivers of the Climate Security Nexus identified through 4 qualitative and quantitative analyses (Climate Security Pathway Analysis, Network Analysis, Econometric Analysis, and Social Learning Theory). Specific drivers are either analyzed qualitatively quantitatively or both . The grey box shows the contextual factors, while the black box highlights socioeconomic and political vulnerabilities that also play a role in these pathways. Direct relationship Indirect relationship Quantitative analysis Qualitative analysisGuatemala is considered to be one of the most exposed and vulnerable countries in Latin America to climate variability and extreme weather events, as well as non-climatic natural events. It is also a primary hotspot for climate change, as it is highly exposed to extreme weather events like tropical storms and droughts and has low capacity to cope with these impacts.While Guatemala is an upper-middle income country, poverty and inequality rates are among the highest in Latin America, particularly affecting indigenous peoples, women, rural populations, and those employed in the informal sector.The country also faces high levels of violence and insecurity mostly related to gang violence and organized crime. It is geographically situated in the middle of a drug-smuggling route from South to North America where there has been an increase in violence linked to drug trafficking, micro-trafficking, extorsion and money laundering activities. Conflicts over natural resourcesmainly water, forest, and agricultural land and disputes related to extractive industries-commonly occur across the national territory, often involving indigenous communities.The Climate Security Observatory is an evidence-based decision support tool helping researchers, policy makers and other practitioners working at the intersection of climate, peace and security to understand and respond to climaterelated security risks.We are using a mixed-method approach to give answers to four lead questions:HOW does climate worsen the root causes of conflict?WHERE are the most vulnerable areas to climate induced insecurities and risks? WHO are the vulnerable groups to climate and security risks that should be targeted? WHAT needs to be done to break the cycle between climate and conflict? The following pathways represent mechanisms for how Guatemala's climate security nexus might operate:Climate change is negatively impacting on water, land, and food systems in the country, further degrading the country's natural resources, which is already affected by overexploitation over land and water resources, deforestation and slash and burn subsistence agricultural practices. The combination of climatic and non-climatic factors undermine the access and availability to natural resources, which increase the risk of competition over diminishing resources and may lead to tensions and conflicts. This is further compounded by socio-economic and environmental factors such as environmental degradation, poverty, marginalization, and insecure and irregular land tenure arrangements.The effects of climate change negatively impact agricultural productivity, particularly affecting vulnerable communities dependent on rain-fed subsistence agriculture, contributing to increased food and livelihood insecurity. This may heighten migration dynamics either towards urban areas or abroad, sometimes exposing migrants to various human security risks. The lack of alternative forms of livelihood may also lead to increased involvement in illicit activities and gang recruitment, indirectly contributing to the growth of organized criminal networks.• Climate risks and socioeconomic vulnerabilities are highly interconnected in Guatemala.• Heat stress is affecting net primary production of agriculture, which is closely related to resource exploitation, socio-economic inequality, and undernutrition, while water availability affects agricultural areas.• Evidence points to lower education levels being associated with higher undernutrition rates, and this also correlates with heat and drought events, illustrating how climate extremes affect Guatemala's most vulnerable populations.• Inequalities such as healthcare accessibility, agricultural indicators and female education levels are linked to conflict.• Departments in the country with a 12 month above-average temperature have 31% higher food insecurity incidence rates. A 1% increase in temperature-induced food insecurity in turn increases violent crime risks by 15.3%. i• The network analysis found strong correlations between flooding events and crime, extreme weather events and social unrest, and disasters and crime.i The model results suggest that other, unobserved factors may have a significant mediating effects within the above average temperature anomalies and violent crime relationship.Maya Chortí, populations in La Lima, Chiquimula An increase in intensity and frequency of tropical storms and heatwaves, alongside mid-summer droughts, have had a profound impact on soil erosion and fertility. According to reports, these climate impacts have reduced agricultural productivity in the region, including increasing the risk of crop losses and decreasing yields. This in turn has led to more of a dependence on the nearby communal forest, which has long been the stage of inter-communal conflicts over access to the forest with the neighbouring Shupá community. It has also increased the population's dependency on seasonal migration, most commonly to coffee plantations both within Guatemala and across the border in Honduras. However, due to increased demand over short-term employment in coffee plantations, as well as the effects of coffee leaf rust over productivity, an increasing number of farmers are forced to find alternative sources of income during the dry periods, mainly migrating to sugarcane plantations to the southwest of Guatemala or to the main urban centres in search of work. This has increased the risk of theft and assault, as well as harsh labour conditions. Lastly, climate impacts have increased agricultural land and water scarcity, which in turn has led to land-based conflicts linked to insecure land tenure arrangements.The increase in frequency and intensity of precipitation in the rainy season and flooding is leading to a loss of harvest and livestock in Tenedores. Coordinated efforts for resilience building have established an early warning and response system, however this has been largely responsive and past impacts have yet to be fully addressed. Furthermore, the unequal distribution of resilience building support by the international community is undermining social cohesion and collaborative capacities for climate adaptation. As a consequence, cattle owners are being forced to sell their cows before the rainy season, leading to a decrease in cattle market prices and profitability, while farmers are struggling to make a profit due to higher risks of crop losses and increasing prices of agricultural inputs. This is coupled with low land availability and land tenure that is highly insecure and irregular, leading to many community members depending on short-term and informal leasing agreements. This is fuelling grievances between landowners and land leasers. The high availability of alternative livelihoods such as temporal and assisted migration to Canada, sand harvesting and work in the banana plantations, have so far strengthened adaptive capacities, but there is recognition by the locals that the low levels of land availability and tenure are a potential source of conflict.El Caripintero, Chiantla Huehuetenango -Water for domestic consumption and irrigation in El Carpintero comes entirely from springs in the region, most of which were sold by the municipal government to surrounding municipalities during the last few decades to larger urban communities. This has led to the community only owning a few of the springs within El Carpintero, which are for the most part privately owned. The community reports a reduction in water flow during drier periods and the need to acquire the remaining water springs for water security. They have however, been unable to do so, in part due to a low willingness of community members to pool resources in buying the land. The scarcity of water and privatization of water springs has increased the risk of conflict between and within communities in accessing nearby water springs and, on several occasions, conflicts have already occurred with varying degrees of violence. The lack of water availability also reduces agricultural productivity and associated incomes, increasing their dependence on using irregular migration as a coping mechanism. Irregular migration however is associated with human security risks, as those on the move are more prone to assault, theft, and kidnapping.Quantitative insights:WHERE are the most vulnerable areas to climate induced insecurities and risks WHO are the vulnerable groups to climate and security risks that should be targeted?Policy frameworks: There is the need for policymakers to comprehensively and systematically integrate climate, peace, and security considerations. Possible measures include conducting a gap analysis for the integration of climate security into the policy framework of relevant sectors, and for policymakers in these sectors to be sensitized to climate change impacts. In addition, climate change-related projections and tools need to be integrated into the policy design and planning processes of peace and security actors specifically.There also needs to be more effective engagement between the different sectoral policy actors to ensure integrated policy coordination on climate security.Multilevel governance: To modify current practices for climate adaptation and peacebuilding towards integrating a climate security sensitive approach, there is the need for a community of practice for climate security in Guatemala that fosters multi-level governance approaches. Moreover, Guatemalan government actors should reflect on what existing multi-level climate policy instruments that are used to transpose national level objectives into local level realities could become vehicles through which to integrate climate, peace, and security considerations into sub-national level planning and implementation.Programmatic planning: To design and implement programmes that cover the intersection of climate change, conflict and peace, programming staff need to be sensitized to this nexus and related context-specific mechanisms, while project proposals need to integrate a climate perspective and be based on vulnerability assessments that account for conflict risks respectively.Research and evidence gaps: For a comprehensive perspective on climate, peace, and security there is a need for improving and expanding the current empirical research on this nexus. This includes expanding beyond the traditional understanding of conflict and encompassing climate security risks, incorporating indirect linkages into the analysis, as well as developing intersectional approaches, and building upon community knowledge.There is the need for investments with co-benefits for both adaptation and peacebuilding across Guatemala's hotspots for climate-related security risks. To achieve this, some options include leveraging pre-existing networks and multi-stakeholder platforms to support the development, implementation, and scaling of financial interventions and enhancing organizations' grant writing and fundraising skills. Furthermore, identifying existing climate finance instruments at the national level that could be targeted for improved conflict-sensitivity is likely to facilitate the emergence of more conflict-sensitive and peace responsive funding.WHAT needs to be done to break the cycle between climate and conflict?Participatory workshops held in El Carpintero, Tenedores, and Lima uncovered resilience building local solutions based on collective action that contribute towards sustainable peacebuilding.To avoid inter-community conflicts surrounding access to water resources, practical solutions were identified such as strengthening the role of water-related committees within community governance to foster engagement with local populations and to increase the capacity for conflict management.An integrated and collaborative water management approach with access to climate information systems was also proposed for active participation at the department-level through the Agro-Climatic Technical Committees, where participants can exchange climate-relevant information such as on climate adaptation practices and climate change developments.Secondly, to address territorial conflicts over forest resources, a proposal emerged for the use of forest management as a mechanism for conflict management. Mandating the community with developing and updating a management plan, along with monitoring and enforcing regulations and sanctions could potentially strengthen state-society relations and generate a sense of interdependence and a shared identity over the forest, as well as create employment opportunities for those involved in forest management. In addition, to reduce dependence on seasonal and rural-urban migration, which are associated with insecurity risks and hardship, participants proposed the establishment of an association of local coffee producers and a coffee cooperative to strengthen coffee production within the community, thereby potentially generating employment opportunities.Lastly, to address low access to land, insecure tenure and land-based conflicts that are exacerbated by climate impacts on the agricultural sector, one of the proposed solutions was to create a local farmer's association that would focus on finding alternative arrangements between herders and farmers that increase a secure access to land, which would incentivize farmers to adopt agricultural conservation practices. This would protect livelihoods of both farmers and herders, and open up previously unavailable land, hence potentially reducing the risk of land-based conflicts. Collective action to strengthen market access could potentially also lead to supply chain arrangements that better protect local livelihoods, by organising direct access to local wholesale centres, rather than through individual intermediaries. This could also reduce competition and drop agricultural prices.","tokenCount":"2019"}

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+{"metadata":null,"keywords":null,"sieverID":"09b4f3f7-b29c-423b-babc-9e6fe2cc30be","pagecount":"0","content":"Atlas de Yorito y Sulaco, Yoro (Honduras) \nNúmero de Cabezas de Ganado Bovino \npor Aldeas, Vorito y Sulaco \n\".O!,ld mlllm \nlQCQ ·1001 \nUmlm 1St aldtn \nf'.Wme,o d. e.b.ZII:I bow \n11 . 153 \n· 44; \n- 780 \n· 1091 \nEn la subregión un 33% de las explotaciones \ntenían ganado bovino. De aproximadamente \n9,741 cabezas de ganado casi el 83% se \nconcentraba en las zonas bajas. El 64% del \nhato se criaba en el municipio de Sulaco, de \néste las aldeas de San Juan (32%) y Sulaco \n(25%) concentraban el 57% del hato. En el \nmunicipio de Yorito , el hato se concentraba en \nlas aldeas de El Destino (29%), Yorito (24%) y \nLuquigue (23%). El 70% de los productores \nde la subregión tenían un sistema de \nganadería de doble propósito. \nA-26 AneKOS \nProductores que Utilizaban Semilla \nMejorada por Aldea, Vorito y Sulaco \nAllrtud rmIf'1m \n1000 ·1001 \nrI Lfmll86 di aldNQ \nSiñil'1II m.jortlOl. ('r.) \n, 0-0.8 \n----, 0 .8·5.3 \n5.3 - 11 .7 \n11.7 - 252 \nLos diferentes sistemas de producción de la \nsubregión se caracterizan por utilizar un bajo \nporcentaje de semilla mejorada. En 1993, de \n2500 productores, de la subregión, solamente el \n6.5% utilizaron semilla mejorada. Entre los \nmunicipios, el 7.5% en Yorito y 5.5% de los \nproductores de S ulaco. Nó \ntese en el mapa que las aldeas de las zonas \naltas presentan porcentajes de cero a un \nnúmero cercano a cero en el uso de semilla \nmejorada, en cambio las zonas oscuras, parte \nbaja, presentan algún porcentaje de \nproductores con ésta tecnologi \na. En el caso de Sulaco, la aldea de Sulaco de \n210 productores un 23% y El Desmonte de 196 \nun 12% y en Yorito, se destacaban las aldeas de \nYorito donde de 155 un 25% y en Jalapa de 68 \nun 9% de productores usaron semillas \nmejoradas. \nNota: Estas figuras no representan datos \noficiales. Los límites de aldeas son para fines \nde capacitación. \nAtlas-cJe Yorita y Su/aco, Yoro (Honduras) \nProductores que Usan Fertilizantes \nQuímicos por Aldea, Yorito y Sulaco \nEntre los insumas qUlmlcos se destacan los \nfertilizantes como urea, fósforo, potasio, magnesio \nentre otros; y herbicidas y/o insecticidas. El uso de \ninsumas químicos en los diferentes sistemas de \nproducción de la subregión se tiene como una \nvariable determinante para el incremento de los \nrendimientos. Sin embargo, en 1993, sólo un 12% \nde los productores de la subregión utilizaron \nfertilizantes químicos, un 11 % en Yorito y 13% en \nSulaco. Como se puede apreciar en el mapa, en \nYorito se destacan las aldeas de El Destino (30%), \nYorito (28%), Jalapa (21%) y Luquigue (18%); yen \nSulaco sobresalen las aldeas de Sulaco (30%), El \nDesmonte (1 0%) Y San Antonio (10%). Es de notar \nque si queremos identificar productores con \nagricultura orgánica el mapa muestra que las \nzonas altas casi no usaban fertilizantes quimicos. \nAnexos \nProductores que Usaban Tracción \nMecánica por Aldea, Yorito y Sulaco \nEl uso de tracción agrícola está muy relacionada \na las condiciones topográficas del país y la \nsubregión de Yo rito y Sulaco. Esta variable \npermite identificar en la zona ,,1 nivel de \ndesarrollo de los sistemas de producción y de la \ninversión de capital en su sector agropecuario. \nEn 1993, en la subregión un 16% de los \nproductores utilizaban tracción mecánica para \npreparar la tierra y cosechar los diferentes \nproductos agrícolas. En el municipio de Sulaco, \nel 48% de los productores de la aldea de Sulaco \nreportaron el uso de tractores agrícolas en sus \ncultivos, asimismo el 19 y 15 por ciento en El \nJaral y El Desmonte, respectivamente. En el \nmunicipio de Yorito, el 64% de los productores de \nEl Destino, 26% en Luquigue y 24% en Yorito \nhacían uso de la tracción mecánica para sus \nactividades agrícolas. \nNota: Estas figuras no representan datos \noficiales. Los limiles de aldeas son para fines \nde capacitación . \nA·27 \nAt/as de Yorlto y Su/aco, Yoro (Honduras) \nCaracterización Socioeconómica \nLas c aracterísticos demog ráf icas y \neconómicas de una población nos don una \nradiografío de un país. Indicadores sobre bajos \nniveles de ingresos y de bienestar de los familias \nimplican dificultades pero distribuir los recursos \n01 desarrOllO económico. En esto situación \nlosas crecientes de población y concentración \nde lo mismo en algunos áreas tendrían como \nresultado uno mayor presión sobre los recursos \ndisponibles. Mayores efectos se visualizon en \naquellos recursos. como bosques y suelos, con \nmayor fragilidad. Es así que uno creciente \npoblación con lo fatta de un ordenamiento de \nlOS recursos y un alto desempleo impactarán \nfuertemente en el manejo de los recursos \nnaturales. \nA-28 Anexos \nPoblación al año 2000 por Aldeas de \nYorito y Sulaco \nMIIud rtWIl11 \n1000. t OO'l -.­.n \nLa población es la variable fundamental en el \ndesarrollo de un país. Su crecimiento deberia \nestar en correspondencia con el crecimiento \neconómico. En la subregión la población crece \na una tasa anual de 2.9%. Las lasas más altas \nse registraban en las zonas altas. En este \nmapa los colores más oscuros muestran las \naldeas que concentran un mayor número de \nhabitantes dentro de cada municipio. \nNota: Estas figuras no representan datos \noficiales. Los limites de aldeas son para fines \nde capacitación. \nAtlas de Yorito y Sulaeo, Yoro (Honduras) \nHabitantes en Aldeas de Yorito y \nSulaco \nLa demanda de recursos y la presión sobre los \nmismos están en función de la densidad de \npoblación. El Destino y Yorito presentan \ndensidades mayores a 100 habitantes por km', \nen el municipio de Yorito; para Sulaco, estas \ndensidades se presentan en Sulaco y El \nDesmonte. Estas comunidades se encuentran \nen la zona baja, zonas que está \nn expulsando población hacia las zonas altas, \nsobre la cual se está dando una presión sobre la \nfrontera agricola. A ésta están llegando \nproductores con poca o sin tierra y ganaderos \ncon sistemas de ganadería extensiva. \nAnexos \nFamilias Dedicadas a la Agricultura , \nYo rito y Sulaco \nEn este mapa se muestran los porcentajes de \nfamilias por cada comunidad dedicadas a las \nactividades agrícolas. Esta variable permite \nidentificar los sitios hacia donde deberían \nenfocarse los programas de desarrollo dentro \nde la subregión. Programas agrícolas tendrían \nuna mayor cobertura entre productores de la \nparte alta . Las zonas bajas requerirían de una \ncombinación de programas agrícolas y de \nservicios. \nNota: Estas figuras no representan datos \noficiales. Los límites de aldeas son para fines \nde capacitación. \nA-29 \nAtlas de Yorito y Sulaco, Yoro (Honduras) \nFamilias sin Tierra por Aldeas en Yorito \ny Sulaco \nÉste mapa evidencia las comunidades que a \ntravés del tiempo han ido quedando sin tierra \nagrícola, y donde hoy, ésta es bastante escasa. \nTambién se podría identificar fácilmente, hacia \ndo nde prob ableme nte están o estará \nn emigrando estas familias sin tierras en \nbúsqueda de tierras agrícolas. Es evidente que \néste proceso podría estar provocando una \nexpansión de la frontera agrícola, situación que \nafectaría la cantidad y calidad de los recursos \nnaturales de la subregión. \nDistribución de fincas por Estrato en \nYorito y Sulaco \n• , _o. \n'- . \n.'. \n..,j •• \" \n. \" \n---., • • < \nEstudios preliminares basándose en datos \ncensales de 1993 indican que en el municipio \nde Yorito, las comunidades de Santa Marta , \nPueblo Viejo, La Esperanza y El Portillo \npueden no estar satisfaciendo sus \nnecesidades de maíz. Situación similar \npodría estar sucediendo en la comunidad de \nLa Albardilla en el municipal de Sulaco (ver \ncomunidades coloreadas en rojo). Además, \nestas aldeas con demanda insatisfecha de \nmaíz se encuentran ubicadas por encima de \nlos 900 m.s.n.m. Las comunidades con \ndemanda satisfecha de maíz se encuentran \ncoloreadas en amarillo y anaranjado y se \nubican en la zona baja de la subregión. \nNota: Estas figuras no representan datos \noficiales. Los limites de aldeas son para fines \nde capaci tación . \nAtlas de Yorlto Y Sulaeo, Yoro (Honduf'lls) \nDemanda Satisfecha e Insatisfecha de \nMaíz a Nivel de Aldea en Torito y \nSulaco \nt:J Lifnit.~ , 'deas \n¡ ilnd\" de malz. ,%) \n-$<1 •• 3-1 \n· 3 •. , .. .., \n60 · 321 \nEstudios preliminares basándose en datos \ncensales de 1993 indican que en el municipio de \nYorito, las comunidades de Santa Marta, Pueblo \nViejo, La Esperanza y El Portillo pueden no estar \nsatisfaciendo sus necesidades de maiz. Situación \nsimilar podria estar sucediendo en la comunidad \nde La Albardilla en el municipio de Sulaco (ver \ncomunidades coloreadas en rojo). Además, estas \naldeas con demanda insatisfecha de maiz se \nencuentran ubicadas por encima de los 900 \nmetros sobre el nivel del mar. Las comunidades \ncon demanda satisfecha de maiz se encuentran \ncoloreadas en amarillo y anaranjado y se ubican \nen la zona baja de la subregión. \nAnexos \nDemanda Satisfecha e Insatisfecha de \nFrijol a Nivel de Aldea en Yorito y \nSulaco \nlimite aldeas \nLl~ma,nda de mjlll ¡%) \n_ .78 .. 52 \n. -52··29 \nn·29·30 \nI 130 - 110 ,.*, \nEn relación a la demanda satisfecha o insatisfecha \ncon frijol , en el mapa se puede notar que las \ncomunidades coloreadas en amarillo si estaban \nsatisfaciendo su demanda de frijol. Entre estas \ncomunidades se encontraban Santa Marta, La \nEsperanza, Pueblo Viejo, Vallecillos y El Portillo \nubicadas en la parte alta del municipio de Yorito; en \ncambio también en la zona alta La Albardilla era la \núnica aldea de Sulaco que satisfacia su demanda \nde frijol. Es claro que en éste caso las \ncomunidades de las zonas bajas teni \nan menores ventajas comparativas para la \nproducción de frijol; situación que se presentó a la \ninversa en relación a maiz. \nA·31 \nAtlas de Yorito y Su/aeo, Yoro (Honduras) \nApoyo a la Toma de Decisiones \nIdentificar y combinar diferentes factores \nbiofisicos, socioeconómicos y demográficos, \npermiten establecer los criterios que faciliten y \napoyen la toma de decisiones tanto a nivel local, \nregional , o nacional. Asimismo, establecer \nacuerdos entre pobladores de diferentes \ncomunidades que identifiquen características \ncomunes o problemas acerca del manejo de \ncultivos, agua, entre otros, relacionado al \nmanejo de los recursos naturales. \nA-32 Anexos \nMaiz y Altitud en la Subregión de Yorito y \nSulaco \nEste mapa muestra las aldeas que podrían \ntener ventaja comparativa para la producción \nde maíz. Sin embargo mostraban rendimientos \npor debajo de las 2 tm por ha. Esto era debido \nal bajo uso de semilla mejorada y fertilizantes. \nDos recomendaciones se podrían sugerir: (1) \nincrementar los rendimientos incorporando \nvariedades de trópico bajo con el objetivo de \nincrementar los volúmenes de producción \ndestinados al mercado; (2) mejorar la \nproducción en las zonas altas incorporando \nmateriales de altura, el objetivo sería mejorar la \nautosuficiencia alimentaria con maíz en estas \ncomunidades. \nNota: Estas figuras no representan datos \noficiales. Los límites de aldeas son para fines \nde capacítación. \nAtlas de Yarita y Su/aea, Yaro (Honduras) \nFrijol y Altitud en la Subregión de \nYorito y Sulaco \nEste mapa muestra las aldeas que podrían \ntener ventaja comparativa para la producción \nde frijol. No obstante sus bajos rendimientos \nhace que el incremento de los volúmenes de \nproducción se hagan a expensas de la \nexpansión de la frontera agrícola. Una \nrecomendación pertinente sería empoderar a \nlos productores con semillas mejoradas y, un \nuso apropiado de fertilizantes a fin de \nincrementar producción estabilizando áreas en \nproducción. \nAnexos \nDominios de Recomendación para Maiz \nde Primera en la Subregión de Yo rito y \nSulaco (Expresado en días a floración \nmasculina) \n01eSJ*. t \n1300 unidmes 1M \n(b-.M 50C opem. 34 -c \n. 81- 7Q \n. 71 - 90 \n. 81 - 90 \n• ¡¡JI _100 \n\"01-120 \nEste mapa muestra un ejemplo de como se \npodrían determinar dominios de recomendación \npara el cultivo de maíz. Las zonas a colores \nilustran los dias a fioración masculina de un \ngenotipo de maíz tropical. \nNota: Estas figuras no representan datos \noficiales. Los limites de aldeas son para fines \nde capacitación. \nA-33 \n\n","tokenCount":"1931"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b0dbc0eecaeccc91abb22b43e0090a0d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d9fc03fa-3836-45a2-9d85-0ab1df79de8d/retrieve","id":"2010223036"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f333586d-0f16-400f-9769-f19d3d53ed64","pagecount":"29","content":"Plantains are starchy bananas which make up one-quarter of the total world production of bananas (Musa spp.). Unlike the sweet dessert bananas , plantains are a staple food which is fried, baked , boiled (and then sometimes pounded) or roasted , and consumed alone or together with otherfood.About 70 million people in West and Central Africa are estimated to derive more than one-quarter of their food energy requirements from plantains , making them one of the most important sources of food energy throughout the African lowland humid forest zone.In Africa, plantains are grown for home consumption, not for export. The area between the lowlands of Guinea and Liberia in West Africa and the central basin of Zaire in Central Africa produces one-half the total world output of plantains (figure 1). West Africa produces two-thirds and Central Africa one-fifth of the African output. In term s of cost per hectare , per ton and per unit of food energy , plantains are also the cheapest staple crop to produce.Bearing plants (figure 2) consist of :(a) Bunch or inflorescence. Composed of many flowers, the bunch emerges between the leaves and is attached to the plant by a rachis or fruit stalk. The many protuberances on the rachis are called glomerules. Each glomerule bears a group of flowers, also called a hand. Edible fruit (o r fingers) develop from female flowers located at the first 10 glomerules of the bunch. Neutral flowers (also called hermaphrodite or intermediate flowers ) appear next but do not develop into fruit as their ovaries cannot swell to form pulp. The purple bud at the end of the bunch is called the \"male bud\" and consists of bracts covering groups of so-called male flowers . This male bud may be absent or present when the bunch reaches maturity.(b) Pseudostem with foliage leaves. The cylindrical structure rising from the soil and carrying the foliage is not a stem in the true sense. It is a \"false\" stem or pseudostem because the growing tip (or meristem) of the plant remains near soil level. As the false stem consists of overlapping leaf sheaths, (c) Underground corm with suckers and roots. The corm , sometimes wrongly called a bulb, is the true stem of the plant.Numerous roots emerge from the corm, most of which grow horizontally at a depth of 0 to 15 cm. Roots are whitish if young and healthy and become brown with age. If infested by nematodes, they become brown or even black and/or show protuberances.The growing tip (or meristem) at the top of •the corm continuously forms new leaves and later becomes the inflorescenc e. The corm produces many branches, called suckers, and the whole unit is often referred to as the \"mat\" or \"stool\". After the plant crop has been harvested, the mother plant is cut down and the suckers are thinned. Although all suckers are followers or daughter plants , the cultivator selects one (the ratoon) to continue the next cyde of production. Th e second harvest from the plantain mat is call ed the first ratoon crop. The third harvest is the second ratoon crop , and so on.At least 116 plantain cultivars have been identified in West and Central Africa. Plant size and bunch type are the most important characteristics for production purposes.Plant size depends on the number of leaves produced before flowering: giant more than 38 fo liage leaves ; medium between 32 and 38 foliage leaves ; small fewer than 32 foliage leaves. When the plantains flower, leaf production has ended.Bunch morphology provides another method of classifica• tion (figure 2): French plantains: bunch is complete at matu rity . Many hands consist of numerous , rather smal l fingers fo llowed by the bunch axis cove red with neutral flowers and male flowers; the male bud is large and persistent. False Horn plantains: bunch is incomplete with no male bud at maturity. Hands consist of large fingers followed by a few neutral flowers . Horn plantains: bunch is incomplete at maturity. Handsare few in number and consist of a few but very large fingers. Th ere are no neutral flowers or male bud ; a tailor a de• formed glomeru le terminates the bunch axis . The Horn plantain resembles the False Horn but it has no neutral flowers and has larger fin gers.Several types of conventional planting material exist: peeper: a small sucker emerging from the soil (fig ure 3) ; sword sucker: a large sucker with lanceo lated leaves (fig• ure 3) , the best conventional planting material ; maiden sucker: a large sucker with foliage leaves; bits: pieces of a chopped corm.A new and most promising planting material consists of in vitro plants which are smal l maiden suckers produced from meristem culture (figure 4).Planting material can be collected from: (a) An existing fi eld , preferably an old field which is becom• ing unproductive. Otherwise damage to the roots may be (b) A multiplication plot, which is planted only for the production of suckers and not to produce bunches. Plant density (2 m x 2 m) is much higher than in production fields and suckers are obtained by either decapitation or false decapitation . Both methods consist of removing the growing point (figure 5). In the fi rst method , the pseudostem is removed to get to the growing point. On ly a small ho le or window is cut for the second method. The foliage can remain active for up to 3 months after the removal of the meristem by the second method. (c) A tissue cu lture laboratory, where in vitro plants which look like small maiden suckers are produced from meristems . In vitro plants are healthy , vigorous , free from pests and diseases (figure 4) and have a great future.Plantains , like other bananas. require a hot and hum id environment. Ideally, the average air temperature should be about 30°C and rainfall at least 1 00 mm per month. Rainfall should be we ll distributed throughout the year and dry seasons should be as short as possible. Irrigation is not suitable nor economically worthwhile for plantains grown by the fami ly farmer. but may become necessary when larger fields are cu ltivated in areas with a long dry season.Organic matter is essential for plantain cu ltivation (figure 6). External sources of mulch can consist of elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum) , which is rich in potassium , or c• cassava peelings , wood shavings , palm bunch refuse, dried weeds, kitchen refuse, and so on. Collecting and transporting mu lch are expensive in time and labor. The most co nvenient source consists of plants growing inside the plantain fields if they produce a great deal of organic matter without competing with the plantains.Su itable mu lch mOlterial can be obtained from trees which were slashed when the fields were cleared and which are growing again (figure 7); or from a deep-rooted legu me shrub cal led Flemingia congesta or F. macrophylla (figu re 8). F. congesta is seed drilled in the midd le of the 3 m plantain alley. It can be difficult to establ ish, but from the second year onwards it grows vigorously. It can reach a height of approximately 2.5 to 3 m if left unpruned, but in the field it is cut back 4 times a year to a height of about 1.5 m  (figure 8). The prunings are spread overthe soil. Flemingia is not fertilized as it benefits from fixed nitrogen and leached fertilizers appli ed to the plantains. Grass growing between the plantains is not suitable as a mulch source because it competes with the plantains.The plantain crop always benefits from the use of fertilizer (table 1). The yield from fertilized plants can be up to 10 times higher than that from unfertilized plants. The amount of fertilizer needed depends on soil fertility and so il type. General recommendations cannot be made as these should be based on soi l or leaf analysis and the results of fertilizer experiments. Since potassium and nitrogen are eas ily leached, they shou ld always be applied at regu lar intervals (split applications) during the growing (rainy) season. Other important nutrients are phosphate , calcium and magnesium which are provided in one application. In some exceptional cases, micro-nutrients (for example, zinc or sulfur) have to be applied. Weeds can be hand-pulled orchemicallycontrolled . Paraquat and simazine are appropriate herbicides since they control the weeds without affecting the plantains , unless leaves are accidentally sprayed . Glyphosate, diu ron and gramuron are not recommended as they can be phytotoxic to plantains.Black sig atoka is the major disease attacking plantains; nematodes and stemborers are the major pests.Black sigatoka is a leaf spot disease (figure 9a-d  Fougamou 1 (cooking banana)Nematode damage green leaves at maturity (9d) . Photosynthesis is reduced and small bunches (sometimes with undeveloped fingers) are produced. Yield losses are estimated at between 30 and 50 percent.Black sigatoka can be controlled with aerial applications of fungicides belonging to the groups ofthe benomyl , benzimidazoles, chlorothalonils, dithiocarbamates, flusilazoles , imazaliles , imidazoles, methylthiophanates, nuarimols, prochloraz, propiconazoles , triazoles and tridemorph , or soi lapplied fungicides such as triadimefon and triadimenol. In any case , at least two types of fungicide should be used alternately to preventthe fungus from developing resistance to the active ingredient.Plantain cu ltivars resistant to black sigatoka provide the only effective means of control since the fungicides are very expensive and can pose health hazards when applied in backyards. Breeding for resi stance began at the Onne station of the International Institute of Tropical Agricu lture (IITA) in Nigeria du ring 1988. For the time being , cooking bananas (\" Fougamou 1 \", \"Bom\", \"Gia Hui \", \"Foulah 4\" and \"Nzizi\") are available from IITA (figure 10) as a substitute for plantain. These varieties are resistantto black sigatoka and can be prepared and consumed in the same ways as plantains.Nematodes are minute worms which live in the soi l and infest plant roots. Several types of nematodes can extensive ly damage the plantain root system if the land was previously cropped with plantains or if they were introduced with infected planting material (figure 11). Nematodes impair the transport of nutrients and water to the main stem , causing a reduction in yie ld and weaken ing of the plant. As a result, many plants may be lost through tip-over whenever winds become strong.Nematodes can be controlled by applying nematicides in a circle , 25 cm in diameter, around the plant. The stemborer or banana weevil Cosmopolites sordidus (figure 12) lays its eggs near the corm of the main plant. The larvae attack the underground part of the plant, feeding on I ,..,. Stem borer trap from a piece of pseudostem the corm and boring channels in it (figure 13). Plants become very weak, especially during the dry season , and tip over. Yield can be drastically reduced.Stem borers can be controlled by leaving the land under fallow, by the application of coffee husks and by insecticides. The cost of insecticides should determine whether they should be used. The use of traps provides an alternative method for controlling banana weevils which is cheap but time-consuming and not as effective as the use of insecticides. Traps are made by cutting pseudostems in half longitudinally and laying the pieces cut side down on the soil near the plantains (figure 14). One trap for every 20 to 30 plants is the current practice . Traps should be inspected daily early in the morning. The adult black weevils are then retrieved from between the soil and the cut surface of the pseudostem and killed. Traps remain effective for about 1 or 2 weeks and are renewed at harvest when an ample supply of pieces of pseudQstem is available.A field that becomes unproductive should be left fallow when the plantain mats have been destroyed . Good results can be obtained with the use of kerosene , glyphosate or 2-4 0 but the plantain mats can only be completely destroyed by hand. This ensures that no live material remains to harbor pests and reinfect the field .To restore fertility , the organic matter in the soil should be raised as high as possible during the fallow period by planting an improved fallow (for example , a leguminous cover crop). Otherwise the fallow crop can consist of trees which were cut down at planting time and are growing back or of Flemingia congesta which was grown between the plantain rows as a source of mulch. In addition to restoring fertility, the fallow crop should by itself completely eliminate all kinds of weeds , especially grasses. A grass fallow is not suitable as grass easily grows again and becomes a noxious weed.Compound garden with plantains 12Most plantains produced in West Africa come from compound gardens or backyards inside villages (figure 15). Backyard soil is very rich in organic matter and nutrients from household refuse which is dumped there. Such gardens.are permanently in use for plantains which grow there luxuriantly, become very large and produce heavy bunches. They grow in groups or clusters as each bearing plant produces many suckers which are not pruned out. Human activity is limited to manuring, propping and harvesting.Since the demand and thus the price for this crop are continuously increasing, many farmers want to grow more plantains in orderto raise their income. However, backyards cannot be readily extended since they are enclosed by houses or fences. The only way, therefore, to expand production is to grow plantains in fields at some distance from the village. In most cases such field-grown plantains are very poorly maintained. The result is a very modest yield from the first year onwards. Different methods of cultivation should accompany the change in site to achieve and sustain high-level yields for several years.The site should be easily accessible, especially if the establishment of a large field is being planned. It should be well drained but not too steeply sloped. Plantain cultivation is impossible if the land becomes flooded from time to time, or has a water table at a depth of only 50 cm or less. The soil should be rich in organic matter (black soil). Hence fields in a long natural fallow, under an improved established fallow or with a lot of mulch are recommended.Fields are to be prepared with minimum disturbance to the soil (no-tillage farming). In consequence, manual clearing should be preferred to mechanical deforestation because bulldozers always remove topsoil with the important organic matter and compact the remaining soil. When an old natural fallow is cleared , the debris from the forest should be burned if plantain cultivation is planned for 1 or 2 cycles only. If perennial CUltivation is being considered, planting should be done through the mulch (figure 16). Young fallows of about 3 to 5 years or improved legume fallows should be simply slashed and left without being burned. Trees must be cut but the stumps are not to be removed , and the trees should be left to grow again (figure 7). They can be pruned only when they start to obstruct field activities or shade the plantains.Once the fallow crop is slashed, the field is ready for pegging. Drains should be dug if some spots in the field tend to waterlog after heavy rains. The recommended spacing is 3 m between the plantain rows and 2 m within the row (in other words . 3 m x 2 m). An alternative is 2.5 m x 2.5 m. If spaced 3 m x 2 m, 1 hectare should contain 1667 plants , but with a spacing of 2.5 m x 2.5 m, it should contain 1600 plants . Rows shou ld be straight in flat fields to give plants the maximum amount of sunlight. However, on sloping land , rows should follow the contour lines in order to decrease soil erosion.For fie ld cultivation, medium plantains should be preferred to giant ones even though giant plantains produce heavier bunches. Giant plantains take longer to produce and are more likely to be damaged by strong winds because of their size.The decision whether to grow a French (figure 17a) or a False Horn (figure 17b) plantain cu ltivar should depend on which type the consumers prefer. Horn plantains (figure 17c) should never be CU ltivated as their yield is very low .Suckers are separated from their mother plant with a spade or machete . The sucker corm must not be damaged or chipped. Consequently the corm should be careful ly peeled with a machete. The pseudostem of the suckers should be cut off a few centimeters above the corm (figure 18). Peeling of the corm de lays the development of nematode infestation, whi le cutting of the pseudostem reduces bu lkiness and improves early growth of the newly planted sucker.fThe peeling process is just like that for cassava. A freshly peeled healthy corm ought to look white , but corms infected by stemborers and nematodes show brown and black spots which have to be removed until on ly white tissue remains. If the infestation is severe, with many brown and black spots, the sucker shou ld be destroyed. Sucker preparation (peeling) is carried out in the field where the planting material is collected . This is to avoid contamination of the new field with roots infested with nematodes or corms with stem borers. Prepared corms are transported to their destination where they are left to dry for a few days (not in the sun). Suckers have to be planted within t week. Storage of suckers for more than 2 weeks will adversely affect future yields.Suckers are planted immediately after field preparation. Plant holes are prepared with a minimum size of about 30 cm x 30 cm x 30 cm. Care should be taken to separate the topsoil from bottom soil. The sucker is placed in the hole and its corm is covered , first with the topsoil and th' en with the bottom soi l (figure (9) . In the plant hole, the side of the sucker corm which was formerly attached to the corm of its mother plant is placed against the wall of the hole. The opposite side of the sucker' corm is placed towards the middle of the plant hole , where the so il is loose (figure (9). The best sucker (the future ratoon) will emerge at the side opposite to where the planted sucker was previously attached to the mother plant. If the land is sloping, the sucker shou ld be so oriented that its follower will emerge against the slope. That will delay the development of the so-called highAn unprepared sucker (left) and peeled suckers (right) ready for planting Plantains can be planted throughout the rainy season. However, they should grow vigorously and without stress during the first 3 to 4 months after planting, and therefore they should not be planted during the last months of the rainy season. Planting with the first rains seems agronomically sound but not financially advantageous. Most farmers will plant at the onset of the rains, causing the market to be flooded with bunches 9 to 12 months after planting, when prices will be very low. Planting in the midd le of the rainy season is a better proposition as plantains wi ll then be produced off-season and get high prices.Organic matter is essential for plantain cu ltivation (table 1, page 6) if the field is to be very productive for a long time. A high leve l of organic matter in the soi l is beneficial because it stimulates root development, improves soil drainage, decreases soil temperature fluctuations, and increases soil porosity and biological life.Organic matter decays under the influence of microorganisms in the soil , heavy rainfall and high soil temperature. The amount of organic matter will gradually decrease once the field has been cleared and cause a decrease in yield. Therefore newly established plantains which receive only fertilizer will produce a high yield only in the first year. In the second year the yield will drop because the organic matter will have decomposed (figure 20 and table 1). To compensate for this continuous decrease in the amount of organic matter, the field needs mulch from plants and/or manure from animals. There are many sources of mulch. It can be either carried into the field or produced between the plants; but to be effective , it should cover the soil completely (figure 21 ). Once the field is mulched, weeds are controlled and the topsoil is protected against heavy rainfall and intense sunshine. Poultry, pigs and cows produce suitable manure which is applied only at the base of the mat.To produce a heavy bunch , plantains always need some extra nutrients. These can be applied in the form either of inorganic fertilizers or organic fertilizers (mulch , manure or ash from wood fires). Inorganic fertilizers have the advantages of easy handling and concentrated nutrients. Organic fertilizers are very bulky, yet they manifest many important characteristics. They improve soil moisture retention , weed and erosion control, soil porosity and biological activity. The application of fertilizer should start 1 month after planting of plantains or with the first rains in an already existing fie ld. The fertilizer is applied around the main plant in a circle about 50 cm in diameter. Fertilizer is not worked into the soil as that causes extensive damage to the superficial root system. No fertilizer is applied in the dry season.Plantains should always be weed-free . Weed control starts during field preparation. Weeds are initially controlled about every 6 to 8 weeks ; but when the plantain canopy closes , about 5 to 6 months after planting, weed infestation declines due to shading . Any plant with a superficial root system shou ld be considered a weed and therefore eliminated. Grasses or herbs are the most pernicious weeds because they derive their nutrients from the same level of the soil as the plantains. Tree seedlings are not considered to be weeds.Weeds can be controlled through mulching , chemically or manually . Mulching is the most efficient means , because a mulch layer can impede or prevent weed growth. Chemical control is expensive and in some circumstances also dangerous. Manual weeding is not recommended, although the weeds are thereby effectively controlled, because slashing or hoe weeding inevitably damages the plantain root system . However, sometimes manual weeding is the only possible method .Plantain fields are arranged in rows spaced 3 m x 2 m. As the canopy closes only some 5 to 6 months after planting, a fair amount of inter-row space remains un exploited during the first months. This space can be used for plants which have a short life cycle and which do not compete with plantains. Groundnut, yam , cocoyam (figure 22) and maize are su itable intercrops alth ough maize effectively delays the plantain harvest by about 2 months. Cassava and cowpea are not suitable , because their yields are reduced under the shade of plantain rows . Plantains can be used as a shade crop for young cocoa and coffee plants.The heavy weight of the plantain bunch bends all bearing plants and can cause doubling (pseudostem breaks) , snapoff (corm breaks , leaving a part in the ground) or uprooting , also called tip-over (the entire corm with roots comes out of the ground). Plants are generally weak during the dry season and strong winds , nematodes and stemborers also increase the rate of loss . For these re asons , bearing plants always need support from 1 or 2 wooden props , usually made of bamboo (figure 23). If a piece of bamboo is used, the support is placed alongside the bearing plant and the top of the plant is tied to the bamboo. A lateral branch at the top of the bamboo prop sometimes forms a natural fork which can be used to support the plantain without being tied to it. When 2 pieces of bamboo are used, the bunch and not the plant is supported in the first place. The bamboo props are crossed and form a fork. This fork is tied together with a rope and placed just underneath the bunch.The bearing plant is cut and the bunch, 3 to 4 months old, is harvested when 1 or 2 fingertips of the first hand start yellowing . The bunch usually then ripens within a week. Care has to be taken that the bunch does not drop on the ground when the main plant is cut. The whole of the pseudostem and foliage of the. main plant is then chopped (figure 24) and spread overthe soil as a mu lch for the ratoon crop. If this is not done, weevi ls may live and multiply on the intact pseudostem.Unlike those of most other bananas , plantain suckers develop very slowly. After harvest, all suckers start to grow at the same time and most have to be eliminated to stop competition (figure 25). The tallest is left to guarantee the follow up and maintain the density. Thinning usually has to be repeated a month later, as new suckers will have emerged by that time . Suckers are thinned with a machete . The sucker pseudostem is cut off near its corm and the point of the machete is twisted in the growing tip , thus killing it.After production of several ratoon crops , the upper surface of corms in aging plantain fields can be seen above soil level. The exposure of the corm s, which is call ed high mat (figure 26) , is believed to have several causes. The nature of ratooning in plantains seems to be particularly important. High mat exposes the roots which dry out. The plants become weak and tip over easi ly because they are no longer firmly based in the soil. Earthing up (adding so il around th e plant) does not help much . Howeve r, mulch protects the roots which would otherwise dry out and improves the ' ram ification and stability of the plants .A field which becomes unproductive should be left fa llow. If plantains are to be planted again after a fallow period , the following points shou ld be considered .• At the beginning of the fa ll ow, all plantain mats should be entirely destroyed. Otherwise , remain ing plants cou ld maintain nematode and stembore r popu lations which wou ld readily infest newly planted plantains after the fa llow period .• Only manual destruction guarantees the complete elimination of the existing plantain mats.• The level of organic matter in the soil should be raised as high as possible during the fallow period in order to restore fertility. This can be done by allowing trees to regrow andlor by planting a legume cover crop .• The fallow period should last at least 2 to 3 years. \"C: degrees Celsius, Centigrade 2,4 D: a herbicide aldicarbe: an insecticide anchorage: stabi lity of plantains in the soi l backyard : compound garden banana weevil : an insect that damages the plantain corm benomyl : a fungicide benzimidazole: a fungicide bits: pieces of chopped corm used in planting black sigatoka: severe leaf spot disease of plantains and bananas \" 80m \": a variety of cooking banana resistant to black sigatoka bottom soil: soil from the bottom of a hole dug for planting bract: a purple modified leaf covering a flower cluster breeding : plant improvement canopy : cover formed by leaves carbofuran: a nematicide and insecticide chlordecone : an insecticide chlorothalonil: a fungicide cm: centimeter contour line: a line connecting the points on a land surface that have th e same elevation cooking bananas: starchy bananas which have to be cooked corm : th e (underground) stem of a plantain or banana wh ich produces suckers and roots Cosmopolites sordidus: see banana weevil cultivar: cu ltivated variety daughter plant: sucker succeeding the bearing plant decapitation: the process of eliminating the growing tip after cutting the pseudostem ; used in sucker multiplication dithiocarbamate: a fungicide diuron: a herbicide doubling: breaking of the pseudostem drainage: the gradual disappearance of water in the soi l earthing up: heaping soil in mounds at the base of the main plant ethoprophos : a nematicide fallow : previously cu ltivated land that is allowed to lie idle, usually in order to re-. cover its fertility false decapitation: the process of elim inatin g the growing tip after an opening (a window) has been made in the base of the pseudostem ; used in sucker mu ltiplication. See also decapitation False Horn plantains: plantains with an incomp lete inflorescence at maturity; hands consisting of large fingers fo llowed by few hermaphrodite flowers, no male bud at maturity female flowers: those flowers on the bunch who se ovaries deve lop into fruit fertilizer: a chemical mixture used to supply nutrients to the soi l finger: a sing le plantain or banana fruit Flemingia congesta (F. macrophyl/a): a legume shrub used as an all ey crop in plantain fie lds; cut regularly to supp ly mulch flowering: producing flowers flusilazole: a fungicide foliage leaves: the big leaves of a plantain or banana follower: sucker, daughter plant succeeding the bearing plant \" Fougamou 1 \" , \" Foulah 4\" : varieties of cooking banana resi stant to black sigatoka French plantains: plantains with a complete inflorescence at maturity. This type has many hands consisting of many , rather small fruits fo ll owed by the inflorescence axis covered with persisting hermaphrodite flowers and male flowers; th e male bud is large and persistent fungicide: chemical used to kill fungi fungus: any of a major group of saprophytic and parasitic lower plants that lack chlorophyll and include molds , rusts and mushrooms, among others g: gram \" Gia Hui \": a variety of cooking banana resistant to black sigatoka giant plantains : tall plantains which produce more than 38 fo liage leaves before flowering glomerule : proluberance on the rachis of a bunch glyphosate: a herbicide gramuron : a herbicide hand: a cluster of fingers borne on the same glomeru le HCH: an insecticide hectare: area of land 100 m by 100 m herbicide: chemical used in killing weeds hermaphrodite flowers: interm ediate or neutral flowers which persist on the bunch but do not develop into fruit high mat: the upper portion of the corm grows o'ut of the soil , exposing a considerable area of root-bearing tissue Horn plantains: plantains with an incomplete inflorescence at maturity. This type has . few hands consistin g of few but very large fingers, no hermaphrodite flowers and no male bud imazalil: a fungicide imidazole: a fungicide inflorescence: a floral axis with clusters of flowers insecticide : chemical used in killing insects intermediate flowers: see hermaphrodile flowers in vitro plant : plant produced from a meristem and CU ltivated temporarily in a laboratory isazophos: a nematicide isofenphos : an insecticide lanceolated: tapering to a point at the top and sometimes at the base leaf sheath : the lower part of the leaf which forms the pseudostem of the plantain plant legume: a plant which fixes nitrogen from the atmosphe re by interaction with bacteria m: meter maiden sucker: a large sucker with foliage leaves male bud: the big purple termin al protuberance of the plantain bunch male flowers: flowers which are found in the male bud manure: organic mulch from animal origin; e.g. poultry manure mat: corm with suckers; stool meristem: growing tip which is found on the corm medium plantains: plantains producing between 32 and 38 fo liage leaves before flowering methylthiophanate: a fung icide micronutrient: nutrient needed in ve ry small amounts for good plant deve lopment microorganism: an organism of microscopic size ; e.g . fungus , bacterium mm: millimeter morphology: form , structure mother plant : a plantain plant with a bunch mulch: organic matter of plant origin used to . cove r soi l and improve ferti lity Musa: genus name of bananas which includes dessert bananas, cooking bananas and plantains, and their wi ld re latives . Mycosphaerel/a fijiensis: wind-borne fungus causing black sigatoka disease nematicide: chernical used in ki lling nematodes nematode: minute parasitic worm which damages plant rools neutral flowers: see hermaphrod ite flowers no-till farming : farming without soi l disturbance nuarim' ol: a fungicide \"Nzizi \" : a vari ety of cooking banana resistant to black sigatoka ovary: the basal portion of the flower which develops into a fruit in female flowe rs, but not in hermaphrodite and male flowe rs paraquat: a herbi cide peduncle: see rachis peeper: a small sucker emerg ing from the so il pegging: using pegs to mark a field or planting holes ground split application : the application of identical amounts of a substance (e.g. ferti lizer) at regular intervals stem borer: see banana weevil stool : see mat sucker : a shoot from the main plant which can develop into a bearing plant sword sucker: a large peeper with lanceolated leaves thinning : the process of eliminating all but one sucke r to avo id competition tip-over : entire corm with the roots comes out 0f the ground ton : 1000 kilograms topsoil : soil at the top or on the surface of the fie ld which is usually darker and richer in nutrients than the bottom soil underneath it triadimefon : a fungicide triadimenol : a fungicide triazole: a fungicide tridemorph : a fungicide uprooting: see tip-over waterlogging: when water remains on the fie ld after rain; this is caused by bad drainage ","tokenCount":"5614"}

data/part_2/0195070522.json

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e5e931184488ba73f61454e4675b8bc4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/31146eb3-1977-41ad-b55f-4e5f1931ddd6/retrieve","id":"-1186890384"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"cceec56e-f191-4148-af45-024d114bc577","pagecount":"1","content":"• Women's diet is one of the immediate determinants of maternal and child nutrition• Examine dietary intake of women with children <2 years of age • Examine inequity in dietary intake by wealth status • Assess the role of food or cash transfers in maternal diet diversity• Data came from a phone survey of 6,227 women in six states of India. • Dietary intake was assessed using the diet quality questionnaire which was then recategorized to calculate score for food diversity, consumption of healthy and unhealthy foods, and minimum diet diversity (MDD) for women. • Inequity in dietary intake was examined using wealth quintiles • Association between food and cash transfer on maternal diet was examined using multivariate regression analysis controlling for maternal, child, households' factors and state fixed effects.pf the women achieved MDD• The suboptimal diet and inequity in food consumption requires concerted actions to improve diet and narrowing of equity gaps. • More efforts are required to increase the coverage of already existing cash transfer schemes in India.• Consumption of meat, poultry and fish was lowest, 17% ","tokenCount":"179"}

data/part_2/0196756559.json

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"82803fb438e6b3f3e34c30ec360a83bf","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cef05914-3e93-4df5-9abd-d38511539eae/retrieve","id":"1742539241"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"811a5665-9b42-45e0-a2d1-00aa2540cd75","pagecount":"42","content":"La Alianza de Bioversity International y el Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) agradece a los comités municipales, a las asociaciones de productores, industrias, comercializadoras, entidades de educación, organizaciones no gubernamentales, agencias de cooperación internacional, centros de investigación, y demás actores públicos y privados que hacen parte o apoyan al gremio cacaotero del Caquetá, por su participación en la construcción del presente plan de acción que hace parte de la \"Estrategia para la sostenibilidad de la cadena de cacao en Caquetá: ruta hacia la acción climática y la construcción de paz\".El presente documento es el resultado de un trabajo participativo que deja de manifiesto la voluntad y el compromiso de los actores regionales en la búsqueda de una agricultura sostenible para la Amazonia colombiana. De este modo, este plan de acción se fundamenta en la proposición concertada de objetivos y acciones estratégicas que buscan contribuir al cierre de brechas de competitividad de la cadena y, a su vez, resaltar la importancia del cultivo del cacao en el posconflicto, como una alternativa que favorece la recuperación y conservación de los bosques en plantaciones agroforestales.La construcción de este documento fue financiada por el proyecto 18_III_106_COL_M_Estrategias productivas sostenibles, \"Implementando sistemas productivos sostenibles agrícolas y pecuarios para simultáneamente alcanzar la conservación de los bosques para la mitigación del cambio climático (REDD+) y la construcción de la paz en Colombia\", que forma parte de la Iniciativa Climática Internacional (IKI) y las iniciativas de investigación de CGIAR \"Sistemas de Innovación Agroalimentaria Resilientes en América Latina y el Caribe (AgriLAC Resiliente)\" y \"Low-Emission Food Systems (Mitigate+)\". El Ministerio Federal del Medio Ambiente, Conservación de la Naturaleza y Seguridad Nuclear (BMU, por sus siglas en alemán) apoyó esta iniciativa sobre la base de una decisión adoptada por el Bundestag alemán.Como resultado del trabajo colaborativo entre el proyecto \"Implementando sistemas productivos sostenibles agrícolas y pecuarios para simultáneamente alcanzar la conservación de los bosques para la mitigación del cambio climático (REDD+) y la construcción de la paz en Colombia\", en adelante proyecto SLUS, y las iniciativas de investigación de CGIAR \"Sistemas de Innovación Agroalimentaria Resilientes en América Latina y el Caribe (AgriLAC Resiliente)\" y \"Low-Emission Food Systems (Mitigate+)\", fue posible trabajar con los actores de la cadena del cacao del Caquetá en la estructuración de una estrategia sectorial con enfoque de sostenibilidad. Este proceso contó con la participación de 114 personas, entre ellas representantes del sector productivo, proveedores de insumos agrícolas, industrias procesadoras, comercializadores, entidades de investigación y prestadores de diversos servicios de apoyo al subsector cacaotero de la región y del país.El presente plan de acción hace parte del documento denominado \"Estrategia para la sostenibilidad de la cadena de cacao en Caquetá: ruta hacia la acción climática y la construcción de paz\", disponible en el repositorio de CGIAR. El propósito de este subdocumento es proporcionar una herramienta que facilite los ejercicios de planificación y seguimiento de las actividades planteadas por el conjunto de actores que se integran en el encadenamiento del cacao en el Departamento. De esta manera, se busca apoyar la continua construcción de una hoja de ruta, que pretende articular los intereses institucionales e individuales en la persecución de objetivos y metas comunes para abordar los actuales desafíos de la sostenibilidad.Es relevante enunciar que la estructura del plan de acción responde a la necesidad de trabajar en el cierre de brechas que alejan a la cadena del cacao del Caquetá de una competencia sostenible a nivel de región y de país. Asimismo, se enmarca en lo ordenado por la Ley 811 de 2003 para las organizaciones de cadena en lo que respecta a incluir en la planificación una visión conjunta y la formulación de estrategias para: (1) mejorar la productividad y competitividad, (2) vincular productores y empresarios al desarrollo de mercados, (3) desarrollar alianzas estratégicas, (4) fomentar el cuidado de los recursos naturales, (5) contribuir a la formación de recursos humanos, (6) promover la investigación y el desarrollo tecnológico, (7) mejorar el flujo de información y (8) reducir los costos de transacción entre eslabones.Con lo anterior, el plan de acción integra pilares de la sostenibilidad social, ambiental y económica. En lo que respecta a lo ambiental, tanto la estrategia como el plan de acción se orientan a la reducción de emisiones asociadas al uso del suelo, la conservación de los bosques y la restauración de paisajes degradados. Por último, pero no menos importante, se espera que, a través del desarrollo de acciones conjuntas, la sociedad cacaotera continúe trabajando por la construcción de paz en las zonas rurales afectadas por el conflicto armado a través del denominado cultivo de la paz. El planteamiento de una estrategia sectorial parte del diagnóstico del estado del arte de una cadena productiva, así como de la identificación de sus cuellos de botella y oportunidades de mejora, para planear acciones dirigidas a aumentar la competitividad y sostenibilidad. Esta ruta de planificación participativa requiere establecer una visión integradora que le permita a los actores proyectar el estado deseado de la cadena en un determinado período de tiempo. Para el caso de la cadena del cacao en el Caquetá, los actores establecieron la siguiente declaración de visión, con el propósito de alcanzarla en un lapso de 10 años:En 2032, el Caquetá habrá logrado incrementar las áreas establecidas con el cultivo de cacao -principalmente en sistemas agroforestales SAF -así como su productividad y la calidad del grano. Este logro se deberá al esfuerzo institucional y de los actores de la cadena de valor, para impulsar procesos de extensión rural, crear capacidades locales a través de escuelas de formación, adaptar buenas prácticas agrícolas (BPA), emplear materiales vegetales nativos o mejorados acoplados al territorio, gestionar proyectos de fomento productivo, impulsar la investigación y consolidar una cultura cacaotera.El cultivo del cacao se afirmará como una alternativa viable para la economía agrícola departamental, a la vez que habrá permitido promover la conservación y el aprovechamiento sustentable de los ecosistemas, y recuperar áreas y posturas degradadas para alcanzar la cero deforestación. Además, el cacao caqueteño será referente en el mercado nacional, habrá logrado ingresar de forma competente a mercados diferenciados e internacionales, y potenciará el desarrollo de la agroindustria cacaotera local.Es relevante enunciar que esta meta estratégica incorpora elementos de la visión 2030 establecida por los actores de la cadena en 2017, en el marco de la iniciativa Visión Amazonía del Gobierno de Colombia. No obstante, durante el proceso de su revisión participativa, se consideró importante agregar nuevos elementos y alinearla con la visión 2040 para el desarrollo agropecuario rural del Caquetá, la cual se cita a continuación:En el año 2040, el departamento del Caquetá será un territorio con arraigo e identidad amazónica, que consolida sus procesos de ordenamiento y fundamenta su desarrollo rural sobre cadenas de valor de bienes y servicios que garantizan el manejo, conservación y restauración de nuestros biomas, propiciando el aprovechamiento sustentable de los recursos naturales y oportunidades atractivas y viables que contribuyan al buen vivir de los pobladores rurales y su permanencia en el campo. (FAO & ADR, 2021, p. 115).En Colombia, la Ley 811 de 2003 establece los lineamientos para la inscripción y reconocimiento de las organizaciones de cadena del sector agropecuario, forestal, acuícola y pesquero ante el MinAgricultura. En respuesta a lo decretado en la norma, los actores de la cadena del cacao en el Caquetá han establecido los siguientes objetivos estratégicos para cada uno de los nueve aspectos especificados por el Congreso de la República (2003) (Tabla 1).Mejorar la calidad fitosanitaria del material vegetal, la capacidad competitiva de la producción departamental y el cubrimiento de los servicios de extensión rural.Desarrollo del mercado de bienes y factores de la cadena Generar capacidades locales para la búsqueda, ingreso y permanencia competitiva de la región en escenarios del mercado nacional e internacional.Disminución de los costos de transacción entre los distintos agentes de la cadena Buscar la optimización de las inversiones e ingresos de los cacaoteros en el desarrollo de modelos productivos sostenibles.Establecer alianzas institucionales que logren sinergias en recursos técnicos, humanos y financieros para el beneficio de los actores de la cadena.Coordinar la estructura de medios que faciliten la comunicación y transferencia de conocimientos entre los actores de la cadena, así como la generación de información actualizada para el subsector cacaotero.Estructurar programas que potencien la participación e inclusión de pequeños productores, mujeres, jóvenes rurales y emprendedores en la cadena productiva.Fomentar la protección de los ecosistemas donde se cultiva cacao, el uso sostenible del suelo y las prácticas sustentables del manejo del cultivo.Formación de recursos humanos Desarrollar fortalezas empresariales, técnicas y comerciales en los productores y en las organizaciones que los agremian.Impulsar el desarrollo de investigaciones y proyectos que permitan el progreso tecnológico del cultivo y la caracterización de especies nativas.Tabla 1. Objetivos estratégicos de la cadena de cacao en el Caquetá en cumplimiento de la Ley 811 de 2003 (Artículo 1).Tras definir la visión de la cadena de cacao en el Caquetá y determinar los objetivos estratégicos alineados a los nueve puntos mandatorios por la Ley 811 de 2003, se realizaron jornadas de trabajo con integrantes del comité departamental para analizar los cuellos de botella de la cadena en cada eslabón, proponer estrategias, plantear actividades que contribuyan al cierre de brechas y fijar metas. Este proceso concertado resultó en la formulación de un plan de acción (Tabla 2 a Tabla 10), el cual se presenta subdividido en función de las líneas estratégicas establecidas por mandato en la norma enunciada. Cabe mencionar que cada una de las estrategias expuestas fue articulada con el objetivo estratégico que guarda mayor relación a su alcance y propósito; sin embargo, las actividades pueden relacionarse con uno o más de los resultados esperados.Tabla 2. Plan de acción para la línea estratégica 1 -Mejora de la productividad y competitividad.Objetivo: Mejorar la calidad fitosanitaria del material vegetal, la capacidad competitiva de la producción departamental y el cubrimiento de los servicios de extensión rural.Deficiencia en la calidad del material vegetal ofertado.Fortalecer el manejo fitosanitario del material vegetal y la capacidad instalada de la oferta local.Registro de viveros y jardines clonales que proveen material vegetal.Número de viveros y jardines clonales registrados ante el ICA.Cuatro (4) viveros y cuatro (4) jardines clonales registrados ante el ICA.Validar y liberar clones adaptados a las condiciones propias de la región y a la adversidad del cambio climático.Número de clones validados y liberados.Tres (3) clones validados y liberados.Formación de productores en manejo de material vegetal.Porcentaje de productores formados.Formación de al menos el 50% de los productores de los comités municipales. Cinco (5) tecnologías desarrolladas, validadas y transferidas.Producción y poscosecha Estructurar y poner en marcha un proceso de aprendizaje con criterios unificados de extensión rural.Número de procesos de aprendizaje diseñados y en marcha.Un (1) plan de aprendizaje con enfoque de extensión diseñado y en marcha. Inadecuado manejo agronómico del cultivo de cacao.Promover el aprendizaje de técnicas de manejo productivo y la adopción de BPA tanto de capacitadores como de los cacaoteros.Capacitar y certificar competencias de los productores de cacao.Porcentaje de productores capacitados y con certificación de competencias.Al menos el 50% de los productores participan de procesos de capacitación.20% de los productores asociados a los comités certificados en competencias.• ACAMAFRUT • SENA • UNIAMAZONIAEl inadecuado manejo poscosecha en las unidades productivas impacta en la calidad del grano de cacao.Evaluar modelos de beneficio a partir de los parámetros que influyen en la calidad del grano.Identificar los principales factores de poscosecha que influyen en la calidad del grano.Un (1) documento descriptivo de los modelos de beneficio y de los factores que afectan la calidad del grano.Un (1) documento descriptivo de los modelos de beneficio y de los factores que afectan la calidad del grano.Producción y poscosecha Definir y proponer un modelo piloto de beneficio para la región.Validar la adopción de sistemas de secado tecnificados y apropiados a las condiciones climáticas de la región (p. ej., secado a gas, eléctrico).Número de sistemas de secado validados.Un (1) sistema de secado funcional adecuado a la capacidad de acopio y las condiciones de la región.Un (1) manual de operación para sistemas de secado.Objetivo: Mejorar la calidad fitosanitaria del material vegetal, la capacidad competitiva de la producción departamental y el cubrimiento de los servicios de extensión rural.Débil cultura cacaotera asociada a la baja vocación agrícola del Departamento.Promover el desarrollo de proyectos de investigación social con el objetivo de impulsar el desarrollo de la comunidad cacaotera.Identificar y documentar los factores que inciden en el desarrollo de la cultura cacaotera en el Caquetá.Un (1) documento descriptivo de los aspectos que afectan la cultura cacaotera en el Caquetá.Un (1) documento descriptivo de los aspectos que afectan la cultura cacaotera en el Caquetá.Falta de recursos necesarios para la prestación del servicio de extensión agropecuaria (entre ellos, infraestructura y equipos de técnicos y profesionales).Apoyar la gestión de recursos para mejorar la cobertura y continuidad del servicio de asistencia técnica y extensión rural a los cacaoteros.Gestionar recursos del Sistema General de Regalías (SGR) y de cooperación internacional para la atención de productores de cacao a través del servicio de extensión rural.Número de productores de cacao que han recibido asistencia técnica.2.000 usuarios atendidos. Objetivo: Generar capacidades locales para la búsqueda, ingreso y permanencia competitiva de la región en escenarios del mercado nacional e internacional.Alta intermediación en el proceso comercial e informalidad en las negociaciones.Buscar oportunidades de mercado para los diferentes tipos y calidad de cacao que se cultivan en el Departamento.Realizar acuerdos comerciales con compradores que ofrezcan precios rentables para el productor.Número de acuerdos comerciales establecidos y en marcha, entre comités y compradores.13 acuerdos, al menos un (1) acuerdo comercial por comité.Bajo nivel de conocimiento de las oportunidades de mercado.Incrementar la participación del grano de cacao del Caquetá en mercados diferenciales.A través de la marca regional.Realizar un foro departamental, con actores externos, sobre estrategias de diferenciación en el mercado de cacao sostenible.Número de foros departamentales por año.Un (1) foro departamental anual. Objetivo: Coordinar la estructura de medios que faciliten la comunicación y transferencia de conocimientos entre los actores de la cadena, así como la generación de información actualizada para el subsector cacaotero.Carencia de cifras validadas para el subsector cacaotero.Garantizar la actualización y socialización periódica de las estadísticas relacionadas con la cadena productiva del cacao del Caquetá.Caracterizar a los productores y realizar un censo cacaotero en el Caquetá; con el fin de identificar el número de productores, área de siembra, área cosechada, proyecciones de producción, edades de cultivos, asocios, entre otros.Un (1) censo cacaotero actualizado respecto a la caracterización de los productores.Un (1) censo cacaotero actualizado según la caracterización de los productores.• ACAMAFRUTActualizar cada año.Crear una plataforma regional en la que se encuentren documentos y estadísticas de relevancia para la cadena del cacao en el Caquetá.Un (1) repositorio de información regional administrado por el comité departamental.Un (1) repositorio de información regional administrado por el comité departamental.Falta de unificación de los criterios divulgados por parte de técnicos y profesionales.Realizar procesos de gestión documental para facilitar la transferencia de información entre los actores de la cadena.Construcción de un manual para el manejo sustentable del cultivo de cacao con enfoque territorial.Un (1) manual técnico para el manejo sustentable del cultivo de cacao.Un (1) manual técnico para el manejo sustentable del cultivo de cacao.Tabla 6. Plan de acción para la línea estratégica 5 -Mejora de la información entre los agentes de la cadena. Un (1) piloto con tres (3) establecimientos educativos.Pocos emprendimientos e iniciativas de agroindustria para el procesamiento del cacao de la región.Fomentar la agroindustria del cacao como una iniciativa de emprendimiento.Establecer acuerdos con instituciones, empresas y expertos, para el desarrollo de capacidades en la transformación del cacao.Número de acuerdos establecidos.Al menos cinco (5) acuerdos que beneficien a seis (6) agroindustrias.Ejecutar programas de fortalecimiento a la agroindustria cacaotera departamental. La participación de la mujer en los procesos de toma de decisiones es minoritaria.Promover el desarrollo de proyectos productivos y empresariales con enfoque de género.Ejecutar un proyecto que involucre la participación de mujeres en temas de siembra, transformación y comercialización del cacao.Porcentaje de mujeres de los comités que participan de proyectos en la cadena del cacao. 80% de las mujeres de los comités han participado en al menos un (1) proyecto. Objetivo: Fomentar la protección de los ecosistemas donde se cultiva cacao, el uso sostenible del suelo y las prácticas sustentables del manejo del cultivo.Baja adopción de los sistemas de producción adaptados a las condiciones de la región y al cambio climático.Fomentar la implementación de prácticas sustentables durante el establecimiento y desarrollo del cultivo del cacao.Identificar las prácticas sostenibles más adecuadas a las condiciones del Departamento y que den respuesta a los requisitos del mercado.Un (1) estudio de identificación de prácticas sostenibles en función de las condiciones del Caquetá.Un (1) estudio de identificación de prácticas sostenibles en función de las condiciones del Caquetá.Producción y poscosecha Modelar los impactos potenciales de la variabilidad y el cambio climático sobre el cultivo del cacao.Un (1) estudio de impactos de la variabilidad y el cambio climático en el cultivo de cacao.Un (1) estudio de impactos de la variabilidad y el cambio climático en el cultivo de cacao.Desarrollo del cultivo de cacao en zonas no aptas.Contribuir al fomento del uso sostenible del suelo en el Departamento.Establecer lineamientos de política pública para el fomento del cultivo de cacao en zonas aptas.Número de documentos de política pública departamental.Un (1) documento técnico y un (1) acto administrativo aprobado por la Asamblea Departamental, para establecer un lineamiento de política pública. Puesta en marcha de procesos continuos de fortalecimiento de capacidades organizacionales.Número de procesos de fortalecimiento organizacional en marcha.Porcentaje de comités con capacidades organizacionales fortalecidas.Un (1) plan de formación en marcha en el marco del PDEA.80% de los comités con capacidades fortalecidas.Fortalecer las unidades de negocio de los comités o de las asociaciones de productores de cacao.Número de organizaciones con unidades de negocio adicional.Cuatro (4) comités con unidades de negocio adicionales.• ACAMAFRUT • Red Nacional CacaoteraDébil estructura comercial de los comités.Crear capacidades comerciales en las juntas directivas de los comités.Poner en marcha un programa de formación comercial que incluya encuentros, talleres, capacitaciones, entre otras.Número de juntas directivas que participan de programas de formación comercial.13 juntas directivas que participen de un programa de formación comercial.• ACAMAFRUT Desde la perspectiva ambiental, la línea estratégica denominada \"Manejo de recursos naturales y medio ambiente\" comprende, en su objetivo y actividades de planificación, la identificación de prácticas sostenibles para el establecimiento y desarrollo del cultivo en función de las condiciones edafoclimáticas del Caquetá. Esta consideración incluye la evaluación de los posibles impactos del cambio climático sobre la producción del grano y viceversa, con el fin de valorar alternativas de adaptación y mitigación además de las proyecciones del subsector.Asimismo, busca mitigar impactos negativos de la instalación de cultivos en zonas de baja aptitud, mediante la gestión ambiental del suelo y la influencia en las políticas locales. Por último, comprende procesos de reforestación con el fin de mejorar la estructura arbórea a la vez que se ejerce una actividad agrícola sustentable. Cabe agregar que, en una menor proporción, la sostenibilidad ambiental de la actividad productiva también se encuentra relacionada con actividades de las líneas estratégicas 1 y 5 del plan de acción (Figura 1).Figura 1. Actividades del plan de acción relacionadas con la promoción de prácticas sostenibles en el cultivo del cacao.Pilares de la sostenibilidad ¿Qué buscan las prácticas agrícolas sostenibles?Uso eficiente de los recursos naturales Mejora de la productividad y competitividadReducción del impacto de la agricultura en el medio ambienteValidación y liberación de clones adaptados al cambio climático. Procesos de aprendizaje en BPA y transferencia tecnológica. Gestión de asistencia técnica y extensión rural.Mejora de información entre los agentes de la cadenaManual para manejo sustentable del cultivo con enfoque territorial. . Paquetes tecnológicos con prácticas de sostenibilidad ambiental por tipo de sistema productivo.Manejo de recursos naturales y medio ambiente ","tokenCount":"3270"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"240e757f704d95e01c1b8c0355aba755","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/8b68aa0f-6fc6-4412-9e71-aa59dae8d761/content","id":"919798461"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6bac0002-2f64-45a3-a493-3c5eaab9b2af","pagecount":"8","content":"Stem borers are major insect pests of maize in Uganda. A study was conducted in 2014-2016 to assess the performance of Bt hybrids expressing Cry1Ab (event MON810) against the two major stem borer species in Ugandathe African stem borer (Busseola fusca) and the spotted stem borer (Chilo partellus) -under artificial infestation. The study comprised 14 non-commercialized hybrids, including seven pairs of Bt and non-Bt hybrids (isolines), three non-Bt commercial hybrids and a conventional stem borer resistant check. All stem borer damage parameters (leaf damage, number of internodes tunneled and tunnel length) were generally significantly lower in Bt hybrids than in their isolines, the conventionally resistant hybrid, and local commercial hybrids. Mean yields were significantly higher by 29.4-80.5% in the Bt hybrids than in the other three categories of non-Bt hybrids. This study demonstrated that Bt maize expressing Cry1Ab protects against leaf damage and can limit entry of stem borers into the stems of maize plants, resulting in higher yield than in the non-transgenic hybrids. Thus, Bt maize has potential to contribute to the overall management package of stem borers in Uganda.Stem borers are some of the main insect pests of maize in Uganda. The four major stem borer species are the spotted stem borer, Chilo partellus (Swinhoe), the African stem borer Busseola fusca (Fuller), the sugarcane borer Eldana saccharina (Walker), and the pink stem borer Sesamia calamistis (Hampson). Busseola fusca and C. partellus are the two most widely distributed and dominant species in Uganda (Matama-Kauma et al., 2007;Molo et al., 2014). The larvae of stem borers feed on the plant whorl and tunnel stems leading to the death of growing shoots (Ampofo et, 1986). In Kenya, stem borers were reported to cause losses ranging from 10 to 100% (De Groote et al., 2002;Ong'amo et al., 2006;Seshu Reddy, 1990). Furthermore, in Kenya, total losses to stem borers were valued at USD 25 and USD 59.8 million in 1999 and 2000, respectively (De Groote et al., 2002). In Uganda, yield losses due to stem borers were estimated at 23.5% in 2015 (Wamatsembe et al., 2017). Stem borer damage on maize ears predisposes the grain to pre-harvest infestations by storage insect pests and mycotoxins (Njeru et al., 2020;Opoku et al., 2019). Mycotoxins, including aflatoxins, pose a serious health threat to humans and livestock and are associated with liver cancer, stunted growth in children, and immune disorders (Wu, 2014); these health risks make aflatoxin-contaminated maize grain unsuitable for food and feed.Cropping system, chemical, cultural, biological, and host plant resistance are used to control stem borers in maize (Khan et al., 1997;Ndemah et al., 2007;Schulthess et al., 1997). The push-pull technology is one of the cropping systems that are effective in controlling stem borers. However, it is poorly adopted by smallholder farmers because it is knowledge-and labor-intensive. In addition, limited availability and high cost of Desmodium seed, a key component of the technology, limits its uptake (Mukebezi, 2008). Spraying with insecticides only protects against early infestations, but not against stem borers feeding inside the ears and stems (Jotwani, 1983). In addition, insecticide use is not cost-effective in smallholder systems and may expose farmers to health and environmental risks. Biological control agents of stem borers have been introduced and released into farmers' fields but they take long to establish and only provide partial control (Bonhof et al., 1997;Bruce et al., 2009;Schulthess et al., 1997;Zhou et al., 2001). Many farmers have therefore resorted to using insecticides or not controlling stem borers at all. Although host plant resistance is safe and averts the need for farmers to purchase and apply insecticides, not a single stem borer resistant maize variety has been released and commercialized in Uganda, despite the existence of conventional stemborer resistant maize germplasm (CIMMYT, 1993;KEPHIS, 2022). In Kenya, 13 stem borer tolerant/resistant varieties have so far been released (KEPHIS, 2022).Transgenic plants expressing toxins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) with resistance to different groups of insects have been developed by genetically engineering (Koziel et al., 1993;Vaeck et al., 1988). Transgenic Bt maize can help to control several species of Lepidopteran stem borers, e.g. Ostrinia nubilalis (Hübner) (Magg et al., 2001), S. calamistis (Van Den Berg and Van Wyk, 2007), Sesamia nonagrioides (Lefèbvre) (Farinós et al., 2011), B. fusca and C. partellus (Tefera et al., 2016;Tende et al., 2010). The Bt toxin Cry1Ab included in event MON810 was deregulated and commercialized in the United States in 1996. It has also been approved for importation and cultivation in many countries in Latin America, Asia, and Europe (ISAAA, 2017). Farmers in South Africa started growing MON810 maize hybrids in 1998 (Kruger et al., 2012), and later Bt11 (also Cry1Ab) and MON89034 (Cry1A.105 + Cry2Ab2) were approved for control of stem borers in 2003and 2010, respectively (De Buck et al., 2016). In Egypt, MON810 was approved for cultivation in 2008 (Sawahel, 2008). To date, Bt maize has not been approved for commercial use in Uganda.No studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of Bt maize in controlling stem borers in Uganda, yet the expression and efficacy of Cry1Ab protein can vary with environmental conditions and farming systems/practice (Nguyen and Jehle, 2007;Székács et al., 2010;Trtikova et al., 2015). There are also known Cry1Ab resistant strains of B. fusca in South Africa (Campagne et al., 2013). The present study was conducted for three seasons under the supervision of the Uganda National Biosafety Committee (NBC) to generate empirical information to inform decision making on application for approval of Bt maize cultivation in Uganda. The performance of the Bt maize event MON810 in controlling two stem borer species (C. partellus and B. fusca) under artificial infestation was evaluated in confined field trials (CFTs) using different maize genotypes.The experiments were conducted in confined field trials (CFTs) following the national guidelines (UNCST, 2006). One CFT site was located at the National Crops Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI), Namulonge, Wakiso district (0.525931, 32.622453), and the other in Mubuku irrigation and settlement scheme in Kasese district (0.20845, 30.12483) NaCRRI oversees maize research in Uganda and was, therefore, chosen because of the existing technical and physical resources, including a well-developed CFT village required for the study. The Institute is 27 km north of Kampala, on the Kampala-Gayaza-Zirobwe road. The rainfall pattern at NaCRRI is bi-modal with peaks in April and October. Average rainfall ranges from 900 mm to 1,200 mm per annum.Mubuku irrigation scheme in Kasese was chosen because it hosts one of the largest and oldest CFT sites in the country and has a welldeveloped irrigation system for off-season planting. Mubuku lies at an altitude of about 1,007 m asl, with a mean annual temperature and rainfall of 27.8 • C and 750 mm, respectively.Genotypes in the field trials included seven Bt hybrids (maize hybrids with event MON810 expressing insecticidal Cry1Ab protein) and seven of their corresponding non-transgenic near-isogenic hybrids (isolines). The isolines are non-GM hybrids from inbred lines with genetic background identical to those of their corresponding GM lines. Three commercial non-transgenic maize varieties sourced from seed companies (East African Seeds, Farm Input Care Centre and Nalweyo Seed Company) in Kampala and a conventionally bred B. fusca and C. partellus resistant hybrid from CIMMYT (Munyiri et al., 2013) were also used (Table 1). The Bt hybrids and isolines were sourced from Monsanto Company (now Bayer).The experiments were conducted from 2014 to 2016. Chilo partellus trials were planted at NaCRRI on January 6, 2014and December 19, 2014and harvested on May 25, 2014and May 11, 2015,  Hybrid 14 -Isoline more abundant in the western mid altitude farmlands and Semeliki flats (Kasese) and Lake Victoria Crescent (Wakiso), respectively (Molo et al., 2014), and the presence of well-developed CFTs. In order to provide temporal isolation, the planting times were chosen to coincide with a period when most other maize crops in the vicinity were almost mature. This, in addition to implementing spatial isolation, was meant to avoid pollen exchange between Bt and non-Bt maize. The trials were planted in an alpha lattice experimental design, nine entries by two blocks, with four replications. There were two-row plots per entry. Two seeds were planted per hill in a row of 5 m length and thinned to one seedling per hill at two weeks after emergence. This made a total of 21 plants per row. The inter-and intra-row plant spacing was 75 cm and 25 cm, respectively, giving a population of 53,333 plants ha‾ 1 . Standard rates of fertilizers were applied (125 kg N and 125 kg P 2 O 5 ha‾ 1 ). Top dressing was done using urea in two splits. Supplemental irrigation was applied when needed. The fields were kept weed-free by hand weeding. The non-infested plants in each row were protected with Bulldock® 25 EC (Beta-cyfluthrin), but data were not collected from the sprayed plants.The rearing of C. partellus and B. fusca followed methods of Tefera et al. (2016). The stem borers were reared in an insectary at NaCRRI from field-collected populations of the stem borers. To ensure that neonates were alive at the time of infestation, both eggs and larvae were handled carefully to ensure maximal survival. The eggs were collected, surface sterilized using formaldehyde, and dried on filter paper as described by Tefera et al. (2016). The collected eggs were then kept under room temperature (26 ± 2 • C) for 4-5 days to develop into the blackhead stage. The eggs were then monitored for 1-2 days, within which period they hatched and were used for infestation. Where the number of neonates was low, further development of the emerged neonates was delayed by subjecting them to a temperature of 4 • C until enough neonates were recovered for infestation.Five plants, from the second to sixth plant in each row (10 plants per plot), were infested with 10 neonates of the target stemborer species (C. partellus at NaCRRI and B. fusca in Kasese), starting at about three weeks after the emergence of maize plants and repeated at weekly intervals. A total of three infestations was used for C. partellus. For the B. fusca experiment, the infestation was done four times because the required number of neonates could not be obtained; infestations used for B. fusca were 10, 3, 6 and 10 neonates per plant for the first, second, third and fourth infestations, respectively.A camel-hair brush was used to transfer the neonates into the young maize whorls. Only active neonates were used to infest the maize plants between 8:30 a.m. and 12:00 p.m., and 4:00 p.m.-5:30 p.m. to avoid exposing the neonates to harsh sunny conditions, which could lead to desiccation. The neonates were placed directly into the cooler and concealed maize whorls.Data on stem borer damage were collected on the leaves, internodes and stems (tunnel length) of maize. Leaf damage by stem borers was assessed by scoring each infested plant on a scale of 1-9 (where 1 = no visible damage and 9 = completely damaged) (Tefera et al., 2011). Scores of leaf damage were taken three times fortnightly beginning at two weeks after infestation. At harvest, the 10 infested plants were stripped off the leaves and assessed for stem damage. The number of stem borer exit holes per plant and the number of tunneled internodes were counted and recorded. The stalks were then split open to record the tunnel length, the number of larvae and number of pupae.To determine grain yield, only the infested plants (10 plants per plot) were harvested. The ears from the harvested plants were weighed separately and their respective moisture content was determined from a sample of grain. The yield was then converted to grain yield per hectare, assuming 80% shelling percentage and adjusted for moisture content at 13.5% using the formula below:Dry grain weight (kg) = Field weight* (100 − % Field MC) 86.5Where MC = Moisture content.The means of the different data parameters were calculated for each experimental unit in Microsoft Excel. Before analysis, all data were checked for the assumption of normality and homogeneity of variance using GenStat (International, n.d.). The number of exit holes and internodes tunneled, as well as tunnel lengths, were not normally distributed and were, therefore, transformed using square root transformation since they all had several zero counts and measurements. All data were analyzed using ANOVA, with contrasts for pairwise comparison between Bt and their non-Bt isolines. Similarly, we used ANOVA with contrasts for comparing the Bt hybrids, non-Bt Isolines, resistant check, and commercial checks. The means were compared using multiple comparison tests using Fisher's LSD method. All statistical analyses were done using GenStat V12.1.3338 (International, n.d.). Untransformed data are presented in the results.There were significant differences between Bt-and isolines in leaf damage in both seasons for C. partellus (Table 2). Mean leaf damage scores were significantly lower in all Bt hybrids when compared with their isolines. Mean leaf damage ranged from 1 to 1.4 in Bt hybrids and from 4.6 (entry 10) to 6.1 (entry 14) in isolines. Similar trends were observed for B. fusca in leaf damage for both Bt-and isolines (Table 2). Busseola fusca leaf damaged score ranged from 1.7 to 1.9 in Bt hybrids, and from 3 to 3.5 in isolines. The number of exit holes followed as similar pattern as leaf damage, being significantly lower in all Bt hybrids 1.9 ± 0.10a Hybrid 10 -Isoline 4.6 ± 0.46b 5.5 ± 0.17b 5.1 ± 0.28b 3.2 ± 0.24b Hybrid 11 -MON810 1.0 ± 0.02a 1.0 ± 0.03a 1.0 ± 0.02a 1.9 ± 0.08a Hybrid 12 -Isoline 4.9 ± 0.21b 5.5 ± 0.29b 5. Entries with odd numbers have Bt genes and those with even numbers do not have the Bt gene (isolines). Each pair of means within a column followed by different letters are significantly different.than in the isolines in the two C. partellus plantings, and in six of the seven Bt/isoline combinations (Table 3). Hybrids 8 and 12 recorded the highest exit holes in both seasons of infestation with C. partellus. Similarly, significant differences were observed in number of internodes tunneled (Table 4) and tunnel length (Table 5). Most of the Bt hybrids were highly resistant to tunneling caused by C. partellus in both seasons. There were, however, longer tunnels recorded in B. fusca infested plants (hybrids 4, 8, 10, 14) than in C. partellus infested plants (Table 5). For grain yield, there were significant differences between Bt-hybrids and isolines under both C. partellus and B. fusca infestation (Table 6). All Bt hybrids had greater yields than isolines in the C. partellus infested experiments. Among the C. partellus infested hybrids, hybrids 3, 5 and 7 had the highest yield (8.5-8.6 kg/ha) in the first season and hybrids 1, 3, 5, 7 and 13 had the highest yields (10.5-12 kg/ha) in the second season.In the B. fusca experiment, significant differences occured between the Bt and isoline pairs in grain yield only between Bt hybrid 13 (9.1 kg/ha) and isoline 14 (7.3 kg/ha). All the other comparisons between Bt and isolines in the B. fusca infested plants were not significantly different.There were significant differences between the four sets of hybrids (Bt hybrids, isolines, resistant check and commercial checks) in leaf damage, number of exit/entry holes, number of internodes tunneled, tunnel length and grain yield (Table 7). Bt maize had the lowest leaf damage, number of exit/entry holes, internodes tunneled and tunnel length followed by the resistant check, when infested with C. partellus and B. fusca. There were no significant differences between isolines and commercial checks in leaf damage and number of exit holes in all the three trials. However, the number of internodes tunneled were significantly lower in the isolines than in the commercial check in the second trial infested with C. partellus and the one infested with B. fusca. The length of tunnels was significantly lower in isolines than in commercial checks only in the first season of infestation with C. partellus. No significant differences were observed between the two in those other plantings. Bt hybrids had the highest yield followed by the resistant check in both seasons under C. partellus infestation; however, there were no differences in grain yield between Bt hybrids and their isolines under infestation with B. fusca.The number of different stages of both species that were recovered was not analyzed to test differences between treatments as the numbers were very low (Table 8). Chilo partellus larvae were recovered in both Bt maize (hybrid 9) and two isolines (hybrids 2 and 10) in the first season planting, and only isoline 10 in the second season. Chilo partellus pupae were recovered in Bt maize (hybrid 9) in the first season and isoline 10 in the second season. Busseola fusca larvae were recovered only in the stems of isolines 4, 8, 12 and 14.In this study, we demonstrated the efficacy of MON810 maize in controlling C. partellus and B. fusca on maize in Uganda. The Bt maize (that was artificially infested with C. partellus and B. fusca showed significantly lower leaf damage, fewer exit holes, and reduced tunneling by stem borers when compared with the corresponding isolines,The number of exit holes (±SEM) of Bt hybrids and their non-Bt isolines following artificial infestation with Chilo partellus at Namulonge, Wakiso, and with Busseola fusca at Mubuku, Kasese, Uganda from 2014 to 2016 crop season.Mean Entries with odd numbers have the Bt genes and those with even numbers do not have the Bt genes (isolines). Each pair of means within a column followed by different letters are significantly different at P < 0.05 using t-tests. Entries with odd numbers have the Bt gene and those with even numbers do not have the Bt gene (isolines). Each pair of means within a column followed by different letters are significantly different.conventional resistant check, and the commercial non-transgenic reference maize varieties. As a result, the Bt maize produced significantly higher grain yield (29.4-80.5%) than the isolines and the commercial non-transgenic maize varieties. Chilo partellus larvae and pupae were recovered in isoline, resistant check, and commercial varieties, but in only one of the Bt hybrids, while B. fusca larvae and pupae were only recovered in the resistant check, isolines, and commercial varieties. Reduced stem borer damage (leaf damage, number of exit holes, and tunnel lengths) in the Bt maize as compared to the non-transgenics showed and confirmed that transgenic Bt maize (MON810) is effective against C. partellus and B. fusca. Similar results were reported in Kenya for B. fusca in the laboratory and C. partellus in CFT trials (Tefera et al., 2016;Tende et al., 2010).The high expression of Bt protein in maize leaves as reported by Nguyen and Jehle (2007) explains the success of Bt maize in managing maize stem borers. The use of different promoters in commercial Bt maize hybrids leads to differential expression of toxins in different plant tissues (Dutton et al., 2003;Van Wyk et al., 2009). The maize events MON810 and Bt11 contain the cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35 S promoter, which results in toxin expression in the leaves, stem, roots, and kernels at all maize growth stages (EPA, 2001). If differences occur in Bt-toxin concentrations within a plant, control success may be compromised as is the case when larvae feed on silks and kernels with a lower toxin concentration, and later enter the stems as 3rd instars. This may lead to development up to the adult stage. Indeed, van Rensburg (2001) reported successful control of B. fusca during the vegetative stages because of high protein expression, and survival of B. fusca 1st instar larvae when fed on maize silks with lower toxin levels.Grain yields realized from MON810 Bt hybrids were higher than those of the isolines, resistant check and commercial varieties. This shows that protection from stemborer damage resulted into higher grain yield. In addition to guarding against grain yield losses, MON810 Bt maize can also limit field infections by Aspergillus spp., thereby reducing aflatoxin contamination and contributing to food safety and reducing risks caused by aflatoxins (Schulthess et al., 2002;Sétamou et al., 1998).A similar study by Kocourek and Stará (2018) on the European corn borer in the Czech Republic reported reduced damage and incidence of Fusarium species on Bt maize (MON810), with a corresponding yield advantage of 15% over the non-Bt maize. Bt crops can be a useful component of integrated pest management (IPM) systems to protect the crop from targeted pests (Mabubu et al., 2016). We observed some cases of exit holes and stem tunneling in Bt maize hybrids infested with either species of stem borers, and one pupa in Bt maize infested with C. partellus, implying incomplete control of C. partellus by Bt maize. This may be because of a window of opportunity for successful feeding and survival of later generation neonates and second instar larvae on silks, which were postulated to have a reduced concentration of the Bt toxin (van Rensburg, 2001). We also observed higher leaf damage and tunneling by B. fusca in Bt hybrids suggesting that B. fusca requires higher amount of Bt plant tissue to cause mortality. The more extensive tunneling also implies that the pest can easily develop to adulthood once it gains entry into the stem, especially that Bt maize plants were reported to have lower concentration of the toxins in the stalk (Nguyen and Jehle, 2007). The lack of complete control is not consistent with previous studies that showed 100% mortality of C. partellus (Singh et al., 2005;van Rensburg, 1998). This may be explained by observations of other authors who reported that the expression of the protein varies with plant parts, variety, environmental Entries with odd numbers have the Bt gene and those with even numbers do not have the Bt gene (isolines). Each pair of means within a column followed by different letters are significantly different. Entries with odd numbers have the Bt gene and those with even numbers do not have the Bt gene (isolines). Each pair of means within a column followed by different letters are significantly different.conditions, season, and phenology of the plant (Nguyen and Jehle, 2007;Székács et al., 2010;Trtikova et al., 2015). Adopting Bt maize could help farmers in Uganda to guard against grain yield losses associated with stem borers, thereby improving household food security, incomes, and livelihoods. Growing Bt maize would also eliminate/reduce the costs associated with the use of insecticides, and lessen the dangers to humans and the environment as a result of pesticide misuse/overuse. Sustainable use of Bt maize will, however, depend on the development of products that offer season-long protection against different strains of the pests, regulatory compliance, and product stewardship, among other requirements. Product stewardship means that everyone involved in the product life cycleinnovators, scientists, and technology usersis accountable for ensuring that the products are safe and socially and environmentally responsible (Mbabazi et al., 2020).The incursion by fall armyworm (FAW) (Spodoptera frugiperda) (JE Smith) in Africa (Goergen et al., 2016;Otim et al., 2018) is a new challenge on the continent. Originally, known to be restricted to the Americas, the FAW has become the most damaging pest of maize in Uganda, and many sub-Saharan Africa countries (Day et al., 2017;FAO, 2018). Though event MON810 offers partial control for FAW (Prasanna et al., 2018), it was not developed to control this pest. The use of maize with MON810 should be considered primarily as a tool to manage stem borers, with additional Bt events needed for more effective control of both stem borers and FAW. This should be accompanied by a comprehensive insecticide resistance management strategy that forms an integral part of Bt deployment. The evolution of dominant resistance to Cry1Ab protein in B. fusca in South Africa (Campagne et al., 2013) calls for robust resistance management strategies, including the use of integrated pest management (Campagne et al., 2013) and the use of other Bt toxins in maize with different receptors in the target insects.Our study has demonstrated that Bt maize (MON810) with Cry1Ab was effective in controlling C. partellus and B. fusca in our trials in Uganda in 2014-2016. Bt maize protected against leaf damage and limited stem borer entry into maize stems, resulting in 29.4-80.5% higher yield than in the non-transgenic hybrids. Bt maize has potential to help Ugandan maize farmers produce high-quality grain with greater yield and less reliance on insecticides, and thus enhancing food security. This study was conducted in only two locations because of regulatory requirements. Additional studies may be needed in multiple locations to capture representation from different populations of the stem borers. Such studies could be part of the testing in national performance trials for variety registration and commercialization.Michael H. Otim: Conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, investigation, writing original draft, writingreview and editingvisualization, supervision, project administration; Grace Abalo: Investigation; methodology, writingreview and editing; Godfrey Asea: Conceptualization, investigation, writing-review and editing, supervision, project administration, fund acquisition; Julius Pyton Sserumaga: Investigation, formal analysis, writingreview and editing; Simon Alibu: Investigation, writingreview and editing; Stella Adumo: Investigation, data curation, supervision, writingreview and editing; Jane Alupo: Investigation, data curation, supervision, writingreview and editing. Stephen Ochen: Investigation, data curation, Means within a column for each trial followed by different letters are significantly different.  ","tokenCount":"4153"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cab2f0ab5376dbe89aa56a54b76879a2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1e7be133-0bbb-4b1f-ac28-4ce8bdfe79b0/retrieve","id":"-1671076264"},"keywords":["Coffee cultivars","compound fertilizer","leaf area index","planting density","specific leaf area"],"sieverID":"4e0154ed-79a5-4494-8b33-2252bd93f5c7","pagecount":"5","content":"Leaf trait is good predictors of plant performance. It is closely associated with light requirement, growth and survival of the plant. This study was designed to evaluate the effect of seedling planting density and fertilizer rate on leaf traits variation of two Arabica coffee cultivars under nursery conditions. It was conducted at Jimma Agricultural Research Center from (February 29 to October 29), 2018. A factorial experiment was used and treatments were arranged using completely randomized design with three replications. Treatments consisted of combinations of two Arabica coffee cultivars (74110 and 75227), four population densities (one, two, three and four plants per polythene tube) and three compound NPK (22:6:12 + Te) rates (control, 5g and 10g). The results showed that interaction between cultivar, population density and fertilizer was significantly (P ≤ 0.05) influenced LN, LPR and LAI, and highly significantly (P ≤ 0.01) influenced LWR and SLA. High planting density (PD2) with 5g of NPK enhanced LN and LPR in cultivar-74110 while conventional (PD1) with 5g of NPK enhanced LN and LPR in cultivar-75227. Highest value of LWR was recorded from high planting density (PD2) with 5g of NPK while maximum value of LAI and SLA was recorded from high planting density (PD3) with 5g of NPK for both cultivars. At early field planting time, coffee seedling with higher LAI and SLA are very important for efficiently capture and better utilization of solar energy or light as well as increase seedling growth. In general, planting high population density (PD3) and fertilized with 5 g of NPK seems sufficient to improve LAI and SLA of coffee seedlings. Therefore, the future research direction should be focused on the management for increase leaf traits under field conditions.Coffee is one of the cash crops for millions of small farmers and other actors in developing countries including Ethiopia. However, its productivity is influenced by quality of planting material, field management and fertility of the soil. Leaf is a part of a plant that have several uses and benefits to man. It is the food-making organ of plants in the process of photosynthesis. It is an important variable used to predict photosynthetic primary production, evapo -transpiration and as a reference tool for crop growth. Leaf traits are good predictors of plant performance. It is closely associated with growth, survival and light requirement of the plant (Poorter and Bongers, 2006). Pervious results indicated that morphophysiological and chemical leaf traits vary in response to differences in shade management and nutrients (Buchanan et al., 2019). Light is one of the crucial factors for the growth and development of plants. Plants respond to changing light conditions by adjusting a suite of morphological and physiological traits.At high planting density, competition for light increase leaf weight ratio of plants (John et al., 2005). Higher leaf area index observed for coffee plants growing under shade indicated that these plants have higher potential for CO 2 assimilation and dry matter production, because of leaves adjust to the light environment under which they expand and develop. Increase in leaf area index with increase in plant density is important for better utilization of solar energy (Amanullah et al., 2008). Specific Leaf Area (SLA) is a key functional trait of plants underlying variation in growth rate. It is a major trait in leaf economics spectrum, which reflects the range of fast to slow returns on nutrient and dry mass investment in leaves (Wright et al., 2004;Flores et al., 2014). Coffee plants grown under shade or low-light develop thinner leaves, wider, a larger leaf area and higher SLA which allow more efficient capture of light energy (Poorter, 1999). These modifications allow them to efficiently capture and utilize the available light energy in order to increase their dry matter production. Coffee plants increased SLA which contributed for the higher rate of photosynthesis (Adugna et al., 2011). Coffee seedlings undertake certain morphological modifications and physiological adaptations for increase photosynthetic rate under high population density. In addition to genotype, water and nutrient have also makedifferences on leaf trait parameter. The increases of leaf traits are very important at early field establishment because it facilitate food making process by increase the efficiency of light capture, utilize light, maximize carbon gain and assimilate. Therefore, the experiment was conducted with the objective to evaluate the effect of planting density and fertilizer rate on leaf traits variation of two Arabica coffee cultivars under nursery conditions.The study was carried out at the Jimma Agricultural Research Centre (JARC) in southwestern Ethiopia under nursery for eight month from (February 29 to October 29), 2018. It is located at 7° 46' N latitude and 36° 0' E longitude and at an altitude of 1753 meter above sea level. The site receives high amount of rainfall with a mean total of 1556.9 mm per annum. Its mean minimum and maximum temperature are 12.77 ℃ and 26.14 ℃, respectively.The study was carried out using a factorial experiment arranged in completely randomized design with three replications. The treatments consisted of two released Arabica coffee cultivars that represent contrasting growth habits of compact ( 74110) and open (75227), four plant population densities (one, two, three and four plants per polythene tube) and three compound NPK rates (control, 5g and 10g). Compound NPK fertilizer (22: 06: 12 +Te) with 22% total N, 6% P 2 O 5 , 12% K 2 O and trace elements (Te) including 4% S, 0.15% B, 0.15% Zn and 0.002% Mo was used. Hence, twenty-four treatment combinations (2*3*4) were used for the study.The growth medium was prepared from top soil (0-30 cm depth) from Jimma (Melko) and sand at 3:1 ratios was used. A conventional black polythene tube with size of (12 cm diameter and 22 cm length) was used and 2kg of the soil medium mix was filled, arranged on seed beds and irrigated prior to seed sowing. For each treatment, six polythene tubes were used per plot and the prepared seed from selected of coffee genotypes were sown on each polythene tube following the designed planting density. At two pair of true leaves, the compound NPK fertilizer rates were applied to each pot using ring basal method. All the routine pre-and postsowing nursery operations including mulching, watering, shading and weed control were uniformly applied as recommended (Tesfaye et al., 2005).Leaf Number (LN): Total number of true leaves was counted at six pairs of leaves.It refers to number of leaves produced over a period of time. It was counted at two and six pairs of leaves from two plants. It was estimated as described by (Suarez, 2010). LPR = (Ln2-Ln1)/(t2-t1), where, LPR = Leaf production rate, Ln1 and Ln2 are number of leaves produced at time t1 and t2, respectively.Leaf Weight Ratio (LWR): It is expressed as the dry weight of leaves to whole plant dry weight. Three polythene tubes of coffee seedlings from each treatment were used for leaf dry and plant dry and it was taken at six pair of leaves. It was estimated as described by (Kvet et al., 1971). LWR = LDW/PDW, where, LWR, LDW and PDW are leaf weight ratio, leaf dry weight and plant dry weight, respectively, and expressed in g g -1 .Leaf Area Index (LAI): It was estimated as described by (Antonio et al., 2016 cited Oliveira andMesquita, 2008). LAI = RGR*(LA/PDW), where, LAI is leaf area index, RGR is relative growth rate, LA and PDW are leaf area and plant dry weight, respectively. Specific Leaf Area (SLA): Is the ratio of leaf area of the plant to its leaf dry weight. Three polythene tube of seedlings from each treatment for leaf dry weight and two plants for leaf area were used. It was estimated as described by (Kvet et al., 1971). SLA = LA/LDW, where, SLA, LA and LDW are specific leaf area, leaf area and leaf dry weight and expressed in cm 2 g -1 .Statistical Analysis: All relevant data was summarized and subjected to three way analysis of variance (ANOVA) using SAS 9.3 version (SAS, 2011). Treatment mean separation was done by least significant difference (LSD) at 5% probability level.The analysis of variance revealed that the three way interaction effect of coffee genotype, population density and fertilizer rate was highly significant (P ≤ 0.01) for LWR and SLA, whereas significant (P ≤ 0.05) for LN, LPR and LAI (Table 1).Leaf Number and Leaf Production Rate: The result indicated that both LN and LPR were highly significantly (P ≤ 0.01) affected by population density and fertilizer rate (Table 1). It was observed that maximum values of 11.66 and 11.33 for LN were recorded for 74110*PD2*5g of NPK and 75227*PD1*5g of NPK, respectively, while lowest values of LN was recorded from treatment combinations of 74110*PD1*10g of NPK (4) and 75227*PD1*10g of NPK (6) for cultivar-74110 and 75227. The maximum values were 191.5% and 88.8% increment in LN over lowest values in cultivar-74110 and 75227, respectively (Table 2). Similarly, treatment combinations of 74110*PD2*5g of NPK and 75227*PD1*5g of NPK resulted in maximum of LPR with the respective values of 0.094 and 0.091 which were by 394.7% and 133.3% higher than the respective lowest values (0.019 and 0.039 for 74110*PD1*10g of NPK and 75227*PD1*10g of NPK for cultivar-74110 and 75227) (Table 2). Higher values of LN and LPR were recorded for higher planting density (PD2) treated with 5g of NPK for cultivar 74110. This might be due to with adequate supply of N, which enhanced leaf growth of coffee seedlings at high planting density. This result was in agreement with some previous study indicated that adequate supply of N would promote rapid plant development through increase in number of leaves (Malavolta, 1986). Maximum values for LN and LPR were recorded for 5g of NPK in all treatment combinations, with 16.6% and 8.8% increments for LN and 20.51% and 12.34% increments for LPR over the control for cultivar-74110 and 75227, respectively.    Leaf Weight Ratio: The result revealed that LWR was highly significantly (P ≤ 0.01) influenced by coffee cultivar, population density and fertilizer rate (Table 1), where maximum value (0.545 g g -1 ) of LWR was recorded for 74110*PD2*5g of NPK and the minimum value of (0.33 g g -1 ) for 74110*PD1*10g of NPK for cultivar-74110. Similarly, maximum value (0.59 g g -1 ) of LWR was recorded for 75227*PD2*5g of NPK, whereas the minimum (0.34 g g -1 ) for 75227*PD1*10g of NPK for cultivar-75227 (Table 3). The maximum values were exhibited 65.2% and 73.5% higher LWR than their respective lowest values for cultivar-74110 and 75227, respectively. Higher LWR with higher planting density rather than with the single seedling in polythene tube might be related to competition for light with more dry matter accumulation in the leaves. Application of 5g of NPK resulted in 16.7% and 34.77% higher LWR over the control, and 11.45% and 31.77% higher values over the plots treated with 10g of NPK for cultivar-74110 and 75227, respectively. High LWR means partitioning of a large proportion of biomass to leaves (John et al., 2005). In higher population density a higher LWR and SLA may improve competitive ability of species (Hendrik, 2016). The result of the present study was also in agreement with the findings of Poorter (1999) who reported that plants shaded by other trees produce thinner, larger and wider leaves and have higher LWR than un-shaded plants.Leaf Area Index: LAI was highly significantly (P ≤ 0.01)affected by coffee cultivar, population density and fertilizer rate (Table 1), where the highest values of 2.88 and 3.32 were recorded for 74110*PD3*5g of NPK and 75227*PD3*5g of NPK for cultivar-74110 and 75227, respectively, respectively (Table 3). It was 569.85% and 577.55% higher than the respective lowest values for cultivar-74110 and 75227, respectively. The differences in LAI of cultivars might be related with variations in morphological growth habit, due to genotypic differences (Mohammed et al., 2015). This results in line with Sobrado (2005) who reported that the diversified growth habits of Arabica coffee genotypes influence LAI. Leaf is an important source in manufacturing photo assimilates and an increase in LAI results in better utilization of solar energy and enhanced growth of coffee seedlings. Higher LAI was recorded for high planting density (PD3) with 5g of NPK for both cultivars, with 10.34% to 24.34% increment over single seedling (PD1), which might related with production of more leave area with increasing seedling number. Application of 5g of NPK more enhanced LAI than the other fertilizer treatments; as N increases vegetative growth especially number of leaves and leaf area, and resulted in 154.8% and 98.8% higher LAI over the control, and it was decreased by 53.8% and 42.8% with application of 10g of NPK to cultivar-74110 and 75227, respectively. This might be related with toxicity problems with excess amount of fertilizer. The highest LAI was recorded from main factors of population density3 (PD3) due to mutual shading and 5g of NPK (Table 4). Optimum LAI is very important, as both below and above the critical level may not allowed maximum light interception by plants and yield may even tend to decline due to shading and competition for water, nutrients and light (Taye and Burkhardt, 2015).Specific Leaf Area: The result indicated that SLA was significantly (P ≤ 0.05) affected by coffee cultivar, were also highly significantly (P ≤ 0.01) for SLA difference due to population density and fertilizer rate (Table 1). It was observed that maximum value (186.93 cm 2 g -1 ) of SLA was recorded for 74110*PD3*5g of NPK, whereas the minimum value (139.8 cm 2 g -1 ) was recorded for 74110*PD1*10g of NPK for cultivar-74110. Similarly, the highest of (191.77 cm 2 g -1 ) SLA was recorded for cultivar-75227 with PD3 and 5g of NPK, whereas the lowest value (131.73 cm 2 g -1 ) was recorded for combination of 75227*PD1*10g of NPK for cultivar-75227 (Table 3). High planting density increased SLA, which was more enhanced with application of 5g of NPK that resulted in 13.17% and 15.3% increments over the control and 21.3% and 24.2% increments over 10g of NPK for cultivar-74110 and 75227, respectively. The highest SLA was recorded from main factors of population density3 (PD3) due to mutual shading and 5g of NPK (Table 4). High planting density increase SLA, might be related to the tendency of plants to efficient utilized the limited light penetrating through the canopy due to mutual shading. It could be also attributed to morphological modification of plants growing under shade to adapt to available low light intensity (Hiwot, 2011). Similarly, it has been reported that plants shaded by other trees produce larger, thinner and wider leaves, and have higher SLA (Poorter, 1999). Coffee plants grown under shade develop thinner leaves and a larger leaf area which allow more efficient capture of light energy. At low light, plants increase light interception by means of a high biomass allocation to leaves and formation of thin leaves with a high SLA. Both SLA and LAI may vary with light intensity, as higher SLA has been observed for plant under low light condition (Taye, 2006). This modification allows them to efficiently capture and utilize the available light energy in order to increase their dry matter production (Li et al., 2005).Leaf traits are good predictors of plant performance. It is closely associated with growth, survival and light requirement of the plant. Result indicated that there was significant increase in LN and LPR due to planting density in cultivar-74110, whereas sowing one seed per polyethylene tube and fertilized with 5g of NPK promote LN and LPR in cultivar-75227. Maximum value of LWR was recorded from sowing two seeds per polythene tube and fertilized with 5g of NPK in both cultivars. It was observed that sowing three seeds per polythene tube and fertilized with 5g of NPK was significantly increased LAI and SLA in both cultivars, but, higher increments was observed in cultivar-75227. In general, at early field transplanting stage a seedling with larger leaf traits are important for capture and utilize light as well as potential for CO 2 assimilation and faster growth rate; sowing three seeds per polythene tube and fertilized with 5g of NPK was enhanced LAI and SLA of coffee seedlings in both cultivars. Therefore, the future research direction should be focused on management to increase the coffee leaf traits for efficient utilization of light under field conditions.and Mohammed Aman for their unlimited technical support during designing, implementing the treatments and data recording time.","tokenCount":"2729"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5ad7f396fe7c3eab0aa822a84d1382b3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3a32b9ee-37ee-4fca-b6c3-535884657c0b/retrieve","id":"-1800749191"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"fbe8f042-2546-4a3e-b3d5-6fba1e105626","pagecount":"2","content":"Insurance projectIndex-Based Livestock Insurance (IBLI) is the world's first index-based insurance designed to protect vulnerable pastoralists in drought-stricken areas from losing their primary asset-livestock. First developed by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) to insure pastoralists in Kenya and Ethiopia, this specialized insurance product has had a considerable impact on the asset base and consumption activities of its intended beneficiariesnomadic populations living in an expansive area. However, despite its ability to deliver social and economic returns to a population-traditionally neglected by financial services firms-IBLI's uptake has been slower than expected.This case study demonstrates the opportunities and challenges emerging from the IBLI project. It explains the need to establish the product in locations with large vulnerable pastoralist populations and encourages students to consider and develop an IBLI growth strategy. Through the case study, students will consider various pressures from the market, governments, donors and partners related to IBLI's growth strategy and future sustainability. It was developed as part of a MBA program in microfinance for students interested in the management of international organizations and NGOs. It is also relevant to a range of other courses, including social entrepreneurship, 'bottom of the pyramid' expansion strategies, or introductory finance.The case study begins in East Africa, where an agricultural economist introduced a novel financial technology designed to help livestock herders living in some of Africa's harshest regions. Andrew Mude and his ILRI team of scientists lead the innovative IBLI project, which helps herders recover from severe droughts that devastate livestock assets and routinely leave pastoral communities destitute; livestock are critical assets for 'pastoralists', who depend on their animals, and regularly move hundreds of kilometres with their stock to track new pastures and water resources.As one of humankind's oldest forms of production, these communities produce food in otherwise unyielding environments. However, regular droughts in the Horn of Africa account for 75% of livestock deaths and routinely devastate pastoral communities, especially as the average herding household holds 100% of its productive assets in the form of livestock. Mude's ambition has been to find risk management strategies focused on providing complementary services that enhance pastoralist livelihoods.IBLI represents an exciting innovation by offering insurance to vulnerable rural smallholder farmers and livestock keepers and potentially reducing the climaterelated risks they face. Initial analyses of IBLI projects have shown that insured households experienced: a 25% reduction in likelihood of poor nutrition; a 36% reduction in 'distress sales' of livestock (selling livestock to provide quick income in times of hardship); and a 33% reduction in reliance on food aid when compared to uninsured households. These initial results suggest that IBLI provides a valuable safety net for vulnerable families, protecting them from having to take drastic measures during droughts.December 2015After the Kenya and Ethiopia launches in 2010 and 2012, the IBLI project has, however, experienced growing pains. Despite evidence of its effectiveness as a social welfare program, sales have been slow. This is likely due to a number of factors, including challenges with the insurance partners that implement the project and working with a clientele that can be difficult to reach and unfamiliar with IBLI's benefits.Mude and his team now need to decide how to further develop the IBLI project. In team discussions, Mude recognized that all team members want to ensure IBLI's growth and success, but they hold differing views about how that should be accomplished. The goal is clear: to grow IBLI. But when and how should this growth take place?Mude feels torn between two broad strategies: deepening the project within Kenya or broadening it out to new geographical areas. Much needs to be accomplished in Kenya, and the government there intends to introduce short-term insurance subsidies. Focusing on Kenya would also help develop a sustainable model that could be scaled up to new areas. However, many donors and team members are eager to expand the project to new countries with large, vulnerable pastoral populations.As ","tokenCount":"645"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"dd92b61d572bf671e41c24e51962eb5f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/dd3b114f-631c-43a1-b7d8-c2792a44cc46/retrieve","id":"238165989"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"57fcf093-4f9c-4baf-b047-7936bd6885c3","pagecount":"28","content":"This study was carried out to identify successes and challenges associated with the utilization of the Rift Valley fever (RVF) Decision Support Tool (DST) in Kenya. The DST was developed by various stakeholders from government and non-government sectors following the 2006-07 outbreak of RVF in East Africa. It identifies events leading to the RVF outbreak, classified as decision points, and matches them with interventions that could be implemented at each point. Currently, the framework identifies 12 decision points 1 and 13 interventions 2 .Three activities were used in the study, namely, (1) a review of literature to describe systems/models that could be used with the DST and to identify how other frameworks/DSTs have been used to support disease control policies;(2) focus group discussions and key informant interviews involving decision-makers in the Department of Veterinary Services (DVS), local and international organizations, farmer groups etc. and (3) a stakeholder workshop to validate findings obtained and develop recommendations on ways of improving awareness and utilization of the framework. Three parameters were used to verify uptake and implementation of the framework: (i) Whether there had been an official recognition of the DST as a component of the RVF control policy in the DVS (this did not include other relevant departments, e.g. Public Health and the Zoonotic Disease Unit, because they were not included previously in the dissemination of DST).(ii) Level of utilization of the framework indicated by the proportion of key decision-makers that had the framework and the number of decision points that had been covered at any one time.(iii) Perceptions on the convenience of its application.An additional parameter -the ability of the DST to guide and promote good/effective responses -was considered at the design stage of the study but this was not used because, since the DST was developed and disseminated, there has not been an outbreak of RVF for it to be utilized in full (beyond the early warning stage). The review of literature described some of the systems and models that can be used with the DST. Some of these systems e.g. the Global Early Warning System (GLEWS), Africa Real Time Environmental Monitoring Information System and the webbased application of the Emergency Prevention System for Animal Health (EMPRES-i) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) were regarded as being useful for staging the DST for they provide early warning signals that define the escalation of risk and hence a change in the decision level from normal to the early warning stage. Others such as risk maps generated from a range of statistical models would be useful for identifying risk zones where interventions suggested by the framework would be applied. The review also identified challenges associated with the implementation of decision support systems in general, e.g. technical issues on operationalization of the models, bureaucratic hoops and lack of incentives, culture, attitude and resource challenges. These issues were incorporated into data collection instruments for the focus group discussions and key informant interviews.Focus group discussions and key informant interviews were carried out between May and September 2012 in Nairobi, Garissa, Mombasa, and Nakuru while the stakeholder workshop was held in Naivasha, Kenya in September 2012. These surveys confirmed that the DST had been incorporated into the RVF contingency plan but less than 10% of the decision-makers, mostly from the provincial and district centres, were aware about the DST. Challenges associated with the utilization of the framework were classified into four categories namely: (i) resource/funding constraints, (ii) inefficient response measures, (iii) low morale among local veterinary staff and (iv) poor coordination and communication. The DVS had developed a budget of 66,015,880 Kenya shillings (KES) (790,609 United States dollars [USD]) as the national RVF emergency fund. However, no funds had been allocated to the budget. These issues were discussed at the stakeholder workshop held in Naivasha, Kenya in September 2012. Its recommendations were:• There is need for the RVF task force to establish a budget and an emergency fund to support the contingency plan/DST. The disease control agents, especially the District Veterinary Officers (DVOs), also need adequate financial support to run other basic disease surveillance and control activities. Some of these funds can be secured by establishing collaborative activities with relevant non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and international bodies such as FAO, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). However, DVOs and other sub-national agents need to be facilitated by the national authorities (e.g. through provision of information and authority) to develop proposals for such engagements.• Field officers require more technical guidance and support in the implementation of the tool. It was suggested that this could be achieved by offering DST training in continuous professional development sessions, seminars, colleges, etc. The study also established that the tool has not been disseminated widely and in fact most DVOs and other stakeholders from NGOs were not aware about its existence.• Existing private-public partnerships should be strengthened and new ones initiated to ensure smooth implementation of the contingency plan/DST especially during emergencies. Experiences from previous outbreaks suggest that interventions implemented could have achieved greater impacts had implementation efforts been sufficiently coordinated. The disease control agents therefore need to strengthen linkages with trader associations, the police/security forces, border patrols, community representatives etc. especially during the inter-epidemic periods. Some of these interventions could be addressed through the refinement of the veterinary policy to highlight key partners and areas where collaborative efforts would be more beneficial.• Present a summary of the DST in posters and brochures to enhance its readership and dissemination. It was suggested that laminated cards or A4 posters be made for different audiences. They would contain the basic steps with quick instructions of what to do and who to contact at each step. A number of stakeholders e.g. farmer groups could help distribute these materials to create more awareness and hence compliance.• The workshop was informed that most respondents interviewed in the DST assessment studies regard the decision points defined in the DST as being numerous (12 in total) with some of them being too close in time to be considered as being independent decision points. The workshop recommended having five key decision points, namely: normal, early warning, pre-outbreak, outbreak and step-down phases with the DST stages being classified under them (five stages) while retaining the detailed information presented in the DST. A small group of experts was formulated to review the structure of the DST and refine the budget that had been proposed.This study was successful in identifying successes and constraints to the implementation of the DST. FAO had initially suggested hosting an interactive website in a decision tree structure that would enable users to quickly access the relevant information for a particular decision point of interest. Work is underway to develop DST dissemination materials and additional analyses are being done to determine benefits and costs of the RVF interventions captured in the DST. This would make a valuable component of an interactive website; the user could weigh different choices at each stage based on the benefits and costs involved and decide whether to act at that stage or wait until later. These activities are meant to generate additional information for effective decision-making.RVF outbreaks occur as explosive events that follow periods of prolonged heavy rainfall. They usually have a rapid onset and progression that has been difficult to predict in good time. The early warning message that preceded the 2006-07 RVF outbreak in East Africa, for example, was given in mid-September 2006 while a consolidated warning was given in November 2006 when initial cases of the disease had already occurred (FAO-WHO 2008). Such delays in prediction, coupled with poor surveillance systems, weaken the capacity of public and animal health departments to implement effective response measures. Surveys conducted in Kenya after the outbreak indicated that the severity of the epidemic was exacerbated by delays in recognizing the risk and in taking decisions to prevent and control the disease (ILRI 2009). The surveys also noted that that the country lacked a well-documented contingency/emergency plan for RVF and pre-allocated emergency funds, particularly within the livestock sector. These experiences made it necessary to refine the RVF contingency plans and develop the RVF DST to guide responses to future RVF epidemics (Consultative Group for RVF Decision Support 2010).The development of the RVF contingency plan was commenced by the DVS soon after the 2006-07 RVF outbreak in East Africa, through a consultative process, based on the template provided by FAO at http://www.fao.org/ docrep/005/y4140e/y4140e00.HTM . It was thereafter officially adopted in April 2010. At the same time, a consultative process was initiated that led to the development of the DST based on the findings of a study that had developed a timeline of events that led to the outbreak (Jost et al. 2010). That study was implemented in Northeastern Province, Kenya and Arusha, Tanzania. The timeline developed is summarized in Table 1. The DST identifies 12 decision stages and 13 interventions that could be implemented with the following assumptions:• A national RVF emergency fund has been established and procedures and modalities put in place to enable the fund to be made available rapidly in response to predetermined criteria.• An effective communication system has been established including a clear chain of command from the Director of Veterinary Services to the field which facilitates early and effective communication back up the chain from field to the Director and effective communication between the veterinary department and other relevant ministries and departments, such as health, planning and finance, and the provincial administration.• The above are captured in a government-approved RVF contingency plan. However, the DST has not been widely used as envisaged. Preliminary surveys conducted in Kenya in the initial two years following the dissemination of the DST indicated that only 10.2% (6/59) of the senior veterinary officers from the national, provincial and district veterinary centres had received the RVF DST and were conversant with its content (Gachohi et al. 2012). This study was designed to identify challenges associated with dissemination and application of the DST. Parameters developed to guide the research included:(i) Has there been an official recognition of the DST as a component of the RVF control policy in the DVS?(ii) What is the level of utilization of the framework (as per the proportion of key decision-makers that had the framework and the number of decision points that had been covered at any one time)?(iii) What are some of the perceptions on the ease of use of the DST?Review of literature A review of literature was carried out to identify systems and models that could be used with the DST as well as to describe successes and challenges associated with the implementation of the DST in general. The review used a 'funnelling in' approach which commenced with general searches that were subsequently refined until most of the information that was being pursued had been obtained.An initial systematic search of published articles was undertaken using the online databases PubMed and MEDLINE and selected search engines, including Google, to identify relevant studies and reviews on decision support systems worldwide, using key words/Medical Subject Headings. All permutations of Medical Subject Headings were entered and each search was conducted twice to ensure accuracy. Keywords used included decision support tool, framework, policy, stakeholders, barriers, attitudes, perceptions, processes, user experience, usability, uptake and dissemination. Summaries of returned articles were reviewed and articles where the abstract indicated potentially useful information were retrieved. Reference lists of identified articles and key reviews were also considered. Where suitable papers did not provide adequate information, authors were contacted by e-mail and requested to provide further information.Other sources of information used included 'grey' literature (including unpublished conference proceedings) and personal contacts with researchers known to have contributed to the development of a particular DST.• African Union-Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR)• NGOs including Vétérinaires sans Frontières Belgium, Switzerland and Germany• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) KenyaInterviews were structured around a pre-developed checklist (Annex I) of issues of concern, even though not necessarily in the same order. Informants were allowed to follow the natural progression of the conversation in order to explore and capture emerging issues. Key issues covered included barriers and incentives, decision-making skills, technical and knowledge support, funding and RVF intervention options.Focus group discussions involved RVF control agents in the field (DVOs) and other stakeholders from various animal health sectors in Kenya. These discussions began in July 2012 after the development of a survey checklist. The same checklist (Annex I) was used to collect data on successes and challenges related to the implementation of the DST. Discussions were flexible and covered all key topics for all the focus groups convened although the order of the checklist questions was not always maintained since discussions were allowed to flow freely. Those interviewed included:• Veterinary officers in the three RVF hotspots: Northeastern, Rift Valley and Coast provinces A stakeholder workshop was held on 25 September 2012 in Naivasha, Kenya. A total of 19 participants drawn from various institutions attended. Discussions were guided by findings of the appraisal studies that had been done to collate experiences, attitudes and perceptions from decision-makers on the applicability of the DST.Findings from the review of literatureFindings from the review of literature are classified into two sections. The first focuses on early warning systems and risk models and how the DST can be integrated into these systems and the second outlines challenges that are associated with the utilization of such decision support systems in general.Early warning systems constitute a critical component of DST since they are useful for staging the DST. Messages generated from these systems define RVF risk levels, leading to the identification of an appropriate decision point to focus on. Risk maps, on the other hand, are useful for identifying risk zones where interventions suggested by the framework would be applied.• GLEWS (www.glews.net) is a system developed jointly by FAO, OIE and WHO. It systematically collects, verifies, analyses and responds to information from a variety of sources, including unofficial media reports and informal networks. The system minimizes unjustified duplication of efforts by linking and utilizing alert messages from different systems and organizations including FAO's Emergency Prevention System for Animal Health (EMPRES), WHO's Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) and OIE's World Animal Health and Information Database. These linkages also help to improve accuracy. The network is managed by a GLEWS task force which is responsible for setting up working groups and identifying diseases of interest. The GLEWS working groups are then involved in tracking trends of the identified diseases, conducting epidemiological analyses, modelling, forecasting as well as risk assessment. After each outbreak debriefing meeting, the GLEWS working groups submit a report including recommendations and conclusions to the GLEWS task force for review and clearance. The task force is responsible for issuing early warning disease alerts and general risk communication.• Africa Real Time Environmental Monitoring Information System (http://gcmd.nasa.gov/records/GCMD_CIESIN0122. html) -This system, developed jointly by FAO, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center, the University of Reading and the National Aerospace Laboratory of the Netherlands, uses remote sensing techniques for surveillance and forecasting under the Global Information and Early Warning System. It generates products such as 10-day and monthly cold cloud density maps for Africa and the Near East (resolution 7.6 km), 10-day and monthly estimated rainfall maps for the southern Sahara, the Sahel, Sudan, and the tropical countries of West Africa (resolution 7.6 km), 10-day and monthly composite vegetation index maps for Africa and the Near East. In addition to these products, the system maintains a 10-year vegetation index archive on a 10-day and monthly basis.• EMPRES-i (http://www.fao.org/foodchain/empres-prevention-and-early-warning/en/) is a web-based system designed by FAO to support disease control agents through collation, analysis of, and access to, animal disease data. EMPRES-i was particularly used to convey information on increasing RVF activity in the Horn of Africa in 2006-07. It enables users to easily access data that can be used for further analysis e.g. as charts or maps. EMPRES-i information sources include country or regional project reports, field mission reports, partner NGOs, cooperating institutions, government ministries of agriculture and health, FAO in-country representatives or other United Nations parties, public domains, the media and web-based health surveillance systems. For verification purposes, EMPRES-i uses official and unofficial sources of information such as in-country assistance projects and personal contacts with NGOs and other institutions. It therefore provides updated information on global animal disease distribution and current threats at the national, regional and global level for priority animal diseases. It also provides access to publications, manuals and other resources, such as contact details of chief veterinary officers and FAO/OIE reference laboratories. In addition to these systems, dynamic models such as the differential equation model developed by Gaff et al. (2007) can also aid in the staging of the DST since they predict changes in RVF risk over time. This model specifically highlights virus persistence for over 10 years provided that contact rates between hosts and the two mosquito species are maintained in an isolated system.Another study done in Kenya described the use of a regression model to compute relative risks of RVF based on geographic, geologic and meteorological data such as normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and land use patterns (Hightower et al. 2012).Other models have focussed on the risk of RVF with respect to movement of animals and their products through trade (Davies 2006). All of them used qualitative methods and none has specific focus on eastern Africa. One study in Egypt highlighted the possibility of spread of the RVF virus by insects carried by wind and animal movements though trade.Spatial analysis techniques were used to correlate RVF activity and increased NDVI (Linthicum et al. 1987). One study done in Kenya highlighted the possibility of forecasting RVF outbreaks two to five months in advance by associating the outbreaks with sea surface temperatures and NDVI data (Anyamba et al. 2009). Time series analysis of combined sea surface temperatures and NDVI anomalies were also found to be indicative of intensity and duration of RVF outbreaks in Africa (Anyamba et al. 2002).A subsequent study using the same methodology was used to provide a two-to-six-week warning for the Horn of Africa that facilitated outbreak response and mitigation activities (Anyamba et al. 2009). These studies used spatial techniques for mapping combined with time series analysis, remote sensing data and other statistical analysis methods (Figure 1a). Additional analyses have also been conducted to predict the distribution of the RVF hotspots based on the data on RVF epizootics obtained from Kenya (Bett et al. 2013). These models utilize climate, remote sensing, geological and limited socio-economic data; their output is demonstrated in Figure 1b.Their main limitation, however, is availability of data that can be used to drive these systems. In addition, climate models which determine the level of risk do not always give reliable predictions especially in western Africa, the Middle East and Madagascar (FAO-WHO 2008).Figure 1. Spatial distribution of RVF risk in the greater Horn of Africa estimated from remote sensing and climate data (Anyamba et al. 2009; Figure 1a) and based on the analysis of RVF epizootics (Bett et al. 2013; Figure 1b)Figure 1b Barriers that impair the use of decision support systems and research outputsMost publications on decision support systems do not provide information on the challenges that impair uptake and levels of utilization of these systems yet a few of them get assimilated into policy frameworks following their dissemination. A large proportion of these systems are interactive, computer-based tools (such as EpiMAN-FMD (Sanson et al. 1999), classical swine fever decision support system (Crauwels et al. 2001), geographical information systems etc.) with tremendous potential to enhance disease control. Though the DST has not yet been computerised, it is assumed that some of the limitations associated with the use of decision support systems would be relevant for this study. These limitations were classified into four main categories:• Technical challenges• Culture change/attitude challenges• Bureaucratic hoops and incentives• Resource limitations and ineffective dissemination modelsDecision support systems require appreciable levels of technical and infrastructural prerequisites for them to be used effectively, particularly on how to process input and output data. Stephens and Hess (1996) describe a study carriedFigure 1b out to assess the uptake of a PEARCH crop environment computer model that was developed to aid understanding on how crops respond to arid environments. The utilization of the model was impaired by multiple factors including challenges associated with organizing meteorological data for the model. In healthcare, electronic decision support systems are expected to aid decision-makers access knowledge stored electronically. This might help them make conscious choices regarding health and interventions. However, barriers to adoption of such tools have mainly been related to low computer literacy among general users.The DST shares some of these challenges with regards to the definition of credible decision triggers (based on forecasting models) given that these triggers have to be identified based on reliable prediction systems. Forecasting models, on the other hand, also have their own assumptions and limitations that can be applied to the DST.Changes in policy may be met with resistance especially when there is lack of understanding on the benefits of the changes or when implementers have alternative options. Wallace et al. (2013) give a comprehensive review of the barriers that impair uptake of scientific evidence by decision-makers: physicians, nurses and medical personnel. The review classifies obstacles encountered into knowledge, attitude and behaviour challenges. Knowledge indicates awareness of and familiarity with information and might be influenced by dissemination levels etc. Negative attitude and behaviour, on the other hand, come from lack of perceived usefulness of the product. The review observes that lack of access to information and limited awareness are significant barriers to uptake of evidence. Innvaer et al. (2002) identified similar barriers and suggested that some of these could be due to:• Absence of personal contacts between the researchers who generated the outputs and policymakers• Lack of timeliness or relevance of the research evidence• Mutual mistrust, including perceived political naivety of scientists and scientific naivety of policymakers• Power and budget struggles• Poor quality of researchThey propose that two-way communication between researchers and policymakers would facilitate a mutual understanding of a policy question and knowledge needed. Lomas (1997) further states that researchers and policymakers have to view research dissemination and uptake as a communication process between the two sides.It is believed that no matter how valuable a support tool is, institutional or high-level administrative support is required for it to make meaningful impact. An assessment of the effectiveness of the Intersectoral Action Plan for Health and its Health Impact Assessment Tool in Slovakia established that tools that had been institutionalized, for example Environmental Impact Assessment, worked well compared to those that had not (Mannheimer et al. 2007). Furthermore, the study established that politicians, though supportive of the action plan, had not allocated the required operational budgets. The public servants therefore felt that there was not enough support, resources and training for continuous and routine implementation of the plan. This suggests that decision-makers and politicians need to change their mind-sets in favour of new policies and support tools before they are introduced. New policies and tools, especially if they challenge the status quo or professional prowess, might have far-reaching consequences on tastes, preferences and sensibilities of those who are expected to implement them.DSTs also ought to enhance horizontal, intersectoral coordination to boost capacity and information exchange. However, such tools need to be institutionalized within and between sectors given that informal working principles do not always hold.Funding bodies do not often provide support for the translation of research outputs into policy (Poulos et al. 2007). Funding periods for these systems are usually too short to ensure effective dissemination (Myers et al. 2000). It is often assumed that the users have been integrated into the research work to enable them take over when funding comes to an end. It is slowly being realized that some of the partnerships formed in the course of a scientific research are not institutionalized and so there is usually no assurance that the research outputs will be carried over.Dissemination channels used need to identify distinctions across audiences being targeted, ways of enhancing the utilization of a tool and means of addressing negative perceptions on convenience of usage. Lomas (1997) indicates that researchers get 'one-size-fits-all' dissemination process and hence fail to tailor the content, timing, setting and format to the audience. A survey conducted by Wilson and Opolski (2009) on barriers for the implementation of a cardiovascular computerised decision support tool suggested ways of enhancing the uptake of the tool e.g. (i) using financial incentives, (ii) joint promotion with a professional body and (iii) undergraduate medical education. For the financial incentive model, users of the tool were provided with a one-off payment linked to a formal agreement for them to install and use the tool in their practice. Payment would be made to the user once evidence is received that the tool is being used and the target number of users has been met. The second dissemination method involved a joint promotion of the system as a valuable decision-making tool by a leading professional body which would allow the users to know that a peak body had endorsed the materials and information within the program. The last method on undergraduate training involved integration of the decision support system in undergraduate training providing students with knowledge and understanding of electronic tools that would be used.A total of 23 key informants, mostly senior veterinary officers and heads of departments at the DVS headquarters in Kabete (9) as well as local representatives from NGOs, KARI, CDC Kenya, AU-IBAR and Farm Africa ( 14), were interviewed to collate information on:• whether or not the DST had been used to manage RVF• extent of usage of the DST• perceptions on the convenience of usage of the DST• ability of the DST to guide and promote good responsesThree focus group discussions were conducted in Nakuru, Garissa and Mombasa to collate views and perceptions of DVOs and farmer representatives from the three RVF hotspots -Northeastern, Rift Valley and Coast provinces. Each group was composed of 7-9 people. The results of these discussions are presented with those of the key informant interviews.It was established that the DST had been incorporated into the RVF contingency plan developed by the DVS and it constitutes Chapter 8 of the RVF action plan. The decision points were classified under the action points defined in the FAO's guide for developing a contingency plan as outlined in Table 2.FAO had also used the DST to stockpile vaccines following warnings of heightened risk towards the end of 2012. These developments suggest that a number of institutions had started using the DST though no outbreak had ever occurred since it was developed for a conclusive determination on its suitability/ability to guide and promote good responses.Extent of usage of the DST Only 10.6% of all respondents (5/47) in both the key informant interviews and focus group discussions were aware of the existence of the RVF DST. Most of the respondents who were aware of it were senior officers at the DVS in Kabete. It was therefore established that usage of the DST was still limited to the national (veterinary) headquarters given that a majority of the districts/DVOs had not received it nor been sensitized on its application. The focus group discussions identified a number of constraints that had curtailed the widespread dissemination and application of the DST:• Resource and funding constraints The focus group discussions established that the DST had been incorporated into Kenya's RVF contingency plan and its operational budget (amounting to KES 66,015,880 or about USD 790,609) developed and assimilated into the department's strategic plans, including Vision 2030 and the medium-term expenditure framework. However, participants stated that the government had not provided the funds and the DVS was exploring ways of supporting the budget, including developing proposals targeting bilateral funds. The department had been hoping to secure and ringfence these funds especially during inter-epidemic periods as it builds the response capacity. It was also indicated that it is better to raise funds during inter-epidemic periods given that the bureaucratic and slow procedures involved in raising and mobilizing funds would frustrate emergency responses to be used during the high-risk periods.The department intends to lobby for the required funds but it needs more input on costs and benefits of RVF control to incorporate these in its proposals. It also suggests that social-economic surveys should identify and prioritize issues at the local level that can be used to leverage funding.Issues raised under this theme focussed on technical challenges that hamper the implementation of the RVF response measures identified in the DST. Participants underscored the need for better and cheaper diagnostic tests that can be used in remote areas to enhance surveillance during inter-epidemic and epidemic periods. It was pointed out that field workers collected samples and sent them to the Central Veterinary Laboratories in Nairobi for confirmatory analyses with initial testing being done at the regional veterinary laboratories. It was indicated that the turnaround time for samples processed at the Central Veterinary Laboratories was too long and so the stock owners had lost patience with the system. Officers who managed sentinel herds indicated that they were not being allocated enough resources for periodic sampling of the animals. Funds assigned to them were not adequate for purchasing consumables and fuel or vehicle repairs and replacing animals that had seroconverted.Participants suggested that community animal health workers could help in disease reporting in pastoral areas where they offered clinical services. Various models of linking these community animal health workers with veterinarians (as described in reports on the delivery of animal health services) were identified, e.g. linking them with local private veterinarians who operate agro-veterinary stores.Discussions were held on the need for safer and more effective vaccines while recognizing that existing vaccines caused side effects e.g. abortion. The rate of production and dissemination of these vaccines was also thought to be inadequate. These factors, together with poor acceptability, contributed to low vaccination coverage. Other factors that were attributed to low vaccination coverage included poor security in most RVF hotspots, poor road network and low operational budget. These factors compromised the ability of the department to administer effective vaccination drives. Some of the NGOs had therefore stepped in to support the department although some of their campaigns focussed on defined target areas given their interests to integrate interventions at the community level.The focus group discussions suggested that the DVS needed to play a more critical role in coordinating disease control interventions implemented by the NGOs to ensure that plausible targets (e.g. spatial and population coverage, frequency and safety) were achieved.Participants indicated that the DVS did not have the capacity to implement vector control measures. This activity was being implemented by the Ministry of Health although its focus was to control mosquitoes in settlement areas and not in watering and animal grazing sites. The DVS was requested to strengthen its capacity to manage RVF especially during the inter-epidemic period when it was possible to cover wide areas.DVOs generally felt that RVF was not being taken seriously given that the DVS focussed more on diseases that are perceived as causing the greatest economic burden. They thought that their directors had not prioritized RVF given that it was a zoonotic disease that could be addressed by multiple institutions such as the Zoonotic Disease Unit. They offered suggestions on how to enhance their participation in RVF management policy, namely:• training on the disease epidemiology, syndromic surveillance, budgeting and cost-benefit analyses, and the use of DST.• more interaction between researchers and implementers to better understand exposure patterns as well as harmonise response procedures.• provision of an effective infrastructure/funding for the DST implementation.• employing more staff as well as retaining the existing ones given that there is a high turnover of staff and it would be difficult to maintain the institutional memory required for effective management of RVF given its long interepidemic period.The DVOs indicated that the DST and RVF contingency plan had not been disseminated effectively as most of them and their NGO partners had not received it. They observed that there is a need for the DVS to develop modalities of enhancing the utilization of the DST, for example, by assigning specific individuals, offices or other institutions the role of disseminating the DST. They added that the government needs to enforce animal health policies, particularly in the arid and semi-arid areas where the disease is endemic, for the disease control and coordination efforts to be felt on the ground. Some of these efforts could be implemented through the Zoonotic Disease Unit.Participants also noted that there was need to synchronize policy issues throughout East Africa to allow for the use of the DST as a common RVF management and control tool given that it is a trans-boundary disease. These attempts were already being explored under the AU-IBAR project entitled Standards Methods and Procedures in Animal Health. Some of the steps that would be taken to achieve this include:• Disease prioritization surveys to harmonize efforts across borders since RVF may or may not be a priority disease in all the target countries.• Standardization of disease surveillance and control acts.• Characterization of RVF control programs in the target countries and the development of a region-wide acceptable standards.• Identification of a coordinating body (such as the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, FAO or AU-IBAR) to manage these activities.• Establishment of a database of stakeholders in the field of RVF research through which pertinent information such as research results can be passed along from one institute to another. This will promote information flow between institutions as well as enhance communication and collaboration;• Strengthening of the existing public-private partnerships to ensure smooth implementation of the DST especially during emergencies. These include linkages with trader associations, the police/security forces, border patrols and community representatives.There is need for an official platform to facilitate communication and collaboration between government institutions and NGOs as the current ones are based on personal relationships/acquaintances. This hampers collaborations especially during emergencies. Memoranda of Understanding would promote, nurture and guide institutional partnerships that will far outlive individual relationships. District Steering Groups should be set up even in non-arid and non-semi-arid areas to assist in coordination of disease control activities during emergencies. This would ensure sharing of resources as well as tone down excessive institutional competition.Perceptions on the convenience of usage of the DST Participants who had used the DST indicated that the number of decision points identified was high and the document was voluminous and so there was need to develop shorter versions of the document (e.g. briefs and leaflets) to improve its distribution and accessibility. Suggestions were also made on the need to improve prediction models.Nineteen participants drawn from various institutions attended the workshop convened on 25 September 2012 in Naivasha, Kenya to verify the findings of the focus group discussions including the challenges associated with the utilization of the DST, and identify effective ways of disseminating the tool.Below is a summary of the key points discussed at the workshop.• The level of utilization of the DST has been very low. Under 10% of decision-makers had received the tool, partly because the channel that was used for its dissemination (e-mail) is inaccessible for most of the field officers.In addition, the DST was said to be rather long (32 pages). The workshop recommended the development of simpler versions of the document like posters or brochures that would be easier to read and disseminate. These documents could then be distributed during stakeholder meetings and to all the DVS offices throughout the country.• The DST has been incorporated into the RVF contingency plan that was developed by the DVS in liaison with FAO. The DST forms Chapter 8 of the contingency plan. It was however noted that the DVS should involve other stakeholders in the development of the contingency plan. This would also help transform the contingency plan/DST into a One Health framework when the needs and inputs of the other relevant stakeholders, e.g. Ministry of Health, are incorporated.The workshop came up with a list of stakeholders that could be involved. These were classified into three main groups: advisory or coordination team, response or implementation team and financiers. The contingency plan will need to be revised, spelling out the roles of each stakeholder group.• The workshop was informed that most respondents interviewed in the DST assessment studies regarded the stages defined in the DST as being numerous (12 in total) with some of them being too close in time to be considered as being independent decision points. The workshop recommended having five key decision points, namely, normal, early warning, pre-outbreak, outbreak and step-down phases, with the DST stages being classified under them (five stages) while retaining the detailed information presented in the DST.• The workshop observed that RVF response measures, mainly vaccination, movement control and surveillance, are often implemented late, haphazardly and at very low levels of coverage. For example, during the RVF outbreak in 2006-07, vaccination was implemented from February 2007 when the epidemic was tailing off. The coverage attained then was estimated to be 3-18% in cattle, 3-56% in sheep, 1-25% in goats and 2-4% in camels. The DVS indicated that it often faced major challenges in funding RVF control. The DVS was however challenged to explore other channels of mobilizing resources, including developing proposals for external funding.Since the last RVF outbreak in the Horn of Africa 2006-07, efforts have been made to develop decision support tools and frameworks to improve response capacity. The need for decision support tools is informed by the fact that RVF epizootics occur in irregular cycles that offer immense challenges for governments to develop clear intervention strategies in the face of an outbreak after a period of no visible RVF activity. Inter-epidemic periods are characterized by a decline in the levels of awareness; limited resources are therefore shifted to other diseases or more pressing problems (Martin et al. 2008). In addition, future decision-making in RVF control is complicated by uncertainties regarding types of drivers that are critical for the disease occurrence. Though it is suspected that there is a threshold level of precipitation that would heighten the risk of an epidemic, it is likely that a convergence of a number of events (e.g. strong reduction in population immunity, presence/emergence of infectious vectors, persistent precipitation, presence of a critical population of hosts etc.) are required for an outbreak to occur. It is not always possible to predict the convergence of these factors. Therefore, uncertainties about the disease causation impose severe limitations on the choice of interventions.The DST was developed to help decision-makers in the Greater Horn of Africa take timely, evidence-based decisions to prevent and mitigate the impacts of RVF (Consultative Group for RVF Decision Support 2010). Its development and dissemination was, however, based on four key assumptions suggesting the existence of emergency fund that can be made available based on predetermined criteria, communication system with a clear chain of command, and that during normal situation the users will review the suggested interventions in line with the contingency plan.Observations generated by this study, however, indicate that these assumptions have proved to be the DST's Achilles heel.The key strengths of the study is that it addressed barriers to the utilization of the DST through sequential steps that started with a review of 43 articles, followed by key informant interviews and focus group discussions with stakeholders from diverse backgrounds and lastly, a stakeholder workshop that validated the findings obtained. From these activities, four parameters were identified and used to gauge the level of utilization of DST: (i) whether or not the DST had been used to manage RVF, (ii) the extent of usage, (iii) perception on the convenience of usage, and (iv) its ability to guide and promote good responses.There were a few challenges associated with the implementation of the study. First, very scanty information regarding uptake and level of utilization of decision support tools was obtained despite a good number (n = 43) of articles reviewed. Most of the articles focused on decision support systems that were mainly being used in the medical field in developed countries. Moreover, most of the systems reviewed had not been applied in official policy settings, suggesting that there could be publication bias acting against systems that get disapproved by policymakers. This might also suggest that the development of decision support systems is seldom linked to desired needs leading to its inability to gain traction in the policy arena. To guard against narrowing the review to a few potentially non-representative articles, those focussing on challenges of uptake and utilization of research outputs in general were included. Second, the fourth assessment parameter envisages a scenario where the DST has been fully utilized through its 12 decision points. Fortunately, the Horn of Africa has not had an RVF outbreak since the DST was developed. Reports relating to the successful application of the DST represent preparatory activities that were implemented in response to heightened risk of RVF in 2008 and 2012 that never developed into an outbreak.The results of this study agree with those of one carried out in 2010 to investigate the sources of early warning messages and response measures implemented by the DVS during the 2006-07 RVF outbreak in Kenya (Gachohi et al. 2012). In that study, 10.2% of the survey respondents were aware and had received a copy of the RVF DST. This shows that there have not been any efforts to disseminate and increase awareness and utilization of this tool.In addition, barriers and challenges hindering the uptake of the DST that were identified during the focus group discussions and key informant interviews corroborate those identified from the literature review. To some extent, this is expected because the checklist used to guide the focus group discussions was developed based on the evidence obtained from the review. Nevertheless, the focus group discussions and key informant interviews were conducted in an open manner to encourage and foster the identification of new information leads. The focus discussion groups, for instance, indicated frontline personnel in the DVS (in the districts) lacked the drive to implement RVF control policy for what they perceived to be lack of support and prioritization of the disease at the headquarters. This culture goes against the spirit of the DST which in fact recommends a raft of measures that should be implemented during normal (inter-epidemic) periods e.g. establishment of information systems, risk analyses, training of personnel, pre-testing of messages, among others. These measures, if implemented, would reduce impulsive responses when risk warnings are provided. More work is therefore needed to promote the culture of risk-based decision-making as espoused in the DST.Resource limitations and underfunding of RVF interventions were identified as critical and long-standing challenges that the department should find innovative ways of addressing e.g. by developing proposals for funding. It was also realized that though the government has not allocated any funds to the RVF emergency fund, it has invested a substantial amount of funds to establish disease-free zones at the Coast Province and in Laikipia, Isiolo and North Rift. This intervention has been supported by proponents of integrated management of trans-boundary animal diseases since it provides a platform for the development of contingency plans for a range of trade-sensitive diseases. The department should, however, not lose sight of the need to develop capacity for managing emergency responses such as the ones needed when RVF outbreaks occur. In the past, it has been criticized for not managing disease outbreaks and balancing investments in disease control against successive surges in case counts. The department in fact has a huge potential to play a coordination role when it does not have adequate funding to implement the interventions.Annex 1: Checklist for discussion points for key informant interviews and focus group discussionsSeveral factors may prevent a tool from making any significant impact in helping to improve the decision-making process. These can perhaps be grouped into• Language/ comprehension/ simplicity• General layout 2. Constrains to its widespread uptake and use ","tokenCount":"7323"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"971b7484c7d9351ca35975c518aabdd0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/57601e9f-6ba5-4865-b19b-04ad3b6fddb9/content","id":"1377092550"},"keywords":["AMOVA, analysis of molecular variance","BSSS, Iowa Stiff Stalk Synthetic","CIMMYT, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center","CML, CIMMYT maize line","GRIN, Germplasm Resources Information Network","MPH, midparent heterosis","MRD, modified Roger's distance","NSSS, non-Iowa Stiff Stalk Synthetic","PAV, present-absent variation","PCA, principal component analysis","PVP, Plant Variety Protection","SNP, single nucleotide polymorphism"],"sieverID":"21e5ac2f-e5ea-4683-ad2c-ebb9eb257c48","pagecount":"16","content":"The use of temperate maize (Zea mays L.) inbreds with expired Plant Variety Protection in tropical maize breeding programs could enhance the combining ability for grain yield among tropical heterotic groups. We used DNA markers from the DArTseq genotyping-by-sequencing platform to investigate the genetic structure of lines with expired U.S. Plant Variety Protection (ex-PVP) relative to the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center's (CIMMYT's) maize heterotic groups. Neighbor-joining cluster analysis revealed two major groups: CIMMYT and ex-PVP.The CIMMYT lines clustered according to their pedigree relationships and adaptation, but not according to their heterotic groups. In contrast, ex-PVP lines clustered according to the Stiff Stalk Synthetic (BSSS) and non-Stiff Stalk Synthetic (NSSS) heterotic groups, except for a few lines that were considered to be mixed. The genetic divergence, estimated as Wright's fixation index (F ST ), between BSSS and NSSS (F ST = .053, P < .01) was four times as large as the divergence between CIMMYT Tuxpeño and non-Tuxpeño heterotic groups (F ST = .013, P = .068). Estimates of genetic divergence marginally favored breeding with BSSS in Tuxpeño and NSSS in non-Tuxpeño. However, CIMMYT breeders may still exploit the ex-PVP heterotic structure fully only by ensuring that the temperate heterotic groups are placed on opposite sides of the Tuxpeño and non-Tuxpeño heterotic pattern. We also showed how estimates of admixture from model-based clustering could be used to avoid ex-PVP lines of mixed heterotic background when selecting lines to maximize the genetic divergence and combining ability of CIMMYT heterotic groups.The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) hybrid maize (Zea mays L.) breeding programs for the lowlands (0-900 m asl), mid-altitudes (900-2,000 m asl), and highlands (>2,000 m asl) were started in the early 1990s using populations of mixed racial origin as source germplasm (Vasal, et al., 1999;Vasal & McLean, 1994). Therefore, an initial objective of CIMMYT's hybrid maizebreeding program was to identify heterotic patterns among the populations and inbred lines using cross-classified mating designs (Vasal, et al., 1992;Vasal, et al., 1993). Vasal et al. (1999)   (CIMMYT, 1998;Vasal et al., 1999). Heterotic groups and patterns are important because they determine how germplasm is organized, managed, and used to achieve genetic gain from selection in hybrid breeding programs (Melchinger & Gumber, 1998). Quantitative genetics theory for heterosis shows that in the absence of epistasis, and assuming two alleles per locus, midparent heterosis (MPH) between two random-mating populations is a function of dominance and the square of the difference in allele frequencies at loci controlling the trait of interest (Falconer and Mackay, 1996;Lamkey & Edwards, 1999;Melchinger & Gumber, 1998;William & Pollak, 1985). Heterosis is therefore maximized when the difference in allele frequencies at loci associated with the trait of interest in the parents is maximized (Melchinger, 1999).Genetic structure analysis of CIMMYT germplasm using simple sequence repeat (SSR) and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers did not detect genetic divergence according to heterotic groups among inbred lines (Semagn et al., 2012;Wu et al., 2016;Xia et al., 2004Xia et al., , 2005)). The results observed among CIMMYT lines were similar to the results of Duvick, Smith, and Cooper (2004) that showed apparent clustering by heterotic groups for modern Pioneer Hi-Bred lines and lack of structure for lines from the U.S. preheterotic group era. Although heterotic patterns discovered based on phylogenetic and geographical isolation exist (e.g., B73 × Mo17, or the case of Iodent and the French inbred line F2 in Europe), empirical evidence suggests that heterotic groups are created and enhanced by breeders through selection (Barrière et al., 2006;Duvick et al., 2004;Hallauer, 1999;Tracy & Chandler, 2006). Studies of the heterotic structure of germplasm are done to guide germplasm organization and management for breeding purposes. To be informative, therefore, the studies of the heterotic structure of CIMMYT lines should be done with lines that have been widely used in breeding or as parents of successful hybrids, as opposed to the full set of CIMMYT maize lines (CMLs) as was done in previous studies (Wu et al., 2016;Xia et al., 2004;Xia et al., 2005).Breeding with several heterotic groups can be expensive and inefficient as hybrid development often requires the use• Genetic diversity was higher among CIMMYT than among US ex-PVP inbreds. • The heterotic structure of US ex-PVP was more developed than that of CIMMYT inbreds. • Ex-PVP lines can be used to increase the genetic diversity between CIMMYT heterotic groups. • Increasing the genetic divergence between CIM-MYT heterotic groups could increase heterosis.of cross-classified mating designs to identify new hybrids and superior inbred lines (Pswarayi & Vivek, 2008). The use of a singular overarching heterotic pattern is desirable because it simplifies inbred and hybrid development and saves resources through the use of one to a limited number of testers to identify new superior inbred lines and hybrids. The CIMMYT maize inbred lines were classified based on the predominant racial origin of the source population and combining ability with established heterotic testers as either Tuxpeño (Group A; e.g., Population 21) or non-Tuxpeño (Group B; e.g., Population 32), but the groups are still indistinguishable (Wu et al., 2016). Reciprocal recurrent pedigree selection (Lee & Tollenaar, 2007) with existing lines can be effective in driving allele frequencies in opposite directions in the long term; however, introgression of exotic germplasm with a diverged heterotic structure could be a complementary strategy to enhance CIMMYT's heterotic groups.The Iowa Stiff Stalk Synthetic (BSSS) and non-Stiff Stalk Synthetic (NSSS) heterotic pattern has been in use in the U.S. Corn Belt since the late 1940s (Hallauer, 1999;Tracy & Chandler, 2006;Troyer, 2004) and is probably the most developed in maize breeding globally. In the United States, proprietary maize inbred lines are protected by either the U.S. Plant Variety Protection Act, a U.S. utility patent, or both. As the protections expire after 20 yr, these inbred lines become available to the public. The heterotic relationship and structure of inbred lines with expired Plant Variety Protection certificates and U.S. patents (ex-PVP) have been extensively studied (Lorenz & Hoegemeyer, 2013;Mikel & Dudley, 2006;Nelson et al., 2008;White, Mikel, de Leon, & Kaeppler, 2020). Consistent with the theoretical expectations for a reciprocal pedigree recurrent selection program (Comstock, Robinson, & Harvey, 1949;Lee & Tollenaar, 2007), all the studies have shown clearly that allele frequencies between the BSSS and NSSS heterotic groups have significantly diverged and that this divergence has resulted in increased combining ability and grain yield of BSSS × NSSS hybrids in the U.S. Corn Belt (Duvick, 2005a(Duvick, , 2005b;;Duvick & Cassman, 1999). The heterotic divergence in the BSSS and NSSS heteroticpattern could be exploited to increase genetic divergence and, as a result, combining ability between the Tuxpeño and non-Tuxpeño heterotic groups. In addition to enhancing the heterotic structure, ex-PVP lines can also be used to improve other important traits such as reduced inbreeding depression and time to maturity, increased yield potential and stalk and root strength, adaptation to higher planting densities, and fast grain dry down.Understanding the genetic composition of ex-PVP lines and their relationship with CIMMYT germplasm is necessary to effectively exploit the heterotic structure of the BSSS and NSSS heterotic pattern to improve the combining ability of the Tuxpeño and non-Tuxpeño heterotic pattern. We assessed the genetic structure of ex-PVP lines relative to the CMLs and other elite and special trait inbred lines using SNPs and present-absent polymorphisms (PAVs) from the DArTseqbased genotyping (Edet, Gorafi, Nasuda, & Tsujimoto, 2018;Ren et al., 2015;Sansaloni et al., 2011). We narrowed our objective to focus only on the genetic structure of CIMMYT elite lines widely used for breeding and hybrid development and the most recombined ex-PVP lines (Mikel, 2011;Mikel & Dudley, 2006). Specifically, we (a) assessed the degree of genetic divergence between BSSS and NSSS relative to CIM-MYT Tuxpeño and non-Tuxpeño, (b) determined the ideal heterotic alignment of BSSS and NSSS with CIMMYT Tuxpeño and non-Tuxpeño lines (i.e., determine in which CIM-MYT heterotic group to introgress the BSSS or the NSSS lines), and (c) identified the most genetically pure sources of BSSS or NSSS ex-PVP lines to use in CIMMYT breeding programs.Seed of 244 U.S. ex-PVP lines genotyped in this study was obtained through the Germplasm Resource Information Network (GRIN) (http://www.ars-grin.gov/npgs; accessed 11 July 2020) from the U.S. North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station (Ames, IA) in 2014. Information from the PVP certificates obtained from the GRIN data system and from published studies (Mikel, 2011;Mikel & Dudley, 2006;Nelson et al., 2008;White et al., 2020) was used to classify lines as either BSSS or NSSS. In addition, a total of 570 tropical, mid-altitude, and highland CMLs and other elite inbred lines from CIMMYT's breeding programs were also genotyped. The 244 temperate lines represented about 80% of the lines in the ex-PVP database in 2014; the 570 CIMMYT lines represented most of the diversity in CIMMYT germplasm.Because not all CMLs were widely used in CIMMYT and other private and public breeding programs, we performed genetic diversity and structure analyses on a subset of 147 lines (Table 1) representing the core set of lines used in CIM-MYT breeding programs in 2014, and the most recombined ex-PVP lines (Mikel, 2011;Mikel & Dudley, 2006). The CIM-MYT subset had 76 lines that consisted of 43 Tuxpeños and 33 non-Tuxpeños. The ex-PVP subset had 71 lines: 45 NSSS and 26 BSSS. Although the majority of the selected ex-PVP lines were among the most recombined (Mikel, 2011;Mikel & Dudley, 2006), others were selected based on recommendations from some U.S. breeders that were familiar with the germplasm and our field observations.Sequencing and SNP calling  , 1984). The DNA was then quantified and diluted to an equal concentration of 200 ng μl −1 before performing high-throughput genotyping in 96 plex using DArTseq technology following methods described in earlier studies (Chen et al., 2016;Ren et al., 2015;Sansaloni et al., 2011). The genomic DNA of all the samples was digested with restriction enzymes PstI (CTGCAG) and HpaII (CCGG) prior to ligating barcoded adaptors to identify each sample. For each 96-well plate, 16% of the samples were replicated to assess the data reproducibility. Amplification products of equal molar concentration for each sample were pooled by plate and amplified with c-Bot (Illumina) bridge PCR, followed by fragment sequencing using Illumina Hiseq 2500 (http://www.illumina.com; accessed 11 July 2020). Sequence analysis was done to align reads with the sequence tag-based maize meta-genome, and SNPs and present-absent variations (PAVs) were called using the DArTsoft analytical pipeline. A search was conducted on the B73 reference genome (B73 RefGen_v3; Andorf et al., 2016) to look for the positions of the SNPs. The SNP position search was conducted using the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST; Altschul, et al., 1990;Ye, et al., 2006) with a maximum 4-bp mismatch threshold. The marker locations and tiled regions were mapped to the B73 reference genome from the Gramene database (ftp://ftp.ensemblgenomes.org; accessed 11 July 2020), but some SNPs and PAVs could not be mapped to a chromosome. A total of 616,967 unimputed SNPs and 18,936 present-absent variations (PAVs) were successfully identified on each inbred line. After removing markers with >25% missing data and minor allele frequency <5%, T A B L E 1 The subset of 147 lines consisting of the most widely used for breeding and hybrid development in the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) breeding programs and some of the most recombined lines with expired Plant Variety Protection (Mikel & Dudley, 2006)  a Chromosome 0 consists of markers that could not be mapped to the B73 reference genome.the 8,690 unimputed SNPs and 12,391 PAVs (21,081 markers) that remained had an average of 7.35% missing data (Table 2). The 21,081 markers or subsets with ≤5% missing data, depending on the type of analysis, were used for subsequent genetic diversity analyses.Summary statistics for markers, including heterozygosity, percentage missing data, and the effective number of alleles per locus, were computed across the 21,081 markers using R Crop Science (R Core Team, 2019). The effective number of alleles (A e ) for each marker was calculated aswhere D j is the gene diversity of the jth of l loci.Standard χ 2 tests were used to test for genetic homogeneity between pairs of heterotic groups (Table 1), with a null hypothesis of equal allele frequencies between groups. The χ 2 tests were done using a subset of 10,413 markers with ≤5% missing data and minor allele frequency ≥.01. A Bonferronicorrected probability value of .05/n, where n is the number of loci, was used to adjust for multiple testing. The number of significant markers for each pair of populations was then expressed as a proportion of the total number of markers analyzed. The standard errors for the percentages of significant markers were calculated using standard formulae, according to the Bernoulli distribution (Evans, et al., 2000). Data of the subset of 10,413 markers coded as codominant genotypes were also subjected to analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) (Excoffier, et al., 1992). The AMOVA was conducted using GenAlEX (Peakall & Smouse, 2012) to estimate Wright's fixation index, F ST (Wright, 1965). Statistical significance for pairwise F ST values was determined by permutation across the dataset.Private alleles (the number of alleles unique to a subpopulation) were estimated in R from 5,000 random samples of 26 (the smallest subset) lines drawn without replacement from the Tuxpeño, non-Tuxpeño, and the NSSS subsets using the full set of 21,081 markers. Private alleles between the full CIMMYT and ex-PVP sets was estimated from the average of 1,000 random samples of 244 drawn without replacement from the CIMMYT group. A resampling approach was used to estimate the number of private alleles to avoid bias due to differences in sample size.Principal component analysis (PCA) was also done using the 21,081 markers on the CIMMYT, ex-PVP, and the subset of 147 inbred lines with the prcomp package in R. The first three principal components were plotted using the scat-terplot3d package in R. The genetic distance between each pair of inbred lines was estimated across the 21,081 markers using Rodger's modified genetic distance (MRD). The MRD was calculated aswhere p ij and q ij are the alleles frequencies of the jth allele at ith locus in each pair of inbred lines, a i is the number of alleles at the ith locus, and m is the number of loci. The MRD matrix was used to perform cluster analysis using the neighbor-joining method with the hclust package in R. The MRD was preferred because its square (MRD 2 ) is linearly correlated with MPH (Melchinger, 1999). The dendrogram was produced using the software Figtree 1.4.0 (http://tree.bio. ed.ac.uk/software/figtree/; accessed 11 July 2020). To assess whether PAV and SNP markers gave similar results on the genetic relationships among the lines, we created two MRD distance matrices for the full set of 814 lines: one based on the 8,690 SNPs and another based on the 12,391 PAVs. The two distance matrices were then converted to vectors that were then used to calculate Pearson's linear correlation coefficient between the SNP and PAV genetic distances.The population structure of the subset of 147 lines was evaluated using model-based clustering using the program STRUCTURE 2.3.4 (Pritchard, et al., 2000;Hubisz, et al., 2009). STRUCTURE was run with a subset of 7,994 markers that had <5% missing data and minor allele frequency ≥.1. The program was run with the number of populations, K, ranging from 1 to 10, with five runs for each value of K, a burnin period of 30,000, and 30,000 replications. The model with the optimal population number was selected using the ad hoc statistic delta K (ΔK), which is based on the rate of change in the log probability of the model between successive K values (Evanno, et al., 2005).The MRD matrices for PAV and SNP markers were highly correlated (r = .78, P < .01), indicating that combining the two marker datasets for the statistical analyses conducted in this study was appropriate. The AMOVA detected a significant genetic divergence (F ST = .16, P < .01) among the four groups. Pairwise F ST estimates were significant for all comparisons, except for between Tuxpeño and non-Tuxpeño (Table 3). The F ST between BSSS and NSSS was about four times as large as the F ST between Tuxpeño and non-Tuxpeño. Estimates of F ST between CIMMYT and ex-PVP heterotic groups showed that BSSS was more diverged from Tuxpeño and non-Tuxpeño (F ST ≈ .09, P < .01) than NSSS was diverged from the CIMMYT heterotic groups (F ST ≈ .08, P < .01) (Table 3).Similarly, BSSS and the CIMMYT heterotic groups had an average of 16% more loci with heterogenous allele frequencies than between the CIMMYT germplasm and NSS (Figure 1). Further, only 0.30% of the loci had heterogenous allele frequencies between Tuxpeño and non-Tuxpeño, compared with 24.4% between the BSSS and NSS (Figure 1). The percentage of loci with heterogeneous allele frequencies between the Tuxpeño and BSSS (42.5%) was larger than that between Tuxpeño and NSSS (27.1%). The difference in mean percentage of heterogeneous loci between the Tuxpeño and BSSS pair and between the non-Tuxpeño-BSSS pair (1.35% or 141 loci) was statistically significant (t > 200, P < .001), suggesting that BSSS was genetically closer to Tuxpeño than to non-Tuxpeño. Also, the difference in percentage heterogenous loci between the Tuxpeño and NSS, and the non-Tuxpeño and NSS pairs (0.95%), although too small to be of practical significance, suggested that NSSS was genetically closer to non-Tuxpeño than to Tuxpeño (Figure 1). Although the largest number of significant markers (68%) was observed between the full sets of 570 CIMMYT lines and 244 ex-PVP lines (Figure 1), the largest heterotic group divergence based on allele frequencies was observed between non-Tuxpeño and BSSS (Figure 1).The average MRD among individual lines was highest within the full CIMMYT set and the subsets of Tuxpeño and non-Tuxpeño lines, suggesting that the CIMMYT germplasm pool had more genetic diversity than the ex-PVP set. Average MRD among the 244 ex-PVP lines was similar to the CIM-MYT subsets, but the NSSS subset had a higher average MRD than the BSSS subset (Table 4). The CIMMYT group and its subsets also had higher genetic diversity when diversity was expressed as either the average number of effective alleles per locus or the average number of private alleles (Table 4). In addition, the trend in all three measures of genetic diversity suggested that the BSSS subset had lower genetic diversity than the NSSS subset (Table 4). Based on the number of private alleles in each heterotic group, the Tuxpeño group, with an average of 39.7 private alleles, was the most dissimilar of the four heterotic groups (Table 4). Trends in the group pairwise average genetic distances were in agreement with F ST estimates showing no genetic divergence between Tuxpeño and non-Tuxpeño (Table 3). In contrast, the distance (MRD) between BSSS and NSSS was more than twice as large as the distance between Tuxpeño and non-Tuxpeño. (Table 3). In addition, estimates of MRD suggest that both Tuxpeño and non-Tuxpeño heterotic groups had equal genetic distances to NSSS and BSSS. Collectively, these results suggest a lack of genetic divergence between the CIMMYT heterotic groups and the presence of genetic divergence between the CIMMYT germplasm pool and the ex-PVP lines and between the BSSS and NSSS heterotic groups.Cluster analysis of the subset of 147 inbred lines revealed two main clusters: the CIMMYT and the ex-PVP clusters (Figure 2). The 76 CIMMYT inbred lines clustered according to their source populations and the breeding program from which they were developed, but not according to their heterotic groups. Four weak subclusters were inferred in the CIMMYT cluster: inbred lines from the highland breeding program, mid-altitude, and lowland, and a mixed cluster of lowland and mid-altitude lines (Figure 2). The highland cluster consisted of all the 11 lines (Table 1), with no overlap with germplasm from the lowland tropical and mid-altitude programs (Figure 2). The lowland tropical cluster consisted of seven lines that can be traced back to the Tuxpeño Population 21: CML264, CML401, CML498, CML503, CML500, CLWN216, and CML573. The rest of the lines in the lowland tropical cluster were not related to Population 21 by pedigree; however, CML450, CML451, and CML495 have a common parent that may be related to Population 21.The mid-altitude cluster consisted of lines from the midaltitude programs in Mexico, Kenya, and Zimbabwe, whereas the mixed cluster consisted of lines from the lowland and midaltitude programs. The inbred line CML444 clustered with CML494, CML576, and CML373 (Figure 2), all extracted from Population 43. The inbred line CML312 clustered with related lines from Zimbabwe (CML539 and CML537) and its sister line CML311, as would be expected based on pedigree information (Figure 2). Additional subgroups of lines related by pedigree included the Suwan subgroup of CML224, CML225, CML227, and CML510. The lines CML489 and CML440 also clustered with Suwan lines despite having no evidence of Suwan germplasm in their pedigree. The close clustering of CML330, CML331, and CML332 is also consistent with pedigree information, indicating that all three were extracted from a population that was 50% Suwan. Theclustering of lines of the same heterotic group was also observed for CML78, CML375, CML505, and CML491, which all belonged to Tuxpeño.The clustering of lines based on their source population and association of sister lines such CML311 and CML312, CML383 and CML384, and CML379 and CML380 showed that our data were able to detect real genetic relationships among the lines. However, some inconsistencies were observed: CML537 (CML312 × CML206) clustered with CML202 instead of CML206. Further, CML483 clustered with CML78 instead of the related lines from Population 502: CML321, CML383, and CML384.The BSSS and the NSSS heterotic groups were clearly separated in the ex-PVP cluster (Figure 2). Within the BSSS cluster, a subcluster of lines from Pioneer Hi-Bred and another consisting of lines of Holden Foundation Seeds and Dekalb lines were detected (Figure 2). The NSSS cluster consisted of three distinct subclusters of Iodent, Oh07-Midland, and Oh43 or M017. The Iodent (PH207 and others) cluster consisted primarily of lines from Pioneer Hi-Bred and lines that were derived out of Pioneer hybrids. The Oh7-Midland (PHR03 and others) cluster consisted entirely of Pioneer lines, suggesting that this germplasm was unique to Pioneer Hi-Bred. The Oh43/Mo17 or Lancaster cluster was made up mainly of Holdens and Dekalb lines, with PHT60, PHG47, and PHK76 from Pioneer Hi-Bred also clustering with the Lancaster lines (Figure 2).Principal component analysis for the 570 CIMMYT lines separated inbred lines from the highland breeding program from the lowland tropical and tropical mid-altitude inbred lines on PCA1 (Figure 3). No clear separation of groups was observed on the other two principal components. The first three principal components explained 5.7% of the genetic variation, consistent with the general lack of structure in CIMMYT germplasm (Figure 3). In contrast, PCA for the 244 ex-PVP lines separated the lines into at least five subgroups (Figure 4). The first principal component (PC1) for all the ex-PVP lines separated the BSSS from the NSSS lines; BSSS lines were on the positive end and NSSS lines on the negative end of the PC1 axis (Figure 4). Lines that had a mixed NSS and BSS background, such as PHJ40, PHRE1, and PHAA0, were near the origin of the PCA1 axis. Iodents were on one end, and Mo17 and Oh43 lines were on the other end of the PCA2 axis, with BSSS, Oh7-Midland, and other NSS lines (e.g., Minnesota 13 and the French lines F2 and F7) at the origin. Along PCA3, the most extreme groups were mixed: one cluster consisting of Mo17 and B73 lines on one end, and B14, B37, and some Iodent lines on the other end. In general, PCA3 separated B73 and Mo17 types from B14 and B37 types. The first three prin- cipal components for the ex-PVP lines explained 23.8% of the genetic variation among the lines (Figure 4). For the subset of 147 lines, the first three principal components explained 19.8% of the genetic variation. The first principal component (PCA1) separated CIMMYT lines from ex-PVP lines. On one extreme of PCA1 were the lowland tropical lines from Population 21, and on the other extreme were the B73-derived BSSS lines. The highland, Oh43, and the Oh7-Midland lines were close to the origin of PCA1 (Figure 5). The second principal component separated the BSSS from the NSSS lines, with Iodent lines on one extreme of PCA2 and B73 lines on the other; CIMMYT lines were close to the origin of the PCA2 axis (Figure 5). Finally, the third principal component had Iodent lines on one extreme and Mo17 and Oh43 lines on the other of PCA3. The CIMMYT lines were at the origin of PCA3, and highland lines CHWE237, CHYL22, and CML460 were close to the Oh7-Midlands lines and the Mo17 or Oh43 lines (Figure 5).Model-based clustering results for the subset of 147 ex-PVP and CIMMYT lines are shown in Figure 6  because the results were more informative than the results for K = 2 for the use of ex-PVP lines in CIMMYT breeding programs. Despite the lack of subpopulations within CIMMYT germplasm, the results showed a trend towards an increase in the proportion (Q) of temperate (ex-PVP) genome with altitude (adaptation) from lowland to highland (Figure 7). The proportion of temperate genome for lowland tropical lines ranged from Q = 0 (for inbred lines from Population 21) to Q = .16 (for CML534), with an average of .07. The midaltitude lines had an average Q = .16 from the ex-PVP lines, with a range of Q = .03 (for CML379 and CML380) to Q = .36 (for CML486). The proportion of the genome originating from temperate lines was highest among highland lines with an average Q = .32 and a range of .29 (CML459) to .40 (CHWE237) (Figure 7). The results also suggest a higher proportion of NSSS alleles in CIMMYT lines than BSSS alleles (Figure 7). Most ex-PVP lines were assigned to the BSSS or the NSSS heterotic group, except PHMK0 and LH85, that were considered mixed because they had membership probability (Q) < .5 in all three populations (Figure 7). Among the BSSS lines, the majority of the Dekalb and Holden lines and the Cargill line 2369 had Q ≥ .9 within the BSSS group (Table 5). In contrast, the only BSSS lines from Pioneer Hi-Bred that had Q ≥ .9 within the BSSS population were PHHB9 and PHW52 (Table 5). For the NSSS group, 19 lines had Q ≥ .9 within the  5). The lines with high membership probability (Table 3) in their assigned group were considered the purest for that group.It is clear from the results of our study using all CIMMYT lines and the subset of lines that were widely used for breeding and as parents of successful hybrids that CIMMYT maize lines do not cluster according to their heterotic groups. These results were consistent with the finding of previous studies that used the full set of lines (Wu et al., 2016). The lack of genetic divergence between CIMMYT makes it challenging to choose testers to evaluate the combining ability of new inbred lines. However, the clusters of families of lines that were derived out of the same populations, such as Suwan 1, Population 21, Population 43, Population 500 (CML311 and CML312), and Population 502, could form the base germplasm that can be used to refine and enhance CIMMYT heterotic groups via both a pedigree-based recurrent selection scheme for combining ability and targeted introgression of ex-PVP germplasm. The Suwan germplasm (Sriwatanapongse, Jinahyon, & Vasal, 1993), for example, is a major heterotic group in subtropical and tropical breeding programs (Fan et al., 2015;Wu et al., 2019), but it is relatively underused in CIMMYT's breeding programs. Inbred lines of Suwan background could also be targeted for breeding in the non-Tuxpeño group because they did not cluster with lines from Population 21-the primary source of Tuxpeño in the CIMMYT germplasm pool.The CIMMYT inbred lines also clustered by adaptation; the highland lines formed a unique group, whereas the tropical and mid-altitude groups were mixed. This genetic structure of CIMMYT germplasm can be exploited to enhance heterotic groups by moving germplasm across adaptation zones, at leastT A B L E 5 Summary of the inferred populations from genetic structure analysis of the subset of 147 International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and expired Plant Variety Protection (ex-PVP) linesLines bCIMMYT: Q ≥ .9 CLWN216, CML264, CML394, CML401, CML450, CML451, CML495, CML498, CML500, CML503, CML573, CML379, CML380, CML384, CML311, CML576, CML312, CML494, CML383, CML532, CML537, CML444, CML449, CML531, CML436, CML286, CML488, CML530, CML269, CML330, CML321, CML332, CML373 CIMMYT: .5 ≥ Q < .9 CML539, CML491, CML331, CML438, CML225, CML224, CML439, CML440, CML375, CML227, CML534, CML483, CML510, CML487, CML206, CML202, CML489, CML395, CML197, CML78, CML390, CML442, CML505, CML536, CML538, CML323, CML463, CML464, CML460, CML445, CML324, CML457, CML459, CHYL22, CML461, CML462, CML327, CHWE227, CHYL10, CHWE133, CHYE140, CML486, CHWE237 BSSS: Q ≥ .9 LH194, CARG2369, LH132, LH196, LH198, LH200, LH202, LH205, LH195, PHHB9, PHW52, DKFBLL, DK2FADB, DK2FACC BSSS: .5 ≥ Q < .9 LH208, DK87916W, PHP38, PHG39, PHT11, PHK29, PHBW8, H8431 NSSS: Q ≥ .9 DKIBC2, PHG29, PHJ90, LH214, PH207, PHN82, PHP02, LH213, PHTD5, CARG11430, DK3IIH6, LH284, LH123HT, PHP55, DKIBO14, LH181, LH211, LH212Ht, PHR25 NSSS: .5 ≥ Q < .9 PHR03, PHK56, LH216, PHV78, PHR63, PHG35, PHM10, DK3IBZ2, DKMM501D, LH59, DK78551S, DKIBB14, PHG47, LH172, PHK76, PHN46, LH210, DKMM402A, LH184, PHK46, PHG84, PHT60, PHZ51, PHJ40, PHAA0, PHRE1, PHM57, PHJ31 Mixed PHMK0, LH85a The populations inferred from structure analysis using the software Structure 2.3.4 (Pritchard et al., 2000): CIMMYT, Iowa Stiff Stalk Synthetic (BSSS), non-Stiff Stalk Synthetic (NSSS) subdivided based on admixture values (Q) of each of the lines. The mixed group consisted of lines that did not have group membership >.5 in any of the three inferred populations. b Inbred lines with expired U.S. Plant Variety Protection (ex-PVP) were from Pioneer Hi-Bred (prefix PH), Dekalb Genetics (prefix DK), Holden Foundation (prefix LH),and Cargill (prefix CARG). The BSSS line H8431was from Novartis Seeds.on one side of the Tuxpeño-non-Tuxpeño heterotic pattern, given the limited variation among heterotic groups. Pedigree records of CMLs show that there has been little movement of germplasm between the highland program and tropical or mid-altitude breeding programs. Similarly, Population 21 has been a rich source of lines in Latin America, but it has not been used for breeding in Africa. In the same vein, unique germplasm from Africa (e.g., the N3 and SC heterotic pattern from Zimbabwe; Derera & Musimwa, 2015) has not been used for breeding in the lowland tropical and highland programs in Mexico.Because the genetic diversity among the CIMMYT heterotic groups was low, it is especially crucial that germplasm exchange and use be complemented by a breeding strategy that is designed to increase genetic divergence and combining ability between the heterotic groups (Duvick et al., 2004;Lee & Tollenaar, 2007). DNA markers can be used, not just to aid selection but also to help assign lines to heterotic groups and avoid making breeding crosses between lines that are supposed to belong in different heterotic groups. The absence of DNA marker-based quality control for breeding crosses could contribute to unintended mixtures and hinder progress in the divergence of heterotic groups. The mixture of heterotic groups resulting from breeding with the wrong crosses could explain the inconsistency observed in the pedigree of CML537. The inconsistency in the pedigree of CML537 was also detected in an independent study by Wu et al. (2016), suggesting that it was a case of the wrong cross being made rather than resulting from sampling errors during genotyping. On the other hand, the inconsistency detected for CML483 suggests a sample handling error because CML483 clustered with related lines from Population 502 in the study by Wu et al. (2016).A trend towards a higher proportion of temperate alleles in mid-altitude and highland than in lowland tropical germplasm was consistent with the genetic constitution of the source populations from which the lines were extracted. The inbred CML486, which had the highest ex-PVP population membership probability among the mid-altitude lines, was extracted from Population 45, whose background included lines from Purdue University, BSSS, hybrids from Dekalb Genetics, and inbred lines from Nebraska (CIMMYT, 1998). Further, several highland populations contained up to 25% of U.S. Corn Belt germplasm (CIMMYT, 1998). In contrast, only a few of the tropical populations contained U.S. Corn Belt germplasm (e.g., Populations 19 and 26) (CIMMYT, 1998), and most of them did not result in widely used CMLs probably because the selection pressure against temperate alleles was higher in lowland tropical environments than in mid-altitude and highland environments.Evidently, CIMMYT germplasm is still in the preheterotic group era relative to the BSSS and NSSS heterotic pattern Crop Science (Duvick et al., 2004;Tracy & Chandler, 2006). However, despite the limited genetic divergence between the CIMMYT heterotic groups, there were enough clustering patterns that could be used to optimize the heterotic grouping through reclassification of some of the lines, moving germplasm across breeding programs, and use of a breeding approach that aims to increase allele frequency divergence and combining ability. Introgression of BSSS lines in one heterotic group and NSSS in the other could be a complementary strategy to increase the combining ability between the CIMMYT heterotic groups.Our results confirmed the genetic divergence between the BSSS and NSSS heterotic groups among ex-PVP lines (Nelson et al., 2008;Lorenz & Hoegemeyer, 2013;Beckett, Morales, Koehler, & Rocheford, 2017;White et al., 2020).In addition, the subgroups identified in the BSSS heterotic group were consistent with historical pedigree information indicating that the BSSS heterotic group of Pioneer Hi-Bred consisted of B14, B37, Maiz Amargo, and Iodent, whereas that of Dekalb Genetics and Holden Foundation Seeds consisted predominantly of B73 (Mikel, 2011Mikel & Dudley, 2006;Troyer, 2004). The NSSS subgroups of Lancaster, Oh7-Midland, and Iodent were also in agreement with pedigree information indicating that Mo17 was prominent in Holden Foundation Seeds and that it was rare in Pioneer Hi-Bred International (Tracy & Chandler, 2006). Cluster analysis, PCA, and model-based clustering placed the majority of the lines in the BSSS or NSSS heterotic groups and subgroups as expected according to pedigree information (Beckett et al., 2017;Mikel, 2011;Mikel & Dudley, 2006;Nelson et al., 2008;White et al., 2020). However, there were a few exceptions: PHJ40, PHAA0, and PHRE1 were declared BSSS by Mikel and Dudley (2006), but our results from model-based clustering assigned them to NSSS. It is important to note that the results depend on the set of lines analyzed and that the clustering pattern may be different for a different set of lines. Still, we suspect that the clustering of PHJ40, PHAA0, and PHRE1 closer to NSSS than BSSS could have been caused by the Maiz Amargo genetic background, which was not accounted for in the model-based clustering in this study, and their Iodent background (Mikel & Dudley, 2006).The lines PHMK0 and LH85 were declared mixed because they did not have membership probability >.5 in any of the three populations inferred using model-based clustering. PHMK0 can be traced back to B14, B37, Maiz Amargo, and Iodent; the Iodent component could explain the NSSS membership, whereas the Maíz Amargo component could have been lumped into the CIMMYT group. The other mixed inbred line LH85 was selfed out of Pioneer hybrid 3978 with unknown background information (Mikel & Dudley, 2006). The results of model-based clustering suggest that Pioneer 3978 was a BSSS × NSSS hybrid, and LH85 was, therefore, of mixed genetic background. By contrast, DK3IIH6, DKIBO14, and DKIBC2, which were also selfed out of Pioneer hybrids, clustered with Iodent lines, whereas LH123 from Holden Foundation clustered with Oh43 lines; all four lines had NSSS membership probability ≥.9, suggesting that they were all derived out of NSSS × NSSS hybrids.The lines with the highest membership probability in either BSSS or NSSS should have the most substantial allele frequency divergence between the two groups. Breeding with the purest BSSS lines in one of the CIMMYT heterotic groups and NSSS in the other would maximize allele frequency divergence and, possibly, combining ability for grain yield between the Tuxpeño and non-Tuxpeño heterotic groups. In addition, the results showed that our data could be used to resolve unclear pedigree information, and, as a result, the heterotic grouping of the ex-PVP lines used in this study.The results showed a lack of genetic divergence between the CIMMYT heterotic groups and large genetic divergence between BSSS and NSSS. The genetic divergence between the BSSS and NSSS heterotic groups could be exploited to enhance the genetic divergence and combining ability of the CIMMYT Tuxpeños and non-Tuxpeños. Evidence from tests of genetic divergence using F ST and χ 2 tests for homogeneity allele frequencies between heterotic groups, although weak, suggested that BSSS should be placed in the Tuxpeño group and that NSS should be used in the non-Tuxpeño group. It is important to note that other factors such as seed yield and pollen production may determine in which CIMMYT heterotic group the BSSS and NSSS lines are placed. When only male and female seed production traits were considered, it was deemed appropriate to align BSSS with Tuxpeño and non-BSSS with non-Tuxpeño (Whitehead, Caton, Hallauer, Vasal, & Cordova, 2006). The decision to group BSSS with Tuxpeño and NSSS with non-Tuxpeño is therefore consistent with the results of this study and is supported by empirical data (Cupertino-Rodrigues, Dhliwayo, Trachsel, Guo, & San Vicente, 2020).According to quantitative genetic theory for heterosis and empirical evidence, increased genetic divergence at loci associated with the trait of interest should result in increased combining ability. The findings of this study could be used in conjunction with pedigree information to select the most heterotically pure BSSS or NSSS lines to use in CIMMYTbreeding programs to maximize the divergence of heterotic groups. The BSSS inbred lines such as LH132, LH198, and LH195 that had the least membership probability in NSSS (e.g., Q ≥ .9; Table 5) should have a higher priority for CIMMYT breeding than lines with higher membership probability in NSSS heterotic group. Likewise, NSSS lines with the lowest membership probability in BSSS, such as PHG29, PHN82, and LH213 (Table 5), should also be included in the list of lines to use for CIMMYT breeding, together with other highly recombined lines such as PHR03 and PHK56 (Mikel, 2011;Mikel & Dudley, 2006).Introgression of BSSS into Tuxpeño and NSSS into non-Tuxpeño can increase the performance of CIMMYT hybrids only if the genetic divergence observed between the NSSS and BSSS heterotic groups is associated with grain yield in tropical environments. Genetic divergence is a prerequisite for heterosis to occur. The results of previous studies indicated that heterosis increased with an increase in genetic divergence but within a restricted range of genetic divergence (Moll, Lonnquist, Fortuno, & Johnson, 1965;Moll, Salhuana, & Robinson, 1962;Paterniani & Lonnquist, 1963). Further, studies that assessed the relationship of DNA marker-based genetic distance with MPH and F 1 hybrid yield reported moderate to high correlation coefficients, but these studies were conducted within adapted germplasm pools (Melchinger, 1999;Reif et al., 2003). The presumption that the genetic divergence between BSSS and NSSS is associated with hybrid performance in temperate environments is supported by empirical evidence. The genetic divergence between NSSS and BSSS resulted from a pedigree breeding strategy akin to reciprocal recurrent selection that resulted in increased combining ability and grain yield of BSSS × NSSS hybrids (Duvick, 1984(Duvick, , 2005b;;Duvick et al., 2004;Hallauer, 1999;Lee & Tollenaar, 2007).The genetic divergence between BSSS and NSSS is thus associated with increased grain yield in temperate environments; the question, therefore, is whether the ex-PVP lines are not so extremely diverged from tropical lines that the favorable alleles in temperate lines are masked by a lack of adaptation to tropical environments. Cupertino-Rodrigues et al. ( 2020) evaluated BSSS × non-Tuxpeño and NSSS × Tuxpeño hybrids in the mid-altitude tropical environments in Mexico and reported that several hybrids had grain yield equal or superior to that of the adapted check hybrids. The NSS inbred lines PHR03 and PHN82 combined well for grain yield with Tuxpeño testers, and the BSSS lines PHG39 and PHK29 combined well with non-Tuxpeño testers. It is therefore likely that the favorable alleles for grain yield in temperate environments are expressed in tropical environments. However, Cupertino-Rodrigues et al. ( 2020) evaluated only 10 BSSS and 11 NSS lines in mid-altitude (>900 m asl) environments where disease pressure is lower than in lowland tropical environments (<900 m asl). Hence, more studies involving more lines across more tropical environments may be needed to assess fully the usefulness of ex-PVP lines for tropical maize breeding. Nevertheless, the results of this study should help breeders increase the genetic divergence between Tuxpeños and non-Tuxpeños by avoiding ex-PVP lines of mixed heterotic origin and by maintaining BSSS and NSSS lines in separate heterotic groups when forming breeding populations with ex-PVP lines.Disease resistance and general adaptation to tropical environments have to be addressed before the yield potential of temperate germplasm is fully expressed. Further, for markets that prefer white grain, selection for grain and cob color is necessary because most of the ex-PVP lines have yellow grain and red cob. These considerations influence the breeding approach and the size of segregating populations when breeding with temperate germplasm in tropical environments. Two general approaches can be proposed: a conservative approach that aims to introduce small (≤25%) proportions of temperate germplasm through backcrossing, or an aggressive approach using populations that have 50% or more temperate germplasm. The aggressive approach in both heterotic groups would result in a higher frequency of temperate alleles and greater genetic divergence between the BSSSderived Tuxpeños and NSS-derived non-Tuxpeños. Based on evidence from Cupertino-Rodrigues et al. ( 2020), the aggressive approach might be successful in the mid-altitude tropics and perhaps in the highlands. In contrast, the conservative approach or the recycling of temperate-derived mid-altitude inbreds seems appropriate for the lowland tropics when disease pressure is high.The probability of success when selecting in populations with a high proportion of temperate germplasm might be improved by intermating each population for one or two generations before extracting lines using the traditional pedigree selection (Goodman, 2004). Intermating would reduce linkage drag and improve the recovery of favorable temperate alleles; however, the benefits of intermating may be offset by an increase in the breeding cycle time, especially if no more than two generations can be completed per year. The CIMMYT mid-altitude maize breeding programs in sub-Saharan Africa and Mexico have begun breeding with ex-PVP lines that have shown superior combining ability (e.g., PHR03, PHN82, PHK29, and PHG39) and other highly recycled related lines using a combination of both the conservative and aggressive approaches. Future studies could investigate the genetic divergence and combining ability between the resulting BSSS-derived Tuxpeño and the NSS-derived non-Tuxpeño lines to assess the effectiveness of the breeding strategy and the usefulness of ex-PVP lines.Finally, the introgression of ex-PVP lines to increase the divergence of CIMMYT's heterotic groups can only succeed if it is accompanied by a sound breeding strategy, sustained investment, and germplasm management standards that areadhered to by all breeders. Efforts to create the current BSSS and NSSS heterotic groups started in the 1940s, about 50 yr before Plant Variety Protection certificates of the current ex-PVP lines were issued in the mid-1980s to mid-1990s (Duvick et al., 2004;Hallauer, 1999;Tracy & Chandler, 2006). It should take the same time or at least the same effort for CIM-MYT to develop heterotic groups that are as diverged as the BSSS and NSSS heterotic pattern. However, modern breeding tools, the availability of ex-PVP lines, and the retrospective lessons learned in temperate maize breeding programs may help reduce the time and effort it should take to develop divergent heterotic groups in CIMMYT breeding programs. Divergence of allele frequencies and increase in combining ability between heterotic groups could be expedited by uncoupling hybrid development from population improvement, then apply reciprocal recurrent genomic selection (Gaynor et al., 2017;Rembe, Zhao, Jiang, & Reif, 2018) to improve combining ability and to drive divergence in allele frequencies between heterotic populations.","tokenCount":"7290"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b62a587718351b36328caedd24271ab1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c3abaf8d-162e-4500-97ba-61fe2cdc370e/retrieve","id":"147624046"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"391188f1-703b-403d-a973-d7f3eb53876d","pagecount":"6","content":"All participants in the study have witnessed a change in weather in the last 10 years. Most notably, temperatures have increased and become more variable while precipitation has decreased and become more variable. Perceptions of climate change in Vietnam do not appear to be individual but rather disaggregated at the household level (at the most finite level) or possibly at the landscape level. Perceived impacts of stress by male and female respondents are quite similar, which may indicate that stress is managed at the household level rather than at the individual level. Further gender research in Vietnam should focus on adaptation and coping strategies during climate change stress as it appears that gender differences are most present in this area. To cope with climate change issues, farmers need:(1) rice varieties that are tolerant to stresses such as heat, drought, and salinity; (2) pest management training; and (3) crop production management training. Challenges related to climate change faced by individual households are likely to be the same challenges as their neighbors. Thus, future climate change studies in Vietnam should also include spatial analysis.This brief summarizes the findings of a project output for the Policy Information and Response Platform on Climate Change and Rice in ASEAN and its Member Countries (PIRCCA), being implemented by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). The report focuses on the results of the survey conducted in the first half of 2015 on climate change perception and adaptation strategies of male and female farmers in three selected provinces across the Mekong River Delta (MRD) region in Vietnam: An Giang, Bac Lieu, and Tra Vihn.The survey gathered information on current climate change perceptions and adaptation strategies and gaps between the identified male and female respondents.A total of 214 farm households were selected to be part of the climate change perception and adaptation strategies study. The husband and wife of each household were separately interviewed, which brings the number of respondents to 428 (214 pairs). The surveys were carried out by IRRI's local partner in Vietnam, the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development (IPSARD), in seven districts located in the three provinces.Geographic selections for this study were based on a priori knowledge of areas facing climate change issues. This criterion was used in the selection of provinces, districts, communes, and villages. Once the villages were identified, a list of farmers with at least 10 years of farming experience was prepared for each commune.Survey participants were then selected using a stratified random sampling procedure with equal numbers of respondents from each village.Of the 214 surveyed households, all male and female farmers reported that they had noticed changes in the weather in the last 10 years. This result is in support of Lambrou and Nelson (2013) who received the same response from Indian farmers reporting change over a 40year period. When asked specifically about changes in temperature, nearly all respondents, male (92.1%) and female (85.0%) alike, reported a perceived increase in temperature.The data suggest that perceptions of the average temperatures are higher and there is potentially more variability in temperatures. Results also showed that respondents perceived colder temperatures during the cold months (18.2% for males and 19.2% for females) and hotter temperatures during the hot months (37.4% for males and 50.9% for females) as well as many irregular changes in temperature.On the average, male and female respondents reported a decrease in precipitation. Approximately 31% of the males also perceived rainfall coming later in the season. Reports indicated that the most significant change in perception observed was low rainfall. Similarly, males and females had compatible perceptions on drought. High drought was most perceived, with approximately half of the respondents noting that they had experienced high drought.Nearly 40% of the male respondents also reported early drought. Ninety-one males and 66 females reported high drought to be the most significant change in the last 10 years. The responses to changes in precipitation and drought are in agreement with one another and suggest that low precipitation is of concern to many respondents in southern Vietnam. In further agreement, the respondents also reported less flooding in the last 10 years.Sea-level rise does not seem to be a major concern to the respondents: 42% of the male respondents and 37% of the female respondents reported no change in sea-level rise in the last ten years. The responses on sea-level rise were similar between males and females. In fact, all responses regarding climate variability were similar between male and female respondents.There is slight variation in responses between male and female respondents in regards to what causes climate change. Male respondents reported that climate variability is due to humankind and non-humankind activities at 33% and 44%, respectively, while female respondents reported 41% and 43%, respectively. Female respondents were 8% more likely to report humankind activities as drivers of climate change. Regardless of this difference, there appears to be a consensus among the respondents that temperatures are increasing and becoming more variable, precipitation is decreasing, and sea-level rise is not presently a concern in their respective regions.Both male (66.4%) and female (67.3%) respondents reported heat stress to be the climate stress most present in their area. Similarly, drought was reported as the second highest observed stress in each respondent's area, followed by salinity and flooding. When respondents were asked which stress was most important or most prominent in their areas, the most common response was salinity. Even though heat and drought were identified as the major stresses present in the area of the respondents, stress associated with salinity was reported to have the greatest effect on their areas. This observation was reported by 35.0% of male and 40.6% of female respondents. Storms and sea-level rise were rarely reported as observed weather stresses.Male and female respondents during the project orientation.Figure 1. Perceived changes in precipitation and drought during the last 10 years in the survey areas.Respondents also reported that livestock production was affected by stress. The major effect reported was in the increase in disease incidence. The most commonly reported livestock raised were cows and pigs among 55 and 34 households, respectively. The effect of climate stress in aquaculture is unknown in this study because only few respondents engage in aquaculture.A total of 123 (57.48%) male and 105 (49.06%) female respondents reported that climate stress has affected irrigation on their farms.Based on an open-ended question, the most reported effects on irrigation were shortage of water and salinity contamination. The most commonly reported irrigation source was canals (85.70%). Among all the respondents, only five identified new sources of irrigation in the farm after stress. The new sources mentioned include public wells, dikes and gates.Survey interview with a male farmer-respondent.Respondents were asked to identify the impacts of climate stress on rice production. Low yields were the most commonly stated impact for both males and females, with 66.35% of male and 68.22% of female respondents reporting it. Other reported impacts include crop loss and incurrence of debt. Respondents were also asked if there were noticeable changes in individual stresses on male and female household members as a result of climate stress. The responses were nearly identical for all four scenarios:(1) male perception of male stress; (2) male perception of female stress;(3) female perception of male stress; and (4) female perception of female stress. Generally, male respondents perceived more health problems for both male and female household members. Female respondents, meanwhile, perceived increased anxiety of male and female household members. The similarities of responses among males and females may indicate that stress is managed at the household level rather than at the individual level.Another objective of the study is to investigate the existing institutional support extended to the respondents during stress. The types of support included in the inquiry were housing support, relief goods ration, credit support, health insurance, training on new rice technologies, and support on farming activities. The findings reveal that majority of the institutional support that was investigated in this study was not widely used by the respondents. For instance, the only institutional support that had a large recognition from male and female respondents was on farming activities (57.9% for male and 42.5% for female).On their expectation of institutional support during stress, the most common responses include improved rice varieties, training on production techniques and climate change adaptation, access to low-interest credit for inputs, better access to markets, and price support for paddy produced in the farm to be sold at a higher price.Respondents also reported non-farm support such as access to rice for home consumption and health insurance.Figure 3 . Perceived impact of stress on household members.Respondents were asked about their access to information on cropping patterns and agronomic practices. Most of them stated that they have access to these information, and information on weather conditions are most common.Respondents were asked what they did as individuals to cope with the negative impacts of climate stress. For many, \"do nothing\" was the most mentioned strategy in dealing with stress (56.1% for male and 38.3% for female). Aside from \"do nothing\", male respondents also cited other strategies such as reducing household consumption of food (26.6%), availing of bank loans (21.5%), and working more (21.5%).Meanwhile, female respondents reported reducing household consumption for food (30.4%), availing of banks loans (27.6%), use of savings (22.0%) and working more (21.0%) as adaptation strategies. The results of the inquiry on adaptation and coping strategies introduce major differences in male and female perception. An example of such disparity is the use of bank loans between male and female respondents (21.5% vs 27.6%).It is also possible that the coping strategies within the household are not equally known to all members.A greater consensus was observed between genders regarding the changes in farming activities that male and female intend to do in case of a climate stress. For male respondents, \"no change\" (45.8%) is still the most common strategy reported. Female responses reported \"no change\" (39.3%), second only to changing rice variety (46.7%). Male respondents reported changing rice variety second most frequently (44.4%). Change of cropping pattern was also cited by male (19.6%) and female (15.4%) respondents, and many respondents also reported leaving lands to fallow. Other adaptation strategies such as changing to livestock production, diversifying crops planted, growing dry fodder crops, and relocating crops were rarely mentioned. As discussed, \"change rice varieties\" was reported to be the most common option of change in farming activities that is done in times of stress. When asked on factors that influence the decision to change their commonly used rice varieties, both male and female respondents had almost similar responses. Data for this study were gender disaggregated to investigate whether there was gender disparity in climate change perceptions or adaptation and coping strategies. The data do not provide any strong evidence that a gender gap exists in climate change perception. The largest variability in responses comes from the individual coping and adaptation strategies.Some interesting findings from this study are: The respondents have witnessed change in weather in the last 10 years. Most notably, temperatures have increased and become more variable while precipitation has decreased. The expressed needs of farmer-respondents are rice varieties that are heat-tolerant, drought-tolerant, and salt-tolerant; pest management training; and crop production management training.The findings of the study affirm that there is no gender imbalance in terms of awareness and understanding of climate change issues between male and female rice farmers in the MRD. However, this study finds differences in the coping and adaptation strategies between male and female. The empirical evidence of this study supports the anecdotal evidence witnessed through several field visits conducted for the study. The following are the probable reasons for these findings: The term 'climate change' is not so popular among farmers in the study areas. Climate change became more comprehensible when it was represented by proxy questions relating to changes in temperature, precipitation, etc. Farmers recognize changes in climate through actual experience in agricultural activities. In addition, the wide coverage of climate issues in the mass media such as television, radio, and newspapers in the MRD and other rural areas, has helped in disseminating climate and weather information. The findings of the study that there are no gender differences in climate change perceptions are consistent with other gender-focused climate change studies (see Lambrou and Nelson, 2013). Climate change impacts indiscriminately across landscapes but not all individuals within these landscapes are equally equipped to adapt to climate change. Similarly, challenges related to climate change faced by individual households are likely to be the same challenges as their neighbors but each household and individuals in each household are likely to have different adaptation abilities and strategies.Therefore, future studies on climate change perceptions in Vietnam should provide more emphasis on landscapelevel impacts of climate change and less emphasis on gender issues that do not appear to exist in climate change perceptions.Future gender research in Vietnam should focus on adaptation and coping strategies during climate change stress as it appears that gender differences are present in this area. Finally, the effect of household income on climate change perceptions and adaptations should be investigated in future research.","tokenCount":"2178"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2667bf514a68d7ad949bdf175950d835","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ec664cd7-e40b-445b-bb08-f4cd36e3c600/retrieve","id":"2078086568"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5e327906-e9a1-464b-a2eb-14541e9b30dc","pagecount":"31","content":"Background 2 03 The Dialogues 3 04 African Dialogues 4 05 Regional dialogue summary according to cross-cutting themes 6 Southern region (Botswana,Climate change is adversely affecting regional and national food systems contributing to low agricultural productivity and food insecurity;Countries are adopting diverse approaches to move towards environmentally sustainable production and consumption, but they require capacity building and financial resources for implementation;To improve trade and market access there is a need for improved infrastructure, the harmonisation of trade standards and better monitoring and dissemination of market information;Value chain development is constrained by a lack of access to processing equipment, technical knowledge, financial resources and disconnected value chain actors;High levels of food waste are attributed to poor handling, a lack of food processing and inadequate storage facilities (especially cold chains), poor road and rail infrastructure and limited access to markets;Health challenges include poor nutritional education and awareness, a lack of dietary diversity, inadequate food safety standards and policy, unaffordable nutritious whole foods and low levels of consumption of local/indigenous food products;Gender and social inclusion is recognised as essential to sustainable food systems but requires land tenure reform and improved access to inputs, including finances, by women, youth and vulnerable groups;Discussions on governance and policy highlight the naeed for the maintenance/development of supporting infrastructure, improved alignment of policy, revised land use policy and better coordination and collaboration between and amongst government departments/ ministries and other stakeholders;There is a need to enhance investment in demand-driven food systems research, and this can be achieved through private and public sector partnerships;Technology and innovation are key for knowledge sharing, enhancing agricultural productivity and the generation of agricultural data for evidence-based decision making; andCredit and loan facilities are largely inaccessible to food producers due to high interest rates.The United Nations Secretary-General called upon world leaders to take part in the Food Systems Summit to accelerate collective action for food systems transformation. This report synthesises the findings from the African Member States' Dialogues, held to shape national pathways towards sustainable food systems.In 2021, the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General convened a Food Systems Summit (the Summit) as part of the Decade of Action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. The Summit presented new actions to progress towards the seventeen SDGs, each of which relies to some extent on more sustainable and equitable food systems.The ongoing Food Systems Summit Dialogues (the Dialogues) provide a standardised approach for purposeful events that enable a diverse range of stakeholders to collaborate and share their experiences with the goal of transforming food systems to sustainably meet the current and future needs of the global population.The Dialogues follow a standardised approach involving the following:• Inclusion of diverse actors from across the entirety of food systems;• Adherence to the Summit's principles of engagement;• Discussions on the long-term visions for sustainable food systems;• Sharing of reflections, building on knowledge, experience and wisdom;• Reflection on the consensus and divergence of opinions amongst the stakeholders; and• Identification of priorities for action within the context of current realities.Multi-stakeholder dialogue allows multiple actors to congregate and apply their combined knowledge and experiences to address a problem. The discussions are stimulated and guided by facilitators so that the desired outcomes are shaped and articulated. The outcome is a thorough exploration of the issue at hand, the development of shared positions and the emergence of joint action.A wide range of stakeholder groups are required to take part in the multi-stakeholder dialogues, such as:• Representatives from the entire food value chain (e.g. food producers and processors, distributors and retailers, caterers, marketers, traders, consumers);• Health and nutrition professionals;• Private sector;• Community organisations;• Education and research institutions;• Vulnerable groups such as women, youth, indigenous peoples and migrants; and• Those who help to govern territories, protect livelihoods, foster resilience, regenerate ecosystems, participate in climate action and manage freshwater, coastlines, seas and the ocean.A successful multi-stakeholder dialogue event enables multiple stakeholders to connect, share ideas, understand each other's perspectives, develop propositions, examine their potential and nurture the shaping and emergence of pathways to sustainability.The Dialogues provide an environment conducive to open debate, collaboration, consensus-building and shared commitmentmaking and are designed to offer valuable insights for shaping pathways to equitable and sustainable food systems by 2030. Southern Africa is commonly referred to as a climate change 'hotspot' with drought and extreme rainfall events negatively impacting on the food systems of several countries.Mozambique is considered one of the worst affected African countries in terms of extreme climatic events and subsequently held a Dialogue focused on innovative solutions to climate change challenges. Climate change hazards were mentioned to have a devastating effect on the country's food systems by contributing to low agricultural productivity, an increasing occurrence of pests and diseases and a reduction in productive areas. Furthermore, stakeholders noted that climate hazards such as tropical cyclones have led to the destruction of infrastructure (e.g. irrigation systems, roads, warehouses, amongst others) thereby disrupting food value chains.Practices (GAPs), enhancing renewable energy generation, capacity building and improving water use management and land use planning. Botswana has adopted climate smart agriculture (CSA) and conservation agriculture practices and technologies to mitigate climate change, improve production and commercialise agriculture. However, it was noted that there is a need for scaling which requires adequate funding. The country has boosted aquaculture to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, such as methane from meat production. Botswana has also improved their water management through sustainable water use practices and enhanced wastewater management.In addition, Botswana focused on renewable energy production and has conducted research on renewable resources. Malawi has also investigated renewable energy generation through the identification of hydroelectric power opportunities along the Shire River.In terms of shifting to sustainable consumption patterns, Malawi has faced the following challenges:• Lack of a comprehensive definition of sustainable consumption;• Limited consumption of indigenous foods despite being highly nutritious;• High food waste and pollution;• Low dietary diversification;• Low accessibility to some food types in certain parts of the country; and• Increased post-harvest losses.In Zimbabwe, stakeholders indicated that a manual was produced on resilient and sustainable agriculture covering issues on agroecology and other naturepositive production mechanisms. The manual was funded by the Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund and is to be translated into different local languages. In Masvingo, the Zimbabwe Smallholder Organic Farmers' Forum is implementing soil fertility management and water harvesting schemes. Efforts are also being made to establish a local seed bank.Southern region (Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe)Proposed solutions from Mozambique's Dialogues included:• The construction of robust infrastructure using modern technologies that ensure greater durability and resilience;• Humanitarian assistance to displaced people, solidarity campaigns, resettlement, agricultural development and income generation projects for displaced and host families;• The establishment of food banks across the different regions; and• The identification and mapping of alternative production areas for affected people.Malawi, a neighbour of Mozambique, has also been adversely affected by climate changerelated hazards such as erratic rainfall patterns and an increase in natural disasters such as tropical cyclones. Stakeholders indicated that due to climatic factors and inadequate agricultural diversification, some regions are now better suited to the production of livestock.The South African Dialogues highlighted the need for improved Early Warning Systems (EWSs) to disseminate information to all members of society. Crisis management methods such as an adaptation strategy, action plan and anticipation protocol were mentioned as key.Mozambique also considered food system resilience to other shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic and associated increased unemployment rate has resulted in lower purchasing power and a reduced demand for food. This, in turn, is resulting in food surpluses at the producer level, higher levels of postharvest losses and food insecurity and malnutrition.Community-level education on contingency planning and risk management was proposed to address the issue of shocks. Stakeholders also mentioned the challenges surrounding armed conflict in the country's central region and terrorist attacks in the north resulting in the abandonment of productive areas further contributing to food insecurity.Mozambique's Dialogues drew attention to the fact that different regions of the country are impacted differently by climate hazards and shocks and that the impacts vary according to the type of sector, i.e. crop, livestock or fisheries. This highlighted the need to manage and prepare for climate hazards at a more localised scale, e.g. provincial.The countries of the Southern region are implementing diverse approaches to move towards environmentally sustainable production and consumption such as by adopting Good AgriculturalIt was noted that land use planning aimed at reducing the overexploitation of natural resources is a key focal area in Mozambique, and in South Africa, former agricultural colleges have strengthened the capacity of local community-based centres of excellence to adopt sustainable agricultural practices.Countries in the Southern region highlighted a need for improved infrastructure to increase market access, the harmonisation of trade standards and better monitoring and dissemination of market information. Stakeholders indicated that the Northern region of Malawi has poor road infrastructure and a hilly topography that affects the accessibility and distribution of food supplies within the region. The country has experienced market failures including unregulated contract farming agreements, uncompetitive prices and dysfunctional and unstructured markets.In Zimbabwe, Knowledge Transfer Africa/ eMkambo is monitoring food-related market information. They are working with the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) and other stakeholders to issue weekly reports on the quality of food in specific markets.Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the African Growth and Opportunity Act, respectively. The country has installed new infrastructure (roads, electricity, water and market infrastructure) and improved communication networks in places of deficit.There is a focus on the creation of a transportation network that will ensure the timely delivery of food products and reduce wastage. It was noted that the Government, the private sector and farmers should be encouraged to collaborate to build food storage facilities in remote areas to reduce post-harvest losses. Furthermore, the Government is working to secure a market for local producers with healthy market competition. Mozambique also identified the need for nutritional awareness programmes using the media and food guides.In the South African Dialogues, other potential means for improving nutritional intake included improved dietary data, school feeding programmes, the incorporation of nutritional education in school curricula, the diversification of food production for more balanced diets, improved processing, fortification/enrichment methods and modern food storage practices.The Botswanan Dialogues indicated an improved use of agrochemicals and the promotion of organic farming through ongoing public education. South Africa, Malawi and Zimbabwe highlighted the issue of food waste in their Dialogues.Malawi recognised a food deficit due to poor handling and storage, inadequate budgeting, post-harvest losses and wastage.Cultural celebrations such as weddings and funeral ceremonies were also considered major contributing factors to the country's food waste. In South Africa, food wastage and loss are deemed prevalent in both the production cycle and during consumption. In Zimbabwe, investment in post-harvest infrastructure and value addition was recognised as essential for reducing food waste and loss in informal markets.In the Southern region, common health and nutrition challenges included poor nutritional education and awareness, a lack of dietary diversity, inadequate food safety standards and policy, unaffordability of nutritious foods and low levels of consumption of indigenous food products.Stakeholders in Malawi recognised that the country's food safety challenges were mainly due to a lack of national-level food safety policies, standards and regulations with limited coordination across the sectors on food security, nutrition and food safety (there is no delivery mechanism to enable this). A lack of diversity in local diets, which are dominated by the consumption of maize, was also noted. Stakeholders in both Malawi and South Africa noted that nutritious foods are too expensive.Like Malawi, in Zimbabwe, the Dialogues discussed a need for improved food safety through legislation, i.e. a Food Safety Act, and this is the responsibility of the Ministry of Health and Child Care. It was indicated that the Government of Zimbabwe and partners need to promote and enforce food safety standards in both formal and informal food markets to protect consumers.example, discussions in South Africa mentioned a need for enhanced collaboration with neighbouring countries to ensure a coordinated approach to trade, especially in the face of the recently ratified AfCFTA.Key challenges faced in establishing sustainable value chains in the Southern region included a lack of processing equipment and financial resources for value addition and the need to link value chain actors as well as producers with markets.The Botswanan Dialogues also indicated a need to increase resources and the skills base of agriculture extension officers. Furthermore, transaction costs along value chains need to be reduced to offer consumers better food prices.to drive processing and value addition and that there is a need for food processing equipment.Mozambique recognised that their food value chains are fragmented; and the South African Dialogues discussed the inclusivity of their food value chains and the need to incorporate smallholder and subsistence farmers.Actions proposed to strengthen food value chains in South Africa included:• Mobilise investments in infrastructure and services as well as human and material resources to develop value chains that support sustainable end markets;• Build data on food value chain actors, their profiles, locations, needs and actions;  Governance and policy improvements for sustainable food systems varied by country.However, common needs included the maintenance and development of supporting infrastructure, improved alignment of policy, revised land use policy, and better coordination and collaboration between and amongst government departments/ministries and other stakeholders (e.g. non-governmental organisations (NGOs), finance institutions and civil society).In Botswana, stakeholders identified the need to review the National Land Policy to make fertile land available for the youth and to centralise food standards at the Botswana Bureau of Standards for all sectors. A holistic review of policies is needed to align them with international obligations that support sustainable agriculture and food systems. The country further recognised the need for an inclusive approach to the development of policies i.e. from the bottom up.In Malawi, regulatory services are being strengthened and capacity building is taking place in key ministries such as the Ministries of Health, Agriculture and Trade as well as district councils, community structures and institutions such as the Malawi Bureau of Standards.In Zimbabwe, stakeholders highlighted the need to address inadequate environmental governance and impose strict penalties on people who start bushfires for clearing land.In the Mozambiquan Dialogues, the inclusion of Provincial Directorates of Agriculture and Fisheries in policy development was mentioned as key to sustainable food systems. It was noted thatBotswana, Malawi, South Africa and Mozambique have made efforts towards improving their inclusivity both within the Dialogue process and in food systems.For example, Botswana has introduced inclusive policies to improve:• Access to funding and land for production;• Support for the elderly in food systems; and• Mentorship programmes for the youth.Botswana has also installed infrastructure in rural areas to enable people with disabilities to lead active lives and gender equity has been introduced in the allocation of programmes for commercialisation with youth now able to access financing.In Malawi, it was recognised that gender inequalities persist in accessing safe and healthy food products. Stakeholders discussed women and youth marginalisation in agri-food systems, which was attributed to a lack of access to land and resources which are traditionally controlled by men. Women and youth also have limited access to financial opportunities, due to the structural barriers associated with smallholder farmers' access to finances. The limited livelihood opportunities are forcing youth to migrate to South Africa which is resulting in labour shortages in some Malawian districts.South Africa ensured the inclusion of subsistence and smallholder farmers in the engagements for food system transformation;this involved interpretation in 11 local languages. Over 1,000 farmers discussed, in their own languages, the major challenges they faced such as gaining access to land, water and energy. As the engagements were held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, extensionists and government officials used their laptops to convene farmers who did not have access to internet.incentives are to be provided for locally produced inputs (e.g. fish feed) and focus is placed on processing at both artisanal and industrial scales. In addition, it was recognised that supporting infrastructure (e.g. irrigation channels and road networks) coverage and improvement/rehabilitation is needed.The South African Dialogues discussed the need for coordination across government departments and the inclusion of municipalities, NGOs, finance institutions and other formations of civil society. A central coordination structure is required to monitor all food system elements and avoid the duplication of programmes aimed at fighting hunger. Clear legislative and regulatory guidelines are also needed to ensure the active participation of smallholders.Suggested actions from the South African Dialogues included:• The maintenance and development of infrastructure, particularly related to water, electricity, roads, rail and ports;• Comprehensive farmer support services, including mentorship, extension services and agricultural colleges;• Effective land reform and tenure security in conjunction with rural safety;• The revision of curricula to include food systems, indigenous knowledge, food security, food safety and nutrition, and to stimulate research in these areas;• Revisiting, evaluating and up-scaling food security programmes;• Re-educating agricultural practitioners and agro-processors with regards to sustainable practices; and• Policy considerations for digital agriculture, embracing the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), advanced technologies and big data to expand smart farming practices.• There is a need for research in Malawi, as there is a deficit in data and evidence required by policy makers and the private sector to understand the landscape better.• In Zimbabwe, academia, the Zimbabwe Nutrition Association (ZimNA), eMkambo and other stakeholders are willing to engage and research food systems and food consumption.• The South African Dialogues highlighted the importance of researching organic agriculture and indigenous food production, with a focus on heat-and droughttolerant varieties and improved nutritional content.The importance of PPPs for investment, training and knowledge sharing was frequently highlighted in the Dialogues. Botswana has strengthened PPPs, which has improved investment across their value chains. In Zimbabwe, it was mentioned that the Government needs to partner with relevant stakeholders to incentivise smallholder farmers for growing healthy foods. In South Africa, emphasis was placed on partnerships for equality. In Malawi, the Dialogues explored stakeholder engagement for collective action in transforming food systems. It was noted that there are several partners working in the food systems, including NGOs (local and international), faith-based organisations, farmer organisations and cooperatives, government departments, private sector players, amongst other, but they rarely work together to share lessons learnt and best practices. The lack of collaboration was attributed to poor coordination at the regional and district levels, including between ministries, departments and agencies of the Government, despite the decentralised governance system. Opportunities, enablers and recommendations to transform food systems are multi-sectoral in nature and so require a coordinated approach at the regional and district level to be impactful.The Dialogues of four countries emphasised the importance of agricultural and food system research:• In Botswana, the apiculture and aquaculture sectors need to be commercialised and farmers require funding, training and stock (bees and fish). To expand entrepreneurship in these sectors, research is needed as well as the development of appropriate agro-food technologies.Digital technology developments were recognised by Botswana, Mozambique, Malawi and South Africa as important for food system transformation.Botswana has implemented food processing technologies for indigenous products.In Malawi, the development of a digital technology strategy was highlighted as important for communication as well as enhancing agricultural productivity e.g. through adopting agricultural technologies such as CSA, conservation agriculture, permaculture, intercropping, agroforestry, and land and water conservation measures.Mozambique's Dialogues also emphasised the importance of technology for communication in real-time, particularly in the case of warning mechanisms for extreme weather events. In South Africa digital technology was recognised as key for providing data to municipalities on food needs and prices as well as supply chain efficiencies. It was noted that communication technologies can also be used to distribute food amongst users and create awareness on food waste. AICCRA Key insights and perspectives from the Food Systems Summit Dialogues and the CAADP 3rd Biennial review process • 13 12 • AICCRA Key insights and perspectives from the Food Systems Summit Dialogues and the CAADP 3rd Biennial review processIn Malawi, the Affordable Input Programme proved contentious. Despite the country experiencing its highest yields in the last five years some stakeholders felt that the programme is an outdated social protection instrument that could be improved through diversification away from maize to other crops such as legumes and livestock. It was suggested that in the Southern region, because of the frequent occurrence of natural disasters, communities are getting used to receiving aid. For example, communities in Chikwawa district are affected by floods every year but are not willing to relocate to other areas. Some stakeholders suggested that the programme contributes to an increased dependence on the Government.In Mozambique, concerns were raised over the establishment of food reserves by the Government. It was argued that the purchasing of agricultural products, their storage and distribution to vulnerable groups will come at a great expense considering the current availability of storage facilities and maintenance requirements.In Zimbabwe, trans-fat, sugar and salt taxation was a contentious issue. It was stated that the taxes could create more problems than solutions and may not even change consumption patterns.In South Africa, stakeholders highlighted the lack of a clear food production and consumption mandate, noting that responsibilities are split between different departments and at different levels of the governance system. There is no coordination and alignment of services and a lot of information is lost. Furthermore, the inexplicit mandate at the local level makes the allocation of financial and human resources difficult for municipalities. The need for sustainable production systems such as agro-ecology and permaculture was discussed in the Malawian Dialogues. It was noted that the current food production system is near collapse as although conventional farming practices yield large amounts of produce, they utilise resources at an unsustainable rate. It was concluded that there is a need to incorporate both approaches.In Mozambique, environmental sustainability was identified as a major point of divergence as increased production and productivity is required to develop domestic industry, but an increased use of agrochemicals is damaging to the environment. It was concluded that a cost-benefit analysis is needed to assess the damaging effects of agrochemicals and it was suggested that the taxes applied to agrochemicals could be used for environmental restoration projects.In South Africa's Dialogues, it was noted that the agro-ecological approach has not been fully optimised. Whilst land needs to be made available for farming, people also need to be taught sustainable land management practices, as land rehabilitation and restoration is costly.In Malawi's Dialogues, mention was made of the need to embrace and consume indigenous food varieties as a major source of nutrition. The promoters of the indigenous food varieties emphasised that such foods have a high nutritional status and are resilient to climate change, on the contrary those championing improved varieties accentuated the high yielding and drought resistant varieties of maize.In Malawi, pesticide use in the Southern region was questioned, as there has been an increased use of pesticides due to the infestation of fall armyworm and increased cultivation of horticultural crops. Participants noted that if the pesticides are not handled and used properly, they can be fatal. For instance, the withdrawal periods on vegetables need to be strictly adhered to for safe consumption.In South Africa, it was mentioned that food system discussions are not inclusive and there is a lack of understanding on the topic due to poor knowledge dissemination. Furthermore, a lack of information on the informal sector hinders food system transformation and resilience.In the Eastern region of Malawi, contradictory discussions took place on the benefits of fishing as a major source of income in the region. Some stakeholders argued that an overreliance on fishing affects crop production as men do not have time to tend to their crops, thereby reducing dietary diversification. Another area of divergence in Malawi's Dialogues was the attraction of tourists to Liwonde National Park. It was argued that tourism positively impacts the district's economy and offers employment to young people. However, other stakeholders said that the tourists bring diseases. • Promoting the use of renewable energy;• Adopting farming practices that prevent land degradation;• Further promoting agroforestry;• Adopting integrated management of pests and diseases;• Ensuring water/irrigation efficiency; and• Promoting soil health management.Eastern region (Comoros, Kenya Mauritius, Madagascar, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan)In the Sudanese Dialogues, stakeholders agreed on the need for nature-positive production but highlighted the lack of appropriate policies and legislation. Large areas of land are available for organic farming, but farmers require financial resources and know-how.With regards to trade and market access, the countries from the Eastern region focused on market access for small-scale producers, competition with imported products and a need for capacity building on trade standards.The Kenyan, Rwandan and Mauritian Dialogues discussed the need to enhance market access for small-scale producers. In Mauritius, stakeholders highlighted the need for capacity building of agro processors to meet food safety standards and to be able to compete with imported produce. It was suggested that there should be a dedicated space in shopping malls and other retail outlets for locally processed food items.Competition with food imports was also noted as an issue in the Seychelles. The local market is highly competitive due to the adoption of the fair, free and open market policy and the limited capacity of farmers to exploit economies of scale due to the small size of their farms (average farm size is 8,000 sqm). Producers indicated that global food trade is likely to limit local food production systems as they cannot compete with the prices of imported goods. Local produce is further inaccessible due to poor distribution networks and low levels of organisation of the local food production system.Rwanda highlighted a lack of awareness of regional compliance standards amongst stakeholders and significant gaps in trade standards between East African countries. It was suggested that small and medium-sized enterprises undergo capacity building on trade standards.Food loss and waste was mentioned in the Dialogues of Rwanda, Sudan and Mauritius. In Rwanda, stakeholders mentioned the need for warehouses and other storage infrastructure for times of surplus. In Sudan, it was argued that issues surrounding consumption and food loss are due to culture. In Mauritius, food loss and food waste were a major concern, and the development of postharvest processing was seen as key to improving shelf life, marketability and reducing postharvest losses. Support is being provided to agro-entrepreneurs in the development of value-added products from local fruits and vegetables such as gluten-free breadfruit and cassava flour, ginger paste, turmeric paste, lime paste, guava fruit paste, dehydrated papaya and fruit paste sorbet.Stakeholders from Rwanda and Sudan understood the importance of environmentally sustainable food production, but development was hindered by barriers such as a lack of suitable policies and legislation, inadequate knowledge on sustainable land management practices and a need for financial resources.Stakeholders in Rwanda's Dialogues discussed the limited adoption of CSA practices and technologies despite the prevalence of soil degradation due to agricultural malpractices. It was noted that inadequate knowledge on the use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides is causing soil and water pollution and is negatively impacting pollinators.• Promote tailored ecosystem-based approaches for smaller scales of production (e.g. micro-agriculture, urban agriculture and landless agriculture);• Promote the recovery and reuse of organic waste to restore soil fertility;• Appropriately manage the application of inorganic fertilisers to reduce GHG emissions;• Enhance awareness on the importance of maintaining ecosystems and biodiversity at the local level;• Scale up initiatives to restore/rehabilitate degraded ecosystems and promote indigenous species in agroforestry and landscape restoration in high-risk areas; and• Protect biodiversity through awareness trainings at the community level.In the Seychelles, stakeholders discussed the gaps in value and supply chains such as sourcing difficulties, access to technology, limited farm workers in the local market, regional temperature-controlled storage facilities, demand and supply management platforms as well as inadequate services from support institutions. The Mauritian Dialogues indicated a lack of adequate processing, storage and distribution facilities. Similarly, the Rwandan Dialogues made mention of a need for increased investment in food distribution channels (including cold chains), markets, post-harvest handling and processing.• Mobilising investments in infrastructure and services as well as human and material resources to develop value chains that support sustainable end markets;• Building data on actors in food value chains, their profiles, locations, needs and actions given the risks;• Strengthening PPPs by promoting mechanisms for coordination; and• Recognition of informal markets and value chains as important components of the food system.AICCRA Key insights and perspectives from the Food Systems Summit Dialogues and the CAADP 3rd Biennial review process • 19 18 • AICCRA Key insights and perspectives from the Food Systems Summit Dialogues and the CAADP 3rd Biennial review processIn Sudan, policy on food security exists but the implementation of the action plan requires the mobilisation of resources.Furthermore, stakeholders agreed that food security policy and legislation need to be developed with a focus on prices which form the main barrier to accessing nutritious food.The Rwandan Dialogues focused on land use planning and the introduction of commercial farming through the implementation of the Land Use and Development Master Plan, 2050. Discussions were also held on increasing the reach of extension services to smallholder farmers, the promotion of small livestock husbandry and the lack of a coordinated multi-sectoral approach for promoting CSA practices. It was mentioned that CSA practices could be incentivised through subsidies and tax breaks as well as by creating stronger partnerships with institutions such as the Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture. Enhanced inter-ministerial coordination amongst the different sectors to determine the trade-offs between agriculture and the environment was highlighted as well as the need to strengthen policy coherence and implementation. Rwanda also put in place legislative frameworks to promote healthy diets and policies to reduce food waste at all levels. Coordination mechanisms were established at both national and local levels.Kenya's Dialogues focused on partnerships to enable small-scale farmers to access credit, training and to boost innovation to enhance self-sufficiency and reduce dependency.Intergovernmental collaboration, the control of imports, and policy coherence and implementation were identified as common challenges to food system governance amongst the Eastern region's countries.In the Seychelles, stakeholders indicated a need for better coordination and action to implement and drive agricultural and food system-related policy decisions. The benefits of elevating key policy objectives and strategic choices in the form of a legal instrument were debated at length. There was bipartisan alignment and agreement in favour of the proposal to draft a Food Security Bill to ensure policy continuity. Furthermore, there was general agreement that sector activities should be taxed but according to a different taxation regime.The Comoros Dialogues focused on improving livestock health through improved control of imported animals at borders. Mauritius addressed animal product importation policies that are disadvantageous to local farmers.In Kenya, it was noted that major discrepancies exist between the national and county functions with agriculture being a devolved function and policy making still the responsibility of the national government. Policy needs to be coherent and the overlapping roles and division of policy making responsibility between the two levels of government needs to be clarified. Furthermore, within the counties, there is a lack of alignment in agricultural policies. Intergovernmental cooperation, institutional coordination, public participation and stakeholder involvement is required. Kenya is also working to develop legislation and policy frameworks to anchor pastoralism as a component of sustainable food systems as well as strengthen the policy environment to enhance and protect agricultural land in the Central Region Economic Bloc.Gender and social inclusivity was a major topic in the Dialogues with focus placed on women and youth inclusion. In Mauritius, the need for training and awareness of producers on GAPs was identified with special mention made of the inclusion of vulnerable groups. It was also noted that youth need to be better integrated into agriculture by providing free training.In Rwanda and Sudan, stakeholders discussed the role of youth and women in achieving sustainable, equitable and resilient food systems. The Mauritius, Rwandan and Madagascan Dialogues all highlighted the important role of the private sector in achieving inclusivity, and the need for improved coordination between parties. Madagascar's Dialogues focused on empowering women in food systems and strengthening the commitment of the private sector and civil society to support family farms and farmers' organisations.The Kenya Youth in Agriculture Strategy includes robust measures to meaningfully engage young people in agriculture. In SEKEB, it was noted that agroprocessing and value-addition initiatives can be used to enhance the capacity and skills of young people as well as provide meaningful employment for them. It was noted that to leverage such opportunities, the vulnerable groups require ownership rights and access to productive resources such as land, finance, digital agriculture and technological solutions, training and access to data and information.The Rwandan Dialogues also identified barriers around creating employment for marginalised groups and the following actions were proposed:• Establish appropriate credit funds to address the limited access to finance for small-scale entrepreneurs and marginalised groups; and• Promote inclusive consultation processes and participatory assessments of land degradation for the design of effective ecosystem restoration strategies.Nutritional education, food safety awareness campaigns, improved food safety standards and enhanced local production were identified as key action areas by stakeholders in Mauritius and the Seychelles. The Mauritian food safety standards are to be reviewed and slaughterhouses relocated. Stakeholders noted a need for training, support from authorities and incentives to boost the sector. Consumers are encouraged to eat locally produced foods (e.g. cassava, potato, breadfruit, eddoes) and to undertake their own production such as roof gardening and urban agriculture.In the Seychelles, education is needed on the nutritional value of whole locally produced food, particularly as fast food consumption is increasing to the extent that it is a default option for lunch in most schools, and in many food outlets. Stakeholders indicated that there has been limited to no investment in promoting local farm produce and very few campaigns to address fast food advertising. Without action it is expected that fast food consumption will increase along with associated dietary problems.To increase local food productionin the Seychelles it was suggested to:• Increase investment in turnkey farms and allocate them to young farmers;• Establish an innovation fund; and• Revise legislation and submit the food system transformation policy and strategy to the National Assembly for final discussion, alignment and consolidation by mid-October 2021. • Enable more reliable access to usable and shareable data; and• Conduct quality analyses to support evidencebased decisions on performance management, M&E, research and policy.It was also noted in Kenya's Dialogues that access to ICTs in both urban and rural areas is growing rapidly, but progress is unequal both geographically and socioeconomically. For example, in many areas women and youth have less access to smartphones and digital services. In SEKEB, it was determined that investment is needed in innovation and technology such as irrigation, the use of digital agriculture tools in extension services and managing post-harvest losses through food processing technologies.The Rwandan Dialogues also focused on the modernisation of agriculture and the need to strengthen ICT. Special mention was made of the need to:• Leverage innovative technologies, such as satellite/drone technologies, to enhance data systems linked to agricultural insurance;• Adopt technologies that improve yields whilst reducing GHG emissions and land degradation; and• Use labour-saving technologies along the whole value chain.The The focus of discussions on technology and innovation were on the importance of agricultural data for evidence-based decision making and the need to strengthen and improve access to ICT.The Comoros Dialogues discussed the importance of strengthening advocacy and the need for government, together with other technical and financial partners, to mobilise funds to support technological innovations and the modernisation of agriculture and fishing. In Kenya, the SEKEB Dialogues mentioned the need for private sector investments and financing tools to de-risk food systems in the ASAL counties. It was further noted that the creation of an SEKEB Bank could boost the interest of young people in agri-businesses by providing access to much needed capital.Similar to the Seychelles, Rwanda emphasised the need for financial services at affordable interest rates. Stakeholders mentioned that farmers' cooperatives and organisations could be used to increase awareness on good agricultural extension and advisory services as well as to establish a commercial/agricultural bank. A need for banks to provide financial literacy programmes and insurance services was also highlighted. Stakeholders indicated that current subsidy programmes are inadequate for building short-term resilience in smallholder farmers and there is a lack of funds for innovative initiatives for improving ecosystems and biodiversity.The Mauritian Dialogues indicated a need for investment to modernise farming practices and stakeholders. In Sudan, stakeholders noted a need for investment in infrastructure in both the agriculture and industry sectors with special mention made of the need to finance smallholder farmers.In the Rwandan Dialogues, stakeholders disagreed on the percentage of insurance premiums that should be paid for by the Government. It was mentioned that in some parts of India, 80%-90% was required to attract interest compared with only 40% in Rwanda. Others noted that this was not feasible in Rwanda and that emphasis should instead be placed on integrating crop insurance into existing social protection programmes.In Mauritius, the granting of import permits for vegetables that are produced locally proved to be an area of contention for stakeholders.In Rwanda, there were disagreements on the role that insurance companies should play with some arguing that they were not doing enough whilst others indicated that the issue lies in farmers' lack of trust in the companies. This fed into a larger discussion on PPPs and the balance that must be found between business interests and social protection.There was some divergence over the promotion of biodiversity in the Rwandan Dialogues, as well as the use of more nutritious and drought-resistant crop species. In Madagascar, some stakeholders insisted on the urgency of adapting existing techniques to address climate change challenges whilst others stressed the need to carry out in-depth studies on the actions to be implemented and the need to transfer knowledge to the primary players concerned.In the Rwandan Dialogues, the use of technology to disseminate EWS information was mentioned as a possible 'game changing' solution, however, there was divergence on how to make it user-friendly and accessible. The successful case study highlighted a smartphone application developed by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations. The application provided weather information to improve farmers' decision making. However, it was argued that such an approach may not work in Rwanda as not all farmers, particularly the most vulnerable, have access to a smartphone. Simple SMS messages were suggested as an alternative solution, but the effectiveness of transmitting complex information in such a limiting format is likely to prove challenging.Rwandan stakeholders argued on the importance of harmonising trade standards across East Africa and raising the awareness of smallholder farmers to regional standards. It was noted that some countries, such as Kenya, have higher standards than their neighbours. The consultation of experts on issues related to policies, food safety regulations and post-harvest handling to harmonise policy was suggested. Others noted that while differences in standards exist, there are legal and economic frameworks in place, notably the East African Community trade forum, to address trade disputes in the interests of vulnerable stakeholders. It was deduced that raising farmers' awareness of standards is key so that they can export to other markets competitively.The countries of the Western region discussed the climate hazards they faced and the resulting impacts on both natural and human systems. Conflict was identified as another driver adversely impacting upon food production in the region.The Ghanaian Dialogues highlighted reduced yields due to water scarcity in the dry season and flooding in the rainfall season. A continuous decline in soil fertility was also noted. The need for improved and localised irrigation systems was emphasised, as rain-fed agriculture can no longer sustain the levels of food production needed.Nigerian stakeholders noted that the food system experiences shocks and stresses such as flooding, soil erosion and conflict. Poverty, unemployment and insufficient food reserves were recognised to further increase the vulnerability of local food systems. Areas to the south-east of the country have been affected by insecurity due to farmer-herder conflict, which has led to the destruction of crops, forced migration, death and forms of sexual violence. The Dialogues highlighted the need for social protection mechanisms and agricultural insurance.In the event of shocks affecting smallholder farmers in Sierra Leone, it was recognised that the Government and partners should establish seed banks to support farmers in reviving their activities. The seed banks were also noted as being important for preventing the loss of crop varieties and certain species of animals.It was noted in the Western region's Dialogues that environmental degradation and pollution due to human activities is already prevalent and adversely affecting food systems. It was suggested that rebates be issued to producers who adopt sustainable land management practices and policy be revised, especially in relation to land tenure and use.The Gambian Dialogues emphasised the considerable degradation of the country's resource base over the years. This was attributed to deforestation, overfishing, inappropriate fishing nets, the poisoning of marine life, land degradation Western region (Benin, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Nigeria)AICCRA Key insights and perspectives from the Food Systems Summit Dialogues and the CAADP 3rd Biennial review process • 25 24 • AICCRA Key insights and perspectives from the Food Systems Summit Dialogues and the CAADP 3rd Biennial review processThe Western region is working towards sustainable food value chains, common areas for improvement included an increased access to good quality inputs (especially seeds), enhanced mechanisation to maximise production and the establishment of processing facilities to reduce postharvest losses.In Sierra Leone's Dialogues, the high cost of agricultural inputs (particularly agro-chemicals) was highlighted, as well as the need for improved regulation. Special mention was made of the need for affordable quality seeds, with a preference for input dealers not only at the chiefdom level but at the district level.In Nigeria, stakeholders indicated a need for value chain and development financing by the Central Bank of Nigeria to increase food accessibility and safety. The need for mechanisation in all value chain activities was mentioned as key to enhancing efficiencies, improving productivity and encouraging youth inclusion. It was also noted that Nigerian food systems could be enhanced, and food safety improved, through the provision of high-quality inputs, the adoption of good agronomy practices and the management of postharvest activities.In Niger, stakeholders indicated that legume, fruit and vegetable value chains are weak.Processing was noted as inadequate, forming the weakest link of the value chain and resulting in postharvest/post-production losses. Major investments are deemed necessary to strengthen food value chain links and improve food preservation, e.g. through cold chains. Milk collection and processing units need to be created and promoted in each region. The millet value chain is limited by the unavailability of suitable seeds, soil degradation, poor access to agricultural inputs and low levels of mechanisation. Vegetable value chains, particularly for tomatoes, are also affected by poor access to suitable seeds. The fish value chain was noted as having great potential but needs to be strengthened with the development of inland aquaculture, which could be achieved by popularising national fisheries policy.A lack of access to food processing facilities was also highlighted in the Ghanaian Dialogues.In Ghana, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Niger, stakeholders mentioned that poor road networks (and rail in Nigeria) limit market access and contribute to post-harvest losses. Additionally, the need for appropriate transport such as refrigerated trucks for perishable products and other cold chain components was noted by stakeholders in Niger's Dialogues.Stakeholders in Ghana identified the need for vulnerable small-scale farmers to be protected from the importation of foreign goods and Sierra Leone's Dialogues discussed the need for a robust commodity market system to ensure price stability. and frequent bushfires. Some of the adaptive measures undertaken to mitigate the degradation include sensitisation on bushfire control measures, agroforestry, regulated fishing and fishing nets and the creation of appropriate policies. It was further noted that poor agricultural practices on slopes have contributed to soil erosion leading to a loss of topsoil and a subsequent decline in soil fertility.In Ghana's Dialogues, focus was placed on cocoa which is a major cash crop in the Ashanti region and a key source of income for farmers.Cocoyam was noted as an important indigenous crop, but production levels keep dropping due to the use of herbicides on cocoa farms. In addition, it was indicated that local fishermen use a lot of chemicals in their fishing activities and this, coupled with other factors, has caused a decline in fish stocks.• Improving the productivity of small-scale farmers in a climate-smart and nutritionsensitive way;• Adopting improved farming practices to increase food production and productivity;• Promoting practices that prevent a loss of indigenous and traditional foods and promote the natural regeneration of trees; and• Avoiding destructive farming activities that degrade natural resources such as the uncontrolled use of agrochemicals.Senegal's Dialogues highlighted a drive for local consumption and key areas for improvement included the construction of cold rooms, enhanced processing of local products and improved marketing. To ensure the resilience and sustainability of food systems it was proposed that a rebate be paid to companies for actions to preserve the environment. It was also noted that water management needs to be promoted, particularly rainwater harvesting, to allow for out of season production.In Nigeria's Dialogues, key actions given by stakeholders for protecting the environment included:• Promoting the use of organic fertilisers;• Appropriate use and management of herbicides and pesticides;• Enforcement of existing laws and regulations to prevent further environmental degradation;• Protection of ecosystems against agricultural expansion;• Efficient recycling of waste;• Use of cover crops to reduce soil degradation and erosion;• Investing in the development of improved crop varieties for higher yields and improved attributes including biofortification;• Facilitating the sustainable management of food production systems to benefit the environment and people through GAPs;• Restoring degraded ecosystems and rehabilitating the soil for sustainable food production through renewed afforestation efforts; and• Scaling up the use of organic soil practices, crop rotation and intercropping.AICCRA Key insights and perspectives from the Food Systems Summit Dialogues and the CAADP 3rd Biennial review process • 27 26 • AICCRA Key insights and perspectives from the Food Systems Summit Dialogues and the CAADP 3rd Biennial review processIn Gambia's Dialogues it was noted that a lack of access to quality health services in rural areas has led to high under five, infant and neo-natal mortalities.In Sierra Leone's Dialogues it was noted that there is a lack of food reserves, highlighting the need for formation of food banks, the provision of improved storage facilities and the manufacturing of key foods for improved preservation.In Ghana, there are no standards for regulating produce especially those for local markets. Food safety standards and labelling need improvement by following guidelines such as the Codex Alimentarius. The Ghanaian dialogues also mentioned the improper use of agrochemicals in farming, processing and retail and the need for adherence to safe practices. With respect to consumption, there is no screening for food vendors on diseases such as typhoid, which puts consumers at high risk. Furthermore, there is a lack of education and low nutritional literacy amongst the population. Ghanaian stakeholders also described an absence of food-based dietary guidelines, a lack of nutritional standards and the unaffordability of nutritious food. A need for recognition of the value of healthy indigenous foods and a return to their consumption was further highlighted.In Sierra Leone, poor dietary diversity is a major concern for both children and adults and proposed actions included improved nutrition education and scaling up sensitisation on the country's Food-Based Dietary Guideline for Healthy Eating. It was identified that the health system is weak, and health system strengthening can assist in improving the health status especially of women and children under the age of five years.The Nigerian Dialogues focused on the adoption of healthy diets through the production and availability of healthy and safe foods. To ensure agricultural systems produce good quality and nutritionally adequate food, stakeholders recommended the promotion of the use of high yielding crop varieties and livestock breeds to increase productivity and subsidies for Stakeholders in Ghana recognised the need to strengthen their fragmented food value chains, with actions such as:• Mobilising investments in infrastructure and services as well as human and material resources to develop value chains supporting sustainable end markets;• Building data on actors in food value chains, their profiles, locations, needs and actions given the risks;• Strengthening PPPs by promoting mechanisms for coordination; and• Recognising informal markets and value chains as important components of the food system.The Western region's food waste was largely attributed to a lack of storage facilities, limited food processing and poor food handling. In Nigeria, stakeholders discussed the reduction of food loss and waste through innovative food storage and processing methods from the point of harvest to the point of consumption. The rehabilitation of, and use of, silos in each Local Government Area was suggested. In addition, to reduce environmental impacts and health and safety it was suggested that the recycling of food waste products be improved.Stakeholders in Ghana described the need for warehouses and other storage infrastructure in times of surplus. Key areas of discussion included hermetic bags to reduce post-harvest losses of cereals and legumes and healthy food processing techniques to increase the shelf life of locally produced agricultural commodities. In Sierra Leone, stakeholders suggested that the Government improve access to affordable electricity supply to reduce food waste, particularly in urban areas. farmers. To enhance consumption of nutritious, safe, and diverse foods, stakeholders suggested a nutrition awareness programme to assist consumers in making healthy food choices against the dangers of contaminated food either through harmful chemicals, poor processing methods, or poor health and safety practices. It was also indicated that nutritional education in schools, hospitals and marketplaces needs to be strengthened.The Western region recognised the important role that women play in food systems, despite their unequal opportunities (e.g. access to land, financial resources and information), and the need to empower them for transformational change. In addition, stakeholders from Ghana and Nigeria highlighted the need to attract youth to food systems through improved technology.In the Gambian Dialogues, stakeholders indicated that women form more than 50% of the farming population and in some regions they are the main producers of vegetables, rice and groundnuts. However, despite their contributions, they are disadvantaged by a lack of access to key production components and inputs, particularly land, financial resources and technical know-how. It was noted that due to cultural norms and traditions, women in Gambia typically do not own land and so do not have collateral to obtain bank loans.In the Ghanaian Dialogues, women's access to credit was identified as a key challenge in the agricultural sector. There is also a lack of access to gender-sensitive equipment especially for small-scale processing. Furthermore, food production is currently unattractive to the youth who are not replacing the aging farmer population. Suggested actions to address this included the deployment of mobile agricultural extension services and digitisation. It was also recommended that the Government purchase/ subsidise land for agricultural purposes and engage traditional landholders to address land tenure challenges for easier access by women and youth.AICCRA Key insights and perspectives from the Food Systems Summit Dialogues and the CAADP 3rd Biennial review process • 29 28 • AICCRA Key insights and perspectives from the Food Systems Summit Dialogues and the CAADP 3rd Biennial review processThe following actions were suggested for improving gender and social inclusion in Nigerian food systems:• Encouraging and supporting the establishment and functioning of cooperative societies for women and other vulnerable groups;• Promoting the 'Village Savings Association Model' to facilitate access to credit, inputs, and trainings;• Providing access to land for cultivation by vulnerable groups at the community level;• Addressing social norms and practices that systematically provide privileges to some groups over others;• Eliminating access barriers to markets, and social exclusion for vulnerable groups;• Ensuring social protection schemes reach the intended beneficiaries;• Promoting the use of clean energy; and• Identifying alternative sources of funding for interventions, other than government.In Sierra Leone, it was also noted that women play an important role in food production and have unequal access to agricultural inputs. As was mentioned by Ghanian stakeholders, there is a need for gender-friendly processing tools and equipment. Furthermore, there is a need for the inclusion of women in policy formulation and implementation along the food system chain and linkages.The Nigerian Dialogues highlighted the importance of including youth in the agricultural sector using technology and e-commerce.Nigerian stakeholders noted that over 60% of the farmers in the south-east are women, and that they have unequal access to productive resources. It was recommended that the south-east develop and implement Social Investment Programmes that take vulnerable groups into consideration. Improving women farmers' access to land was seen as a key means for enhancing food production and security. Women groups should be created and encouraged to participate in food system decision-making.In Gambia, the effective coordination of relevant policies on food systems was highlighted as a major issue in the attainment of the SDGs by 2030. Existing policies need to be reviewed and aligned ensuring equity, justice, empowerment and sustainability for all. It was noted that the Government needs to honour its commitments to national and international agreements/treaties such as the Malabo Declaration (committing 10% of public expenditure to agriculture). The need for national and regional level food reserves for building resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stresses was also emphasised.It was highlighted in the Sierra Leone Dialogues that the land tenure system is affecting commercial farming and needs to be resolved through the allocation of land for agricultural purposes. Another area of concern was that of mining companies degrading land and aquatic habitats that could be used for crop, livestock and fish production, respectively. It was suggested that land be reclaimed from the mining sector for food production. The need for modern farming technology, irrigation systems and crop intensification were highlighted as well as the waiving of agricultural input taxes for the next five years. The Sierra Leone Dialogues also that there is no standalone policy to address community disputes arising from the destruction of farmers' crops by grazing animals.The Nigerian Dialogues discussed the need to review existing policies that limit access to resources e.g. the Land Tenure System/Land Use Act. It was suggested that court rulings be enforced to grant women the right to inherit land. Stakeholders also recommended awareness programmes for policy makers on the importance of food systems for food and nutrition security, job creation and economic development, and the challenges facing food systems together with actions needed to fix them. Other recommendations included strengthening divisions within different ministries, departments and agencies of government, and ensuring budgetary provisions for nutritional programme implementation.It was suggested that Niger learn from the experience of Kenya and South Africa, who have established relatively low prices for fresh produce and have implemented import policies to fill gaps in the local market.Discussions in Burkina Faso suggested that national policies relating to food systems and their state of implementation are adequate but could be enhanced. It is important that national policies guarantee access to sufficient, diverse, healthy and nutritious food for all, including vulnerable people as well as ensure the adoption of good dietary practices and healthy lifestyles by consumers. • Promoting improved technologies for processing, preservation and packaging of food products;• Facilitating national producers' access to local and international markets;• Incentives for the development of partnership contracts between large urban suppliers and small rural family farmers for an adequate food supply for cities;• Promotion of efficient networks for the equitable distribution of food products;• Trade tax exemptions for the food and pharmaceutical sectors;• Considering the food sector's action plans in the multi-year expenditure planning document;• Popularisation of texts (laws, decrees, orders) and policy documents relating to the country's food systems;• Facilitating access to resources, financial support for the development of said systems; and• Strengthening of national research programmes on food and nutritional issues in Senegal. In the Nigerian Dialogues, it was noted that strong partnerships between government, the private sector and other funding agencies (both local and international) are needed to transform the food system. Emphasis was placed on the need for collaboration between national and state agencies and all relevant stakeholders, to be better able to understand the nature of the food system challenge and the gaps to be filled by agricultural extension workers.Stakeholders in Ghana made special mention of a need for partnerships to mobilise financial resources.particularly in the areas of seed production, GAPs and food preservation. Research institutes need to be better positioned to engage in demand-driven research. It was suggested that the private and public sectors establish a partnership to enhance domestic R&D capacity and ensure the dissemination and adoption of viable R&D output amongst Nigerian farmers.In Niger, discussions suggested that research is poorly funded, and the results are not adequately disseminated. Sufficient budget is needed for research to contribute to rural development through innovations and advice to users. A partnership framework needs to be developed between research institutions.In Ghana, stakeholders suggested that agriculture should be made attractive to the youth, however, some indicated that the youth are already attracted to agriculture but face other difficulties e.g. entering the poultry industry. The youth need support from the Government including access to arable land.In Nigeria, a key challenge mentioned by stakeholders was lobbying and interference by special interest groups such as large multinationals and some local industries. It was noted that to achieve equitable access to affordable healthy diets, the Government will need to commit to reducing the influence of interest groups within food systems and open the market to what people really need, rather than what food companies want consumers to buy. This would simultaneously improve consumption patterns. Furthermore, there were divergent views on the Government's actions towards improving nutrition, for example, some stakeholders were of the opinion that the Government is doing a considerable amount of sensitisation especially on breastfeeding, whereas others were of the opinion that the Government could do more in addressing issues concerning undernutrition e.g. poverty.In Guinea, contentious issues included the management of land disputes; conflict management between actors, particularly farmers and breeders; and policy for granting land to youth and women.In Niger, stakeholder opinions varied on subsidising agricultural inputs. Some stakeholders disagreed with the action saying it was only viable in the short term, as subsidies can create dependency, distort competition and private sector activities, and manifest a significant financial burden for the state in the long term. Other stakeholders were adamant that Niger cannot eliminate hunger without subsidising agricultural inputs and equipment.AICCRA Key insights and perspectives from the Food Systems Summit Dialogues and the CAADP 3rd Biennial review process • 33 32 • AICCRA Key insights and perspectives from the Food Systems Summit Dialogues and the CAADP 3rd Biennial review processThe Nigerian Dialogues highlighted the following technology and innovation needs to increase resilience and productivity with a focus on nutrition:• Scale up technologies, particularly in relation to cold chains, to tackle post-harvest food losses;• Enhance innovation in agricultural production e.g. hydroponics, drip irrigation, mechanisation, biotechnology and genome editing;• Adopt modern farming techniques by providing farmers with technologies and farm implements that can be maintained by local farmers;• Use of drones for the application of fertiliser, herbicides and pesticides;• Conduct geological surveys and mapping for agricultural areas and those prone to insecurity;• Group security systems including community watches; and• Undertake soil and nutrient mapping, land banking and weather modelling to control poor farming systems.In Ghana, stakeholders mentioned the need to digitise food systems, for example, by using artificial intelligence, blockchain farming and hydroponics.Ghana, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Niger all indicated constraints in accessing finance for healthy and sustainable foods. In Sierra Leone, policies surrounding access to finance for agricultural activities need to be reviewed as the conditions for loan repayment are not suitable for farmers. The current interest rates in commercial banks are too high and the period for repayment of loans needs to be specified in financial loan policies.to work with other partners who have agricultural know-how to create access to micro-finance for the youth and/or female entrepreneurs, in combination with business coaching and advisory services. In Niger, it was recommended that donors contribute to sector pooled funds in addition to the Investment Plan for Food and Nutritional Security.In Ghana, it was suggested by some stakeholders that there are too many 'middlemen' and that they inflate food prices. On the other hand, some stakeholders said the middlemen were important for linking farmers to markets.In Benin's Dialogues, farmers and herders had differing opinions on the management of corridors for livestock movement.In the Nigerian Dialogues, stakeholders disagreed on the assumption that youth want to work in agriculture or agroprocessing. The notion that a large proportion of youth is ready to be employed in low-paying, low-tech industries might be misplaced, and the question 'what do the youth want?' needs to be answered to inform demographic transition and youth policy design.by insurgency where women are becoming the household head. It was clear from different submissions that what is seen as a discriminatory social norm against a vulnerable group in one community might be a normal way of life in other communities, depending on the values and level of social indoctrination of the people. However, the issue of concern is the impact of gender inequality on food systems in the region. Some believed that women should be organised into groups, e.g. cooperatives for stronger participation whilst others felt that most women involved in farming have already formed producer groups, cooperatives, and associations and that the key challenge lies in access to production knowledge, technology and resources.In Sierra Leone, the right for women to own land was strongly debated. All the traditional leaders were against the motion for women to own land and the women representatives argued for it. Women argued that they are key players in the agricultural sector and deserve to own land. In addition, it was noted that the Government input supply chain model for community youth farms needs to be reviewed. Feedback from most participants indicated an appreciation for the Government's job creation efforts, however, some participants believed that the model for accessing inputs through mobile money needs to be revised to a voucher system.In Ghana, stakeholders disagreed on whether the country's food system had the capacity to prepare for, withstand and recover from climate change-related crises and shocks. Initially a few participants argued that the food system was resilient to climate change, however, their perceptions changed after a discussion on the indicators of resilience. Although the stakeholders agreed that the food system was vulnerable to climate change, they also noted the potential for resilience building.A few areas of divergence emerged during the Gambian Dialogues, particularly around land use and humanwildlife conflict. Stakeholders from the forestry and food production value chains could not agree on the expansion of agricultural lands at the expense of forests. Rice farmers complained about hippopotamuses invading and destroying their fields, but as they are protected animals, they cannot hunt them. This has resulted in lengthy discussions between the agriculture and wildlife departments.In Nigeria, divergences addressed the issue of a 'healthy diet' versus a 'sustainable diet'. A healthy diet was said to include \"a diversity of foods that are safe and provide levels of energy appropriate to age, sex, disease status and physical activity as well as essential micronutrients\". However, it was noted that healthy diets and sustainable diets are not mutually inclusive. Evidence suggests that synergies can be identified (e.g. reducing animal protein in meat-based diets) but are often exceedingly difficult to achieve. On the other hand, completely decoupling healthy diets from the sustainability of value chains that deliver them would also not be desirable from a food system, environmental and climate change perspective.Another divergence in the Nigerian Dialogues was on the establishment of Rural Grazing Area settlements to address the issues of livestock production and GHG emissions. It was highlighted that State governments need to meet with relevant stakeholders on the suitability of the programme given the diverse ecosystems that will be affected. In addition, it was noted that inorganic fertilisers are preferred to organic types, and there is a need for sensitisation/ capacity building on the benefits associated with the latter. Public awareness campaigns were central to enhancing sustainable consumption and production practices in Morocco and Tunisia. In Morocco, public awareness programmes were strengthened and operationalised to institutionalise information and training campaigns within structures responsible for disseminating good agricultural and food safety practices. Successful experiences were disseminated through mass media and social networks. Tunisia followed a similar approach to Morocco, using public awareness programmes to encourage a shift towards sustainable consumption and production patterns. Users were educated onIn Mauritania, stakeholders identified the key constraints to food security as the use of outdated farming techniques, the low technical capacity of producers, and difficulties in accessing land and funds.Nutritional awareness programmes and the promotion of healthier diets using the media and food guides were deemed necessary by Tunisia. In Morocco, the need to recognise the nutritional value of indigenous foods and return to their consumption was highlighted.Moroccan stakeholders recognised that the economic empowerment of women through access to resources, services, economic opportunities and decision making contributes to improved food security and more efficient and sustainable food systems.• Supporting women to exercise their fundamental rights;• Facilitating their access to employment, natural resources, services and markets;• Enabling entrepreneurship; and• Promoting their participation in political and governance processes.Northern region (Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia) the need to protect water and soil resources, the recycling of wastewater and the adoption of GAPs.In Egypt, stakeholders identified the key barriers to sustainable food systems as water scarcity, population growth, urbanisation, persistent food safety and quality challenges and the prevalence of unhealthy consumption patterns.Stakeholders in the Tunisian Dialogues suggested a review of international trade rules to make them better suited to sustainable food systems. The protection of producers through the establishment of a monitoring system on supply and market prices was also highlighted. In Mauritania, stakeholders indicated a need for improved import regulation, particularly of milk products.The Moroccan Dialogues described the need for fair, secure and sustainable supply chains to ensure the responsible use of natural resources, reduced food loss and food waste, and for making sustainability an easy choice for consumers.In Morocco, restaurant owners shared their concern about disposing of large amounts of uneaten food. The wastage of food shocked stakeholders working with food insecure households and presented an area for collaboration. In Morocco, it was established that agricultural trade and social policies facilitate access to affordable, safe and nutritious food for all. The need to review and update and/ or operationalise legislative mechanisms in the sectors of water, climate change, biodiversity, energy transition, women's empowerment, health security, nutritional quality, food loss and waste and the circular economy was emphasised. Furthermore, the Dialogues highlighted the misalignment between action logic and coordination mechanisms, which has limited the efficiency of interventions.There is also a need for improved participation and coordination, which can be achieved through the active engagement of all stakeholders in the development and implementation of strategies and the strengthening of coordination structures.Morocco's stakeholders indicated the need for an increase in funding for scientific research in the agricultural sector.Stakeholders also discussed the need for integrated and multidisciplinary research.In Tunisia, the use of digital technologies for the production of educational materials on consumption and sustainable production (e.g. applications, games, social networks) was discussed. Furthermore, digital applications could be developed to promote networking for the recovery and redistribution of food products and leftover meals. The strengthening of EWSs and digitisation of agriculture was mentioned as key.It was highlighted in the Mauritanian Dialogues, that the country has promoted and popularised agricultural mechanisation.In Tunisia, discussions took place on the geographic scale of regional food models.It was noted that some models are focused on the importance of returning to traditional foods specific to localities, whilst others focused on the relaunch of regional food models such as the Mediterranean diet.In Mauritania, some stakeholders mentioned the need to introduce differential taxes for imported products to reduce competition with the local market.Other stakeholders suggested that it would be more beneficial to support local producers with equipment and inputs, considering the global trade agreements in place (World Trade Organisation (WTO), AfCFTA and the Economic Community of West African States).In Mauritania, it was recognised that budget allocations need to be increased to meet basic infrastructure and human resource needs. In addition, smallholder and family farms require better access to financing and agricultural credit. Gabon's Dialogues highlighted the importance of looking at food system resilience not only with a climate change lens, but also addressing other shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic and associated increased unemployment rate has resulted in lower purchasing power and a reduced demand for food. This in turn is resulting in food surpluses at the producer level, higher levels of post-harvest losses and food insecurity and malnutrition. Communitylevel education on contingency planning and risk management were suggested actions to address the issue of shocks. In addition, Gabon described the need to favour local production to strengthen the resilience of food systems in the face of crises such as COVID-19, which disrupted food value chains and importation.Central region (CAR, Cameroon, DRC, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon)In the Central region's Dialogues, improved land tenure, capacity building on good land management practices and equal access to subsidies were some of the action areas given to enhance sustainable food production. It was recognised in the Equatorial Guinea Dialogues that comprehensive and diversified training is needed for technicians and farmers to increase agricultural production. In addition, the Environmental Organisations Sector insisted on the importance of promoting the sustainable management of natural resources and biodiversity conservation. • Improved dietary data;• School feeding programmes;• Incorporation of nutritional education in school curricula;• Diversification of food production for more balanced diets;• Improved processing;• Fortification/enrichment methods; and• Modern food storage practices.but could be resolved through following guidelines such as the Codex Alimentarius. Consumers' knowledge of food safety was described as poor with a clear need for awareness creation.In Gabon, it was mentioned that people living with HIV are now included in agricultural projects with grants available to them to purchase agricultural land. The FAO has committed to continue supporting the empowerment of people living with HIV by providing training on vegetable production and balanced diets. Land has also been allocated to refugees for agricultural and commercial activities.Gabon's Dialogues. The youth have been mobilised through the digitalisation and mechanisation of agriculture but there is still a need to promote agricultural professions and provide incentives to In Gabon's Dialogues, special mention was made of the regional imbalance between farmers in the northern countries who benefit from subsidies and those in the south who tend to be small-scale farmers with limited resources. Mechanisms need to be developed to support the farmers in the south to protect biodiversity (protected fauna causes extensive damage to farmers' plantations) and to promote improved farming methods and sustainable forest management. Persistent humanwildlife conflict was noted as threatening food security as well as the lives of farmers with 8 deaths recorded in 2020, 15 accidents and 8,300 complaints. Furthermore, it was noted that the emigration of youth to urban areas is likely to continue, should a solution not be found. It was concluded that support from international bodies is needed in the implementation of ecoresponsible agriculture.Dialogues in the DRC highlighted the need to:• Guarantee access for all to healthy, affordable and nutritious food;• Switch to sustainable consumption patterns;• Stimulate production that respects nature;• Promote equitable livelihoods; and• Build resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stress.Land tenure was noted as a major barrier to sustainable agricultural production in the DRC.In Equatorial Guinea, the need for improved equity in rural transport was highlighted, as rural populations are economically excluded by food distribution barriers.In CAR, stakeholders indicated that smallholder farmers are responsible for the majority of food production but face multiple agricultural challenges such as a lack of access to good quality inputs (such as seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and supervision) and reliable machinery. It was mentioned that the resilience of vulnerable communities can be strengthened through the development of sustainable value chains and the establishment of food safety nets.In Equatorial Guinea's Dialogues, it was indicated that food handling in supply chains is poor and the control of food quality in public markets and grocery stores is inadequate.In the Central region, key areas for improving health and nutrition included nutritionsensitive agriculture, reducing the prices of nutritious foods, awareness campaigns on nutrition and indigenous foods, improved dietary guidelines and food safety standards. In the CAR Dialogues, it was mentioned that there is a need for the development of nutrition-sensitive agriculture with the ambition of reducing chronic malnutrition by at least 10% in three years.The Dialogues in Equatorial Guinea found that healthy and nutritious food is too expensive thereby limiting the population's access to it. Consequently, obesity, anaemia and child malnutrition have risen, and the country has promoted the production and consumption of healthy, safe and nutritious food.Nutritional awareness programmes and the promotion of healthier diets using the media and food guides were deemed necessary by Gabon. Stakeholders described an absence of food-based dietary guidelines and a lack of nutritional standards. Furthermore, the need for a return to the consumption of healthy indigenous foods was recognised.primary forests and other terrestrial and aquatic protected areas. The Dialogues in Gabon also highlighted the need for an increased budget for the Department of Agriculture so as to be able to respect the Maputo and Malabo agreements. Other action areas included the need to implement nutrition policies, strengthen collaboration between the Health Department and other sectors that deal with health issues, and to reform the legislative and regulatory framework to promote smallholders' access to land.Gabon identified the need for forestry companies to collaborate with the department responsible for infrastructure to maintain road networks essential for the flow of agricultural produce.In Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, stakeholders noted the need for State-funded research to improve agricultural production. Additionally, in Equatorial Guinea, it was recognised that all subsectors (e.g. crops, livestock, fisheries and forestry) need technical assistance in production, diagnosis of problems, coordination and financing for research.In the CAR Dialogues, customary law on land access proved a contentious issue as it does not allow equity in access to land nor the sustainable exploitation of non-timber forest products. Furthermore, current agricultural systems, concentrated around villages with limited resources, were noted as not being conducive to the establishment of large farms, which would likely create tension over land.In Equatorial Guinea, importance was placed on updating national legislation related to the food system and its sustainability. The livestock sector indicated a need to build a feed factory. This led to discussions on who should establish the factory, the Government or the private sector. Additionally, producers highlighted the need for better coordination between financial institutions and the competent ministerial departments to improve the selection of beneficiaries to financial facilities.In CAR, a support strategy has been established for small-scale producers which includes improved access to financing and Equatorial Guinea has entered high-level dialogue to work towards the Maputo agreement of investing 10% of resources in the agricultural sector.In Gabon, the Dialogues highlighted the need for mechanisms to mobilise funds for producers. It was deemed essential to set up an investment fund to support agricultural activities. It was noted that professionals from the agricultural sector are prepared to contribute to its establishment through voluntary financial contributions which will be supplemented by the State. Furthermore, it was suggested that banking institutions hire agricultural specialists to better assess the demands for related financing.Image: ©Juan Pablo Marin García (Alianza de Bioversity International / CIAT)AICCRA Key insights and perspectives from the Food Systems Summit Dialogues and the CAADP 3rd Biennial review process • 43 42 • AICCRA Key insights and perspectives from the Food Systems Summit Dialogues and the CAADP 3rd Biennial review process interest more young people. The State also needs to improve basic social services such as hospitals, schools, recreation centres and internet connectivity in rural areas.In Cameroon, an impact study was conducted on the socio-economic effects of COVID-19 on livelihood strategies undertaken by the rural poor and the adaptation of the agricultural sector as a whole. Consultation was inclusive with participation by the Regional Platform of Farmers' Organisations of Central Africa, youth, women, people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups. The consultation was facilitated by the Climate Smart Agriculture Youth Network Global.In CAR, a common vision for 2030 was identified through the involvement of different food system stakeholders, government, technical and financial partners, civil society, farmers' organisations as well as the national scientific community. The Government, through the Ministry of Agriculture, is to strengthen its leadership and coordinate actions.Stakeholders mentioned that Gabon is implementing a policy that reconciles agricultural production with environmental conservation. The National Land Use Plan is to provide a key instrument for the preservation ofIn Equatorial Guinea, special mention was made of the need for technical assistance by fisheries, particularly in the areas of:• Traditional boat repairs;• Safety and survival equipment at sea, such as radar;• Engine spare parts; and• Facilities for the conservation, handling and sale of fresh fish. As such, the momentum created by the UN Food System Summit is therefore an opportunity to substantially improve on and accelerate the pace of implementation of the CAADP/Malabo Agenda. The BR and AATS may be supplemented with additional indicators (e.g., processing and distribution as key segment in the food system) to better inform a more comprehensive planning, implementation, and tracking of transforming Africa's food systems. The aim of the report is to present individual Member States and collective performances in order to trigger continental, regional and national level action programmes to drive agricultural transformation in Africa.The report also helps to create more appetite for individual entities to strengthen national and regional institutional capacity for agriculture data collection and knowledge management to inform actions. Building on this principle, it is anticipated that this would support improved evidence-based planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, mutual learning and foster alignment, harmonization and coordination among multi-sectoral and multistakeholder efforts. Such efforts include the CAADP Malabo Policy Learning Event, the Permanent Secretaries' Retreat, engagements led by Regional Economic Communities (RECs), and platforms organized by partners.The report highlights the inclusive nature of the process and methodological approach that was used to collect and analyse data and write the report. Furthermore, the report also presents the key findings at continental and regional levels, the detailed profiles and scorecards of individual Member States, and sets of recommendations for individual Member States, regional bodies and continental institutions.The report is complemented by an online CAADP BR Communication Toolkit, used as a smart and powerful online interactive tool that presents the BR data in various forms, making it more easily accessible to users. The tool was developed by AU and its partners in close consultation with RECs, technical experts and other stakeholders as an accompanying output of the BR Report to facilitate the dissemination of its findings. The tool is designed to make it easier for policymakers and other stakeholders at national and regional level to interact with the data and information provided. The Toolkit contains clear graphics, analyses and maps that facilitate easier access to the information.Rwanda is ontrack to meet the goals and targets of Malabo by 2025, nineteen (19) countries are classified as progressive. With an overall score of 4.32, the continent is not-on-track to meeting the Malabo goals and targets by 2025. Regarding financing, the report shows that only four (4) countries invested at least 10% of their national expenditure on agriculture. Only one country is on track to meeting the vgoal by 2025. Both empirical observations and research findings presented in the report, show that the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts on agriculture and food security on the continent, could partly explain this low performance of the continent.For every reporting Member State, performance against the set targets is presented in the form of a \"Country Scorecard in implementing the Malabo Commitments\".For the first time, the report includes a section on the implementation of AU decisions, thematic in nature, and specific to agricultural transformation in Africa, on: Seed and Biotechnology; Livestock Development; Fisheries and Aquaculture; Irrigation; Mechanization; Fertilizer Use; Sanitary and Phytosanitary Capacities, Land Policy; and Ecological Organic Agriculture. This reporting period covers progress made by Member States in the implementation of the Malabo declaration for the period 2015 to 2020.As reflected in the key findings, the report presents the seven (7) thematic areas of performance, aligned with the commitments in the Malabo Declaration. It also evaluates country performance in achieving the goals and targets, which have been disaggregated into twenty-three (23) performance categories, and further divided into forty-six (46) indicators.In the Third BR Report, countries are considered 'on-track' if their total score is equal to or higher than the benchmark of 7.28; or 'progressive' when their score is equal to or more than 5 but less than 7.28; or 'not-on-track' if their score is less than 5.A total of fifty-one (51) AU Member States reported in this 3rd cycle of the Biennial Review process, up from the 49 Member States that reported in the 2nd Biennial Review cycle, and 43 in the inaugural Biennial Review cycle. Out of the 51 Member States that reported, 25 Member States registered increased scores between 2019 and 2021 review cycles. This reflects the commitment by Member States to the CAADP BR process and their efforts to address the shortfalls revealed in the inaugural and 2nd BR reports.AICCRA Key insights and perspectives from the Food Systems Summit Dialogues and the CAADP 3rd Biennial review process • 53Image Top: ©Annie Spratt (Unsplash)• Member States, regional economic communities and AU should mount a strong communication and dissemination campaign on the findings in the report.The use of the CAADP biennial review communication toolkit and the biennial review dashboard should be encouraged among different stakeholders to view, observe and reflect on the findings in the report.• Member States, working in collaboration with all stakeholders, should ensure that national dialogues are convened to reflect on and discuss the results of this report to prioritize and develop policy and programmatic responses to speed up the implementation of the Malabo Declaration.RECs, Member States and development partners should be guided by the findings of this report to ensure alignment to the CAADP agenda.• Strengthen mutual accountability systems to include accountability for actions and results by a broader range of players, including the private sector, farmer organizations, civil society organizations, and development partners.• Member States should use the CAADP biennial review mechanism to report on progress in the implementation of the pathways for food systems transformation in the Africa Common Position to the UN Food System and national dialogues report.• AU should undertake an external evaluation/audit of the overall biennial review process to establish the efficacy of the self-reporting system and to suggest measures to strengthen the quality and robustness of the process at national, regional and continental levels.• Stronger political leadership and commitment is required in order for government to mobilize stakeholder buyin for financing and implementation of key recommendations. A central multi-sectoral coordination mechanism is required for effective CAADP implementation.• Member States are urged to design, fund and implement carefully selected priority programs and projects to fast-track the achievement of the seven Malabo Commitments. In this regard, Member States should intensify efforts to develop and implement Malabocompliant high-quality NAIP.• Strengthen the capacity of regional economic communities, given the critical role they play in mobilizing member state in the biennial review process, by providing them with more human and financial resources.• Member States are encouraged to integrate the CAADP biennial review data collection process into existing national monitoring and reporting systems, including the joint sector review processes.• AU and Member States need to develop and strengthen implementable mechanisms for peer learning. Well-structured peerto-peer learning and exchange should be an integral part of the CAADP process.• From the experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic, Member States should establish stronger emergency response plans and commit to building more resilient food systems to respond better to future shocks.The 2021 biennial review report calls for action to transform Africa's agriculture","tokenCount":"13993"}

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Respond to emerging CCAFS external evaluation recommendations on CSVs and incorporate adjustments into Flagship projects during Extension and Phase 2Plenary and fruitful group discussions, combined with field visits to the Haryana CSVs enabled deep reflections and the collective building of a common vision on the objectives, key elements and generic theory of change of CSVs.Various success stories of CSVs were highlighted including the development of climate-smart integrated portfolios based on holistic approaches, participatory action research and empowerment. CSVs were seen as particularly important models for articulation and partnerships between a variety of actors and institutions at all levels. Nevertheless, it was noted that certain areas had potential for improvement and this included concerns over the viability of sustainability beyond the project cycle, a lack of evidence of climate-smartness beyond productivity, a need to balance technology and socioeconomic aspects, the need to better acknowledge indigenous knowledge, a lack of involvement of 'poor' farmers and youth, and more research, engagement and documentation needed to facilitate scaling out.There was general agreement on the farmer-driven nature of the CSVs processes and convergence on a minimal set of criteria for the participatory approach to be considered while acknowledging that the levels of participation must be context-specific, reflecting local realities. The criteria included the focus on evidence building, integration of knowledge to actionable science, understanding farmer priorities and institutional landscapes, promotion of empowerment and ownership through effective multi-stakeholders partnerships to support scalability and sustainability through integration in the agricultural system.Discussions on the CSV Theory of Change reflected some initial confusion by the participants around the CSV replications (e.g 500 CSVs in Haryana) and the scaling up component, but finally a common understanding was reached. Put in simple words, CSV Theory of Change is based on generating solid evidence with farmers, on the effectiveness of integrated CSA portfolios (incl. climate smart technologies and practices, business models and associated supporting services and resource leveraging mechanisms). This is in addition to working with partners, governments and private sector on developing implementing pathways to scale it up (e.g. integration into gov. and local planning documents) in order to reach farmers that are not in CSVs (Haryana's 500 CSVs are villages who are adopting climate-smart technologies and practices that come from learning within CSVs).It was also pointed out that: i) -We have a common CSV model among the different regions made of a set of replicable processes aiming to build solid evidence that leads to enable wide adoption but where implementation and scaling up of this evidence are context-specific, ii) In order for CSVs to be scalable, a simpler model is required to piggyback on existing large scale initiatives and iii) CSV Theory of Change should be a combination of the two complementary bottom-up and top-down, science led approaches.When discussing the issue of CSV scale and research units, it became clear once again that one size does not fit all, with CSVs being defined at different levels in different regions. (E.g. in SA villages defined by administrative boundaries. In SEA: landscape, (micro) watershed level; LAM: territorial/ catchment level approach based on production system). However, in general, it was agreed that the CSV scale should be a manageable unit with similar conditions based on biophysical, socio-economicpolitical context and dependent on CSA technologies being tested and research questions addressed.The need to further develop and strengthen the CSV Research framework was also highlighted with useful discussions around three proposed thematic building blocks: The creation of more systematic and targeted science-led evidence at the relevant scale (landscape, value-chain) and for the different stakeholders, specifically some topics where evidence is particularly weak including addressing longer term climate variability and change, avoiding maladaptation, defining CSA versus Sustainable Intensification, layering of technologies vs individual options.  Development of a methodological transferability framework based on processes (not contextspecific) where its \"ingredients\" or components are transferable but bring the context specificity; incl. establishing appropriate metrics, adaptation domains (incl. more work on farmer typologies and CBA); using biophysical and socio-economic Analogues; building more on big data analysis (capitalizing baseline data) and learning from dis adoption.  Developing relevant business models as vehicles for scaling up/out (CCAFS role: informing vs developing?).Opportunities for methodological harmonization were also identified and included among others:  For the Agronomic trials: The need to establish a minimum common framework to enable comparable set up of several scenario trials  For GHE emissions: Develop guidelines and protocols on the different methods available (incl. landscape level); address how to validate the mathematical models; agree on relevant measurement scale (plot emissions, life cycle or full footprints?)  For Business models: indicators to assess climate-smartness of a business model,  For Scaling out: to develop a framework to integrate CSA into local planning  For Gender: the need for a general assessment on what has been done and what have been the different results across the regions; strategies to enhance women's decision making in the hh; to address how can CSVs be a factor that influences youth staying in rural areas.This first CSV workshop was a real success and allowed the CSV community to make major progress on the collective development of the CVS.II Vision to be reflected in the full CCAFS Phase II proposal. Co-develop a 3-page Synthesis of CSV concept, TOC and objectives, to be shared for comments by October.  Develop the CSV research framework and share  Establish CSV practitioners (email list); Interest in group on business development and regional learnings  Bring other flagships into this CSVs discussions and future actions (mitigation and climate information components have big roles to play) to further catalyze synergies  Consider Writing Workshops to harmonize methodologies (of what is context specific) and clearly identify and strengthen the science  Synthesis paper ideas: Framework for Agricultural Trials, mainstreaming CSA into planning/LAPAs  Carry out a second CSV workshop towards the end of 2016 before Phase II (highlighting the science and including poster sessions) (Yen Tan Bui) This presentation by the coordinator of the CSV villages in SEA addressed: the selection of CSVs, the climate-smart components present in each of them, and introduced the aspect of the relevant scale to be addressed, including the landscape level. The implementation structure from national to community level was also presented: the identification activities of the baseline work, initial capacity building, land use planning, and priority interventions carried out based on a bottom-up and participatory approach. Also mentioned were upcoming activities related to capacity building of CSV teams, household-based land-use optimization and opening of CSV research proposals.The presentation addressed the risk profiles of the EA CSV villages, the regional vision and impact pathway ending with a focus on the Nyando Case documented in the CCAFS info note.  Andy Jarvis invited the participants to address and discuss, in group tables, the following aspects related to the scaling up and out of strategies behind the CSV approach:   CSV Theory of Change should be a combination of the two proposed models: the more local/ bottom up, as well as the higher intensity, \"top down\" or science led setting.  No one size fits all. CSV Theory of Change needs to be embedded in the local/regional context and could build on context specific ecological and socio-economic typologies.- The morning of day three was devoted to continuing the CSV science session. Three major topics were address through short opening presentations followed by group discussions. Key aspects are summarized below.CSVs are founded upon an action research framework whereby communities are an integral actor in the research process. Different participatory approaches with local institutions and farmers themselves have been implemented across the different regions. Are we observing regional differences on its implementations (e.g. farmers as implementers vs farmers as drivers of the agenda or hybrid process)? To open up the discussion, an introduction on What is PAR and its key principles was made by John Recha:Participatory action research is an outcome-driven approach to research in communities that emphasizes farmer participation and action. PAR seeks to understand the community by trying to change it, collaboratively and following reflection. It emphasizes collective inquiry and experimentation grounded in experience and social history. Key principles include: Recognizing community as a unit of identity  Building on strengths and resources within the community  Facilitating collaborative partnerships in all phases of the research  Integrating knowledge and action for mutual benefit of all partners  Promoting a co-learning and empowering process that attends to social inequalities  Continuous monitoring and involving a cyclical and iterative process  Disseminating findings & knowledge gained to all partners  Scaling up through local policy makerso Are there success stories that might help us to identify which might be the best PAR practices? o Do we need different strategies for PAR or are we on the right track? o Which might be the minimum requirements for a PAR approach?Building on the collective discussion the following principles and requirements came out (in blue, novel elements compared to the initial definition are highlighted).PAR is a tool to generate scalable, cost-effective and socially relevant CSV models for different agroecologies. The out scaling of the CSV model does not necessarily require PAR. PAR in CSVs needs to be an Eye Opener allowing to create awareness and showcase available technologies and tools1. -Site selection: should be region specific/representative and scalable -Conduct situation analysis /baseline and vulnerability Assessment -Identify climate risks, incentives and benefits of participation in CSVs -Fosters initial community mobilization to build common understanding of the vision and goals-Essential need to understand the specific history of the community rather than assuming that we are starting from a blank page. -Recognizing that a project might have a limited scope, and will only contribute to addressing some aspects/needs of the community. -Need to make some distinction about Participatory Action Research (might develop some model and protocols on which participatory action in needed) and Participatory Action.Appropriate CSV Scale  Not easy to define concrete concept of CSV research unit. Current diversity observed on scales across regions. (E.g. in SA villages defined by administrative boundaries. In SEA: landscape, (micro) watershed level; LAM: territorial/ catchment level approach based on production system)  One size does not fit all.  CSV scale should be a manageable unit with similar conditions, context specific, considering:- -Do we know which the best PAR practices are (things that will really make a difference to help us achieving out outcomes)? -Now that CCAFS is reaching its first 5 years, should we think about evaluating the PAR work already done in the different sites and assess how far have we have got so far? -At which level is PAR being used: CCAFS level, project level?-After having collectively reflected and established the PAR minimum requirements the questions that arise are: Are we meeting all those PAR minimum requirements? Should we try and use a similar \"set level\" of participation across all the regions or should it be grounded in the cultural and institutional realities of each site? Should PAR be taken as \"one size fit all \"approach in its implementation? Collective agreement was reached on the fact that in the case of PAR's implementation in the CSVs, one size does not fit all and the levels of participation must be context-specific depending on the regional/local realities.Village is in the name, but this may not always be the most appropriate scale for a CSV. In Asia and Latin America, perhaps landscapes or catchments are more appropriate. The issue of scale of a CSV has been brought up by the external evaluation. In this discussion, the group reflected on which might be the appropriate scale, and tried to clarify the CCAFS strategy across and within regions.In its opening presentation Julian Gonsalves recalled, in a great and very illustrative way (See Video), the CSV purpose, focus, principles and scale, opening the floor to the  1. To create science-led evidence on the efficiency of the model (at the relevant scale: landscape, value-chain etc.).  Are we properly addressing climate change (longer term) and climate variability? Or are we addressing climatic risk?  Need of more scientific analyses to evaluate that what we are promoting today will not lead to maladaptation.  How to make better use of climate information services? Some sort of distinction needs to be made between sustainable intensification and climate-smart agriculture. Need to be more specific on what is and what is not CSA 2. Define adaptation domains to facilitate transferability of successful research 3. Identify and develop the business models that are needed. Our outcome-driven approach leads us towards impact and applicability. After several years of research and evidence building, we now need to reflect on the most appropriate scaling model e.g. for engaging the government and for industry.Are we building evidence appropriately?Most of the discussion groups (4 out of the 6 tables) concluded that CCAFS is currently NOT doing enough to build evidence base and that opportunity for improvement exists and focuses around:  Targeted evidence: defining the targeted stakeholders (farmers, investors, policy makers), the different types of evidence needed and how it needs to be framed and communicated.  More systematic evidence base processes (establishing clear trade-offs between the research and the scaling out goals), and consider specifically some topics where evidence is particularly weak.  Strengthening innovative aspects of research: focus evidence base on portfolios and layering of technologies (not occurring everywhere so far) vs traditional individual technologies evaluation.  Establishing CSA metrics for M&E and enabling more breakdown of evidence around the three pillars.  Addressing future climate variability and risk (incl. appropriateness of current coping mechanisms from farmers for future CC conditions).  Building more on big data analysis opportunities (capitalize baseline data).  Learning from dis adoption of technologies and fast spreading technologies (i.g cell phones).  Agenda guidance: can weather and climate information services be used to drive the CCAFS research agenda?Adaptation domains: Are we understanding transferability?The group agreed overall that so far CCAFS has not adequately addressed transferability within its projects (no evidence) and shared the need to further address and understand both current and future adaptation domains and ensure future sustainability of CSA technologies and options despite context specificity associated to technology adoption. In terms of available tools, the Climate Analogue was recognized as being of key importance if embracing the socio-economic and soil aspects. Suggestions on aspects to be further considered include: Development of a methodological transferability framework based on processes (not context specific) where its \"ingredients\" or components are transferable but bring the context specificity.  Carrying out more work on farmers typologies and CBA (costs associated to implementation of CSA)o Are we building evidence appropriately to address climate variability and future climate change? (Method) o Adaptation domains: Are we understanding transferability? (Tool) o Business models: What is the research process and how do we mainstream it in the thinking of a region?This discussion led to the following key reflections:o CSV concept is a process/approach, thus need for BM that are different than for products. o BMs for CSVs should be market driven but need to be dynamic. o Need to identify target specific investors (e.g. private enterprises, gov, cooperatives, and self-help groups) and define processes that promote investments at CVS level accordingly. o Need to engage and involve those \"clients\".o Lack of clarity was expressed on the research behind BMs for CSVs and who the customers of this research are. Call for more work. o Questioned role of CCAFS researchers/policy makers (partners) on trying to develop BM by themselves. o CCAFS science role should be informing investors and entrepreneurs on potential business opportunity, providing them the necessary inputs (e.g. evidence for cost recovery, microcredit etc.) o Research process might include documentation of BM benefits (M&E)o Need for business case for capacity building for famers, in collaboration with private sector. o Existing CCAFS SEA platform to enable different groups to come together and develop BMsRajbir Singh's presentation (Video) focused on sharing learning from the Indian and ATARI experience at the CSVs. See highlights in ANNEX 3.In its opening presentation Surabi Mittal (CIMMYT) recalled the current key challenges:• Majority of farmers are small and bounded by limited subset of knowledge and access to resources • Male farmers are moving for secondary income leading to increasing feminization of agriculture • Youth moving out of agriculture • Gender gap-literacy, limited access to assets, and cultural barriers and traditional mind set-\"Women don't need information\" • The problem of lack of information is even more pertinent among women engaged directly or indirectly in agriculture • Limited experience/ confidence in decision makingCSV research has strong focus on technologies, innovative platform and partners, and how foster uptake, adoption, scale-out and impact of those technologies. However, the key catalyst in between is behavioral change.Examples from India:-What the existing gender gap is (survey analysis 2012 reflected poor access to assets but also to information and knowledge, where ICT can act) -Enhancing the role of gender in hh decision making to adopt CSAPs (reducing information asymmetry and empowering them; making women in hh accountable for record keeping) -Enhancing understanding by training (green seeker, inclusiveness in ICT services, weather info, creation of service windows) -Gender empowerment index Gender should be incorporated in activities where possible but is difficult to understand (and in some locations even more challenging)  What role do women play in agriculture and related activities? Do we know this? Should this be the starting point? Do we have data and information on this?  Technologies, especially mechanization, might displace labor-the first loss might be to female labor-how this will be accounted for? (Gender neutral? Same impact on men and women?)  Men and women think differently, might internalize information and implement it differently-so should we have a disintegrated (only women) vs integrated (men and women) approach?  What is the role of gender in the decision making process?  What is the incentive for women to be part of CSVs?  Is it necessary for CSVs to be concerned with gender issues?Questions for discussion and reporting by discussion facilitation Sophia Huyer  Should CSVs be concerned with gender issues?  Are we doing enough in CSVs to examine gender and youth elements of climate adaptation and mitigation? -Do you know of existing tools for gender main streaming/ integration-Are these tools simple to understand and implement? -Do CSVs need a different approach from pre-existing gender approaches?  How can we enhance the role of gender in household decision making to adopt CSAPs?-What are the regional lessons learned? Can you list at least one? -Are we collecting and analyzing the data to truly understand gender and youth differentiated impacts of CSA options? -How are you addressing gender and youth in technology adoption assessments? Consensus on the need to address gender and youth issues in CSVs  Emerging approaches in the region on the role of gender and technologies assessment  Different tools exist and are used, but need for a general assessment on what has been done and what have been the different results across the regions.  Need for strategies to enhance women's decision making in the hh (Assessment of technologies and tools introduced and their impact on women's position in the hh, their control and access to resources (been done in Nepal; Women involved in book keeping in India)  Need to address: How can CSVs be a factor that influences youth staying in rural areas (financial instruments, loans, incentives, use of technologies, training on business opportunities around farming; providing interesting jobs around CSV activities-data recording etc.)ii. Scaling-out approaches: linking with LAPA or sub-regional planning: Experiences from South Asia, primarily IndiaThe opening presentation by Jeetendra P. Aryal highlighted to following aspects:-India is very special because it has NAPCC (National Action Plan on CC) and SAPCC (State Action Plan on CC) and good integration between both levels. Missing GAP = Local Adaptation Plans of Action.-LAPA: Important vehicle to scale CSA (endorsed by the government in Nepal) -Need to explore how we can mainstream CSVs into LAPAs, enable coordination and synergies (both concepts acting at village level)o What are the most appropriate sub-national policies and plans that can provide incentives for scaling-out CSA? (experiences from Nepal, regional lessons learned) o How might local CSA programs be best designed to promote CSA adoption? o What is the role of local institutions in providing supporting services to farmers that increases CSA adoption levels and where do the opportunities lie?-The group discussed the need to reach impact at local level planning -In general, in most of the CSV sites, existence of national level frameworks (NAPAs) but gap at local level -Climate-smart alliances set up in rural Africa to be used as vehicles to integrate into national planning but, how is this going to be connected to the local plans? -Nepal: village plans including 50% of the budget on LAPAs -Incentives to integrate CSA into LAPAs? Where is the information feeding the LAPAs coming from? Can CSV research provide inputs to LAPAs? -Need to further discuss how to integrate CSA into local planningClare Stirling presented some of the key challenges to be discussed related to GHG emissions methodological issues in CSVs. What is the most appropriate GHG approaches to use in CSVs?  Do we replicate (FP3 detailed and expensive measurements) or do we take less expensive approaches (incl. calibration of models as way to scale out)? What is the trade-off: Gold standards models (DNDC, but apparently several problems been reported) vs data light model? Cool Farm tool?  Do we want a robust analysis of emissions or idea of which directions these technologies are going to take GHG?Questions for discussion and reporting o Are we using the best methods? -There are different groups using different measurements.-Methane measurement is easily done, but carbon sequestration is very difficult.-It is really not easy to tell if the methods being used now are the best ones.-Guidelines of different measurements should be developed.-A group from New Zealand has been doing measurements in cattle productions, paddy rice, and applying different predictive models for different location-specific measurements of emissions.o Are all measurements using SAMPLES best practice methods?Not a concrete answer for this Y/N question, just miscellaneous ideas:-GHG lab has been set up in Nairobi for different measurements.-Mono-cropping of rice in the Philippines: measure CH4 emissions in rice.-Using different mathematical models to predict GHG emissions. The question is, how do we validate these models? -Implementation of GHG emissions measurements at landscape scale. Follow-up design, data management and analysis. Participants on this discussion table addressed the following questions:o What are the minimal standard practices that need to be implemented across all CSVs? o What common protocols can be adopted across all CSV projects Key reflections shared by the group facilitator Samuel Partey were that given the important heterogeneity among the CSVs from the different regions (in terms of climatic risks and challenges, agro-ecologies and production systems etc.) it might be difficult to identify standard practices and rather the common elements should be:-Sharing a common objective -Having a comparable set up of several scenario trialsThe opening presentation by Anne Marie Groot \"Exploring opportunities to scale out CSA in CSV through innovative business models\" share the ongoing work developed under FP1 project \"Recommendation domains, incentives and institutions for equitable local adaptation planning at subnational level and scaling up climate smart agricultural practices in wheat and maize systems\"; as well as the concrete case study developed for the cooperative in Noorpur Bet (Punjab). Watch the Video, See ANNEX 4 for the highlightso Should CCAFS focus more on cooperatives to out-scale CSA practices and accelerate climate smart businesses? o Establishment/facilitation of innovation platforms: is there a role for CCAFS? o Should we identify a basic set of criteria for assessing climate smartness of business ideasbusiness cases?-Reduced price of inputs -Higher skills -Increased income The group also reflected on the question of whether CCAFS should be moving into the value chain/ market driven approach or if we should be more focused on the production of technologies. To be compared with CCAFS definition (as per in pre-proposal):  Integration of technologies, practices and services, examining how token technologies function in a broader ecosystem of approaches  Built on a participatory approach to understand adoption barriers, farmer acceptance  Wider lens of evaluation: going beyond productivity to also incorporate adaptation and mitigation  Building of evidence for scaling out, piggy-backing the opportunities that climate context adds to a traditional technology roll out approach (e.g. using climate finance, bundling with climate services among others)General closing comments from the plenary  Significant discussion about CSA but no one is really concrete about it. Some say: Is CSV the right approach? What else should we ask back? If not in this way how do we reach millions of Ha/ farmers? (Reiner)  This workshop has helped participants to realize how important the participatory research element is in the CSV approach (multi-stakeholders involvement not only farmers)  Importance of having and showing the evidence on the value addition for promoting and upscaling this model: having good business cases for CSVs (e.g. inspiration from the cooperative model)  Lots of progress made but wide range of opportunities identified for more coordination on specific topics/areas  On harmonization: Writing workshops would be very helpful to get to an harmonized methodology (harmonization of what is context specific)","tokenCount":"4290"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"29c325db513524b918b951014ec92757","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/434c5896-ff35-4b9a-902b-ef5565ed3afa/retrieve","id":"-895718532"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"52efab6a-ae8b-4539-a801-0c2cbbebdb4a","pagecount":"12","content":"The Sustainable Intensification of Mixed Farming Systems Initiative aims to provide equitable, transformative pathways for improved livelihoods of actors in mixed farming systems through sustainable intensification within target agroecologies and socio-economic settings.Through action research and development partnerships, the Initiative will improve smallholder farmers' resilience to weather-induced shocks, provide a more stable income and significant benefits in welfare, and enhance social justice and inclusion for 13 million people by 2030.Activities will be implemented in six focus countries globally representing diverse mixed farming systems as follows: Ghana (cereal-root crop mixed), Ethiopia (highland mixed), Malawi: (maize mixed), Bangladesh (rice mixed), Nepal (highland mixed), and Lao People's Democratic Republic (upland intensive mixed/ highland extensive mixed).Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia-Mechanization and Extension Activity (CSISA-MEA) is supported by USAID/ Bangladesh and aims to support the mechanization of agriculture in Bangladesh by developing the capacity of the private sector to develop, manufacture, and market innovative new technology. This assistance will enable the country's farmers to mechanize their agricultural production to maintain national food security and avoid dependence on imports.More than half of the agricultural workforce in Bangladesh are women. Women farmers typically engage in activities around the homestead, such as homegardening, poultry, post-harvesting, and processing (BISWAS et al., 2022). However, social, and cultural norms disfavour their engagement in household decision-making and control over farm assets (Jennings et al., 2022). In this context, women's abilities to realize their full productive potentials, and to contribute to the wellbeing of their families are often severely limited. The Mixed Farming System Initiative aims at identifying and promoting innovations that contribute to reducing genderconstraining norms and to enhancing greater gender equality. One potential entry point to encourage increased gender equity in mixed farming systems in rural Bangladesh includes livestock production, which is traditionally under women's responsibility.At the household and farm level, livestock can support household nutrition and income in multiple ways. Meat, milk, and dairy supply calories and quality nutrition such that livestock ownership is associated with lover levels of stunting among children (Hossain & Khan, 2020). A significant share of household cash income comes from livestock (Thornton et al., 2009), mainly through the sale of livestock products. Livestock also acts as savings or economic reserves. Women's control over livestock may therefore enhance their empowerment across different domains in mixed farming systems. But livestock rearing also includes labour intensive tasks, such as manual feed preparation which can be a burden on women's workload.Mechanical fodder chopping, and feed preparation, are strategies to reduce drudgery and to improve feed use efficiency in livestock rearing. Improved fodder chopping technologies have been extensively piloted and scaled in the context of small-scale mixed farming systems. In Bangladesh, a great number and diversity of fodder chopping innovations have been developed and scaled throughout rural households and manufacturers/dealers. The use of fodder choppers is not only beneficial for individual farmers, but also for wider rural economies in Bangladesh. Fodder chopper is one of the technologies which has been widely researched under the USAID funded Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia -Mechanization Extension Activity (CSISA-MEA) project. Through a collaboration between local manufacturers and the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) more than 100 women and men have been trained on fodder chopper operation and how to utilize fodder chopper to run a machinery service business. Most of the research on fodder choppers focuses on chopper modification. For instance, the previous model's open blade presented a health concern. CSISA-MEA created the safe model in partnership with BARI, using a cover manufactured by a local manufacturer. Additionally, the promotion of fodder choppers has resulted in a significant increase in interest in the machines, with sales v nearly doubling in 2023 compared to 2021 (according to the USAID-funded CSISA-Mechanization and Extension Activity, implemented by International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre).CSISA-MEA is also collaborating with another USAID funded project in Bangladesh called Livestock Production for Improved Nutrition (LPIN) Activity, where the project is promoting fodder chopper among the large cattle farms. As a part of the collaboration CSISA-MEA is providing silage chopping training to the farmers.Due to its characteristics and intended use, fodder choppers have the potential to impact the lives of women farmers in rural Bangladesh. Through the reduction of workload, enhanced productivity, and the opportunity for financial independence by offering chopping services to their community, the technology can empower women to seize control of their lives and make valuable contributions to the local economy. However, despite the growing diffusion of fodder choppers in small-scale mixed farming systems in Bangladesh, and their potential benefits for women farmers, the gender equity and social inclusion implications of the use of fodder choppers has not been assessed in detail. This research protocol describes the design and data collection process of a study on the impacts of the introduction and use of mechanized fodder choppers on women farmers' agency, control over productive assets, and farm income in rural Bangladesh. In most smallholder livestock raising systems, fodder processing is done manually and falls within the responsibilities of women, adding significantly to their workload. The immediate outcome of the use of fodder choppers is a reduction in the time needed to prepare livestock feed (compared to manual feed preparation). However, related impacts on gender roles in livestock production and gender equity in mixed farming systems can be manifold. Error! Reference source not found. presents stylized pathways of some of these potential impacts. Accordingly, the use of fodder choppers may have both, positive and/or negative outcomes. It may enhance women's role in livestock raising through two main pathways: 1) by lowering women's workload and thereby promoting the expansion of their portfolio of activities, and 2) by increasing the productivity of livestock raising, and thereby increasing women's control over cash income and ultimately women's agency in household decision-making. Pathways that may be detrimental to women's roles in livestock raising include the crowding out of women (by men). This may happen if the adoption of fodder choppers is associated with men taking over control of livestock farming from women, a pattern that can be observed after the introduction of an innovation. For instance, Fischer and Qaim (2012) show that the promotion of collective action in Banana marketing in Kenya leads to increased male control in banana production, which is typically dominated by women.Whether the crowding out of women has positive or negative effects on gender equity depends on women's use of the time previously spend with manual fodder preparation. A significant reduction in women's engagement in livestock may cause women's loss of control over the households' livestock assets and livestock income. Mehraban et al. (2022) find that households' adoption of labour-saving crops (oil palm) is associated with women having less decision-making power in terms of farm management and income control in Indonesia. The aim of the study is the quantification of the effects of the use of fodder chopper on i) time allocation for fodder chopping activities of both women and men farmers, ii) gender roles in decision-making in livestock production, and iii) gender control over livestock-based household income. The study relies on a quasi-experimental design with observational quantitative data for the statistical analysis. Formally, the treatment effect is estimated as follows:Where \uD835\uDC4C is the respective outcome variable for household i in district j, and \uD835\uDC39\uD835\uDC36 is a dummy variable indicating whether the household uses fodder (\uD835\uDC39\uD835\uDC36 = 1) choppers or not (\uD835\uDC39\uD835\uDC36 = 0) . The vector \uD835\uDC4B \uD835\uDC56 includes \uD835\uDC5A control variables that also influence outcome variable, such as household demographics, farm characteristics, and contextual variables, including households' location. With randomized assignment of \uD835\uDC39\uD835\uDC36,the estimate of \uD835\uDEFD indicates average treatment effect (ATE). Since the use of fodder choppers is not randomly distributed among observations, the study will rely on statistical approaches from applied econometrics to account for missing counterfactual and observed confounders that may simultaneously influence the use of fodder choppers, and the respective outcome (self-selection bias) (Wooldridge, 2010).Table 1 shows the hypothesized direction of the association between the use of fodder choppers and the set of outcome variables. While we expect the use of fodder choppers to reduce the time required to manual feed preparation, expected associations between fodder chopper use and women's role in decision-making and control over income are mixed, and are expected to depend on the women's ability to use freed time to engage welfare and or wellbeing enhancing activities.Table 1. Hypothesized direction of associations between the use of fodder choppers and outcome variables.Hypothesized association between fodder chopper use and outcome 1. Time allocation for fodder chopping activities of both women and men farmers -2. Women's roles in decision-making in livestock production -/ + 3. Women's control over livestockbased household income.-/+The study relies on farm household data collected through a structured phone-based questionnaire. As the focus of the study is the assessment of the effects of the use of fodder choppers on gender roles in livestock raising, the questionnaire was addressed to both spouses individually and separately (if the household was headed by a married or co-residing adult couple). Table 2 summarizes the areas covered by the questionnaire.A team of enumerators was carefully trained in the content and application of the data collection tool during September 2023 in Dhaka. The team of enumerators was selected to include both male and female members. Considering the social context and cultural norms in Bangladesh, male enumerators conducted phone interviews only with male farmers, while female enumerators interviewed all female respondents. Data collection was implemented in October 2023.The sampling frame included 791 households from 40 districts in Bangladesh. A total of 997 individual interviews were conducted. These represent 551 households covering 36 districts as depicted in Error! Reference source not found.. For 446 households, data could be collected from both spouses (or partners). The final share of fodder chopper users and non-users was almost equally distributed among the sample. Addressed to Livestock endowments and management, i.e., number and turnover of small and large livestock, main purposes of livestock raising.Main responded only Fodder processing activities employed by the household, i.e., chopper use, ownership, and type, labor use and distribution for fodder processing and livestock management.Gender roles in livestock production related to management, decision-making, and control over income.Both genders within the household Individual, 30-minute interval time allocation of female and male adults in the household during the 24-hour period preceding the interview.Both genders within the household Socio-demographic household characteristics.Main responded onlyTable 3 gives an overview of the main household and farm characteristics of sampled farms. Our sample is almost equally divided between fodder chopper users and nonusers. Fodder chopper users tend to possess a larger number of both small and large livestock compared to non-users. Users of fodder choppers also have higher expenditures for livestock feed and tend to hold a larger area of land both around the homestead and on fields away from the homestead. The average time spend on fodder chopping is significantly lower for fodder chopper users. ","tokenCount":"1808"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2264ad9f50d0ef6bf6b9c050a651f3df","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/6d44cfc5-4ec8-4e2a-b148-ba6477b3d490/retrieve","id":"1342975776"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9efcd0fe-cf3a-455c-b4cd-ca6e5f5259eb","pagecount":"30","content":"SAIRLA) Programme is a UK Department for International Development-funded initiative that seeks to generate evidence and design tools to enable governments, investors and other key actors to deliver more effective policies and investments in sustainable agricultural intensification that strengthen the capacity of poorer farmers', especially women and youth, to access and benefit from SAI in Burkina Faso,The NLA project contract was signed between WYG and ILRI in February 2017 with an agreement to implement the NLA strategy in Ethiopia till 31 December 2019. ILRI took the leads on implementing the NLA strategy with five staffs where by three members of the team are on consultancy bases and the remaining are staffs of ILRI and involved in other similar project. The team is responsible for delivering the five project milestones. Accordingly, the NLA facilitation team together with the research representatives held their initial meeting on 3th of March 2017 to introduce NLA facilitation team members and research project representatives, agree on NLA strategy and research project themes alignment, draft vision and mission statements and identify boundary partners, draft outcome challenges for each boundary partner groups and discus on NLA launching workshop process.One of the decisions made during the 3rd of March meeting was to hold NLA launching and outcome mapping workshop on 27th and 28th of March, 2017. Accordingly National Learning Alliance (NLA) facilitation team organized a two day workshop for the NLA launching and outcome mapping exercises. The workshop brought together a total of 27 participants from the NLA facilitation team, the four SAIRLA research project representatives, WYG and SAIRLA international learning alliance facilitator and boundary partners identified for the NLA.The workshop aimed at launching the NLA and conducting an outcome mapping exercise with boundary partners. The specific objectives of the workshop were the following:  Introduce the National Learning Alliance (NLA) strategy  Introduce the four SAIRLA projects in Ethiopia  Identify and group boundary partners and define outcome challenges, progress markers and collective actions for each boundary partners group  Jointly agree on the NLA structure, steering committee roles and responsibilities and appointing NLA steering committee membersAccordingly, the meeting agenda included opening and introductory remarks, presentations on SAIRLA program, experience sharing on Africa RISING, Panel Discussion on the four SAIRLA research projects, presentation on the NLA strategy, presentation on outcome mapping exercise and an outcome mapping exercise including validation of mission and vision statements and development of outcome challenges and progress markers as well as identification of collective actions required, including communication and capacity building requirements for boundary partners. Specifically, the processes followed during the workshop are elaborated below:Richard Lamboll from NRI/SAIRLA made a brief introduction of what SAIRLA is doing in the six intervention countries across Africa and welcomed the workshop participants. In her opening remark, Siboniso Moyo also welcomed the workshop participants and said that ILRI campus is an ideal venue for NLA launch as 11 CGIAR Centres that have a presence in Ethiopia other parts of Africa and globally are hosted in it. She further stated that finding solutions for complex problems such as how to deliver equitable sustainable agricultural intensification in Africa require innovative solutions. Finding such solutions, she stated, requires diverse stakeholders to engage and learn together with the ultimate aim of developing the collective commitment and capacity to turn ideas and plans into action. Hence the SAIRLA projects which are anchored on a National Alliance approach is an innovative approach against the business as usual way of doing research and development. She then declared the workshop officially opened.The SAIRLA research representatives introduced their projects using a panel discussion format. The panel discussion was facilitated by Simret Yasabu and Million Getnet. Each Participant was given five sets of questions to answer in 2-3 minutes each. The questions include, what are the main challenges that your project is aiming at addressing?, how is your project going to address these challenges? What are the expected practice and policy changes that your project is going to bring? Where are your project intervention areas and who are your partners and beneficiaries? How are you planning to engage your stakeholders at different levels? Participants were allowed to ask questions around the end of the session to which the panellists gave answers.The aim of this presentation was to introduce the NLA strategy, together with the draft governance strategy. Million Getnet made the presentation and facilitated establishment of thematic work groups. Thematic workgroups were established in line with the three SAIRLA thematic areas include Equity, Services and Trade-Offs. The four researches which will be conducted do not explicitly include Equity as their thematic focus, but the workshop participants insisted that equity should be included. The methodology used to identify thematic workgroups was by writing down the three thematic workgroups on a flip chart and requesting the participants to join one or more of the thematic groups depending on the mandate of their organization and their interest.The outcome mapping exercise stared in the afternoon of the first day. The processes started with a brief presentation of outcome mapping a monitoring and evaluation tool by M and E expert of the NLA facilitation team. The presentation was followed by validation of vision and mission statements. This was done using a buzz group methodology where by those who were seated on a same table were given 10 minutes to discuss the draft vision and mission statements and then proceed with a plenary discussion. The process then went into validation of the draft list of boundary partners. This was done by displaying the list of boundary partners with a projector and editing the list. In the second day of the workshop the outcome mapping exercise continued with a group work on development of outcome challenge for each boundary partner group. The participants were split into five boundary partner group namely Public Development Partners, National and international research partners, NGO's and civic associations, Media and Donors. Each group was given close to one hour to develop their outcome challenge and they present their findings using a flip chart presentation. The outcome challenges were then commented and amended. Then the groups proceed with identification of progress markers. The same approach was used for identification of progress markers as well, participants went on their boundary partners group and worked on their progress markers and presented their findings using flip charts. Finally the groups were asked to develop their collection action requirements together their communication and capacity building requirements.The NLA facilitation team presented the draft governance structure of the NLA including the suggestions on membership in the steering committee. The participants discussed and amended the membership. Then the discussion went on the way forward where by the importance of reaching out to higher level decision makers at the Ministry of Agriculture, the need to include private sectors representatives and the importance of regular attendance of NLA related events by all boundary partners identified were discussed. The steering committee includes; The NLA vision and mission statements and boundary and strategic partners drafted first by the NLA Facilitation Team members and the SAIRLA research project representatives during their first meeting on 3rd March, 2017 to get to know each other's roles and responsibilities and contributions to SAIRAL objectives. During the NLA Launching and Outcome Mapping Workshop the NLA members, by working in small discussion 'buzz' groups, have thoroughly reviewed and suggested improvement on the draft NLA vision statement, mission statement and boundary partners. The revision of the vision and mission statements, incorporating the suggestions and comments by the workshop participants, was undertaken by three workshop participants on voluntary basis, which was later presented for endorsement by the NLA members.The NLA vision and mission statements and boundary partners endorsed by the NLA members are presented below:Decision makers create enabling environment for development and implementation of SAI strategies that would strengthen the capacity of smallholder farmers especially women and youth. Smallholder farmers employ and benefit from sustainable agricultural intensification practices.In support of the vision statement, the NLA create a learning platform for decision makers, development partners and smallholder farmers that enables them to have access to evidences and engage with decision support tools on sustainable agricultural intensification that is equitable, sensitive to trade-offs management and improvise service provisions.The boundary partners are those individuals, groups, or organizations with whom the NLA program interacts directly and with whom the program can anticipate opportunities for influence. The draft list of NLA partners was developed by the NLA Facilitation Team and research projects representatives on 3 rd March, 2017. The list of NLA boundary partners was further enriched and endorsed by NLA members during the Launching and OM workshop (see Development is complex, but an essential element concerns how people relate to each other. Outcome Mapping (OM) is a participatory methodology for planning, monitoring and evaluation, which focuses upon people and organizations and their relationships. Outcome Mapping is concerned with the level where a project has direct influence. OM concentrates efforts on assessing changes in the knowledge, attitudes and practices of the people and organizations with whom the NLA project works. These changes are called 'outcomes'. OM recognizes that while a project or programme can influence the achievement of outcomes, it cannot control them, because the ultimate responsibility for change rests with the partners of the project (boundary partners), and other actors beyond them. Outcome mapping recognised the limits of a project's influence, and shape our planning, learning, and accountability functions around \"outcomes\". The \"challenge\" is for the NLA project to help bring about these changes. The Outcome challenge describes how the behaviour, relationships, activities, or actions of an individual, group, or institution will change if the NLA project is extremely successful. Ideally, the outcome challenges describe how will the boundary partner be behaving or acting differently, and what new relationships will have been formed or the existing ones change in order to contribute to the NLA vision.The outcome challenge of each NLA boundary partner group was developed by respective members in each boundary partner group during the NLA Launch and Outcome Mapping Workshop (March27-28, 2017). All groups has assessed first their key functions /roles within the SAI agenda and their baseline condition. This information was then used to develop their outcome challenges (see Table 2).The boundary partner groups, based on their respective outcome challenges, have elaborated a set indicators of changed behaviours or milestones describing progression towards the outcome challenges known as 'Progress Markers' (see Table 2). This is centred on two key ideas: 1) that change occurs mainly through a series of small, incremental steps; and 2) that sustainable change comes about as a result of changes in people's behaviours, not just what they produce.Finally major collective actions required to be undertaken by each of boundary partner in order to contribute and influence the desired behavioural changes. This indicate the boundary partners are the first to effect and embrace changes by doing purposeful actions (see Table 2).There are three types of sustainable behaviour change. These are behaviours we would:  expect to see -key actors demonstrate early positive responses and initial engagement with the idea of change or the issue;  like to see -key actors are showing signs that the messages are being taken on board and are proactively changing the way things are done;  love to see -key actors display deep transformations in behaviour that demonstrate that the idea of change has been deeply internalised and will be sustainable in the long term. In a post NLA meeting held by the NLA facilitation team, the following activities are identified as things to be done between now and September. Abate Taye IDE [email protected] 2.Abayneh Derero EEFRI [email protected] 3.Arega Gashaw ARARI-SARC [email protected] 4.Ashebir Wondimu MEFCC [email protected] 5.4.1.1.1 Fadda Carlo Bioversity International [email protected] 6.Fisseha Teshome MoANR [email protected] 7.Getamessay Demeke Inter Aid France [email protected] 8.Reg. of NR/HARC [email protected] 9.4 4.1.1.7 Zoltan Tiba OPM [email protected] project will be anchored on a National Alliance approach that you will hear more about in these two days.","tokenCount":"1988"}

data/part_2/0404857930.json

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7d4121a3ac2be2e6415418b3b1dd5f6a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/19327d8a-cdf9-4c05-b9d4-13943db7552b/retrieve","id":"-1957103594"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ecd704d2-0e4c-4298-a641-a8b3e7981646","pagecount":"3","content":"PART 1: Description and all information of the outcome/impact reported OUTCOME STORY/IMPACT STATEMENT Thanks to AICCRA capacity building on Next Generation (NextGen) seasonal climate forecast systems, the AGRHYMET Regional Climate Centre for West Africa and the Sahel has adopted an objective, traceable, and reproducible seasonal forecasting procedure that enables the generation of improved seasonal forecasts. The NextGen approach is fully operational at AGRHYMET, and NextGen forecasting products are being used to upgrade the AGRHYMET climate information portal. AGRHYMET has also transferred the newly acquired technical capacities to 173 participants from 17 National Meteorological and Hydrological Services in West Africa and the Sahel, enabling them to generate timely and decision-relevant climate information for agricultural sectors in West Africa.AGRHYMET Regional Climate Centre for West Africa and the SahelAICCRA Next Generation (NextGen) seasonal climate forecast systems, and capacity development and engagement have enabled the downscaling/transfer of new capacities from the AGRHYMET Regional Climate Centre to National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) [1][2]. NextGen is a seasonal climate forecasting system that enables the development and dissemination of objective forecasts by combining the best dynamic models, and automates the generation and verification of objective, probabilistic, statistically-calibrated, multimodel predictions of a range of climate or impact variables [1].A key statutory function of AGRHYMET as a Regional Climate Center is to develop seasonal forecasts and organize the Regional Climate Outlook Forum (RCOF). Currently, the West Africa RCOF uses a consensusbased forecasting procedure. However, this consensual approach is subjective, in the sense that it is not easily traceable and reproducible. In addition, it does not enable the fulfillment of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) recommendation that seasonal forecast procedures be objective, traceable, and reproducible [3]. The collaborative partnership with AICCRA has offered AGRHYMET a unique opportunity to strengthen its technical capacities to implement NextGen seasonal climate forecasting systems and improve the products available on its climate portal. NextGen is a seasonal climate forecasting system that enables the development and dissemination of objective forecasts by combining the best dynamic models, and automates the generation and verification of objective, probabilistic, statistically-calibrated, multi-model predictions of a range of climate or impact variables [1]. AICCRA supported and embedded AGRHYMET capacity through a series of regional and continental capacity strengthening efforts [4][5][6]. These efforts have enabled AGRHYMET to develop a new approach for seasonal climate forecasting that is tailored to West Africa regional needs [3,7]. NextGen is fully operational at AGRHYMET and NextGen products are being used to enhance the AGRHYMET climate information portal [8].A key challenge frequently mentioned by NMHSs that limits operationalizing the NextGen approach is the lack of consideration of hydrologic parameters in the PyCPT tool, one of the tools to operationalize the NextGen approach [9]. To address this challenge, AGHRYMET has adapted the PyCPT tool for hydrological forecasting [7]. In addition, AGRHYMET now has the full technical capacity to independently train NMHSs. To date, 173 participants from 17 National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (including non-AICCRA countries) have been trained [10][11]. Some NMHSs have operationalized the NextGen approach to generate seasonal climate forecasts [9]. Overall, AICCRA engagement and capacity development on state-of-the-art forecasting systems are enabling regional and national meteorological agencies to generate timely and decision-relevant climate information for agricultural sectors.Gender relevance: 1 -Significant. About 18% (31 out of 173) of the NextGen training participants were women. [4,5,10,11] Cap Dev relevance: 2 -Principal. Through AICCRA training, AGRHYMET is now equipped to provide enhanced climate information services to West African stakeholders. AGRHYMET has also trained 17 National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) (including both AICCRA and non-AICCRA countries for spillover effect). Equip 500 million small-scale producers to be more resilient to climate shocks, with climate adaptation solutions available through national innovation systems.","tokenCount":"611"}

data/part_2/0411002695.json

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3608853dd14aee18d029cb124cc0dc02","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b96ab351-0e66-461e-8919-8b7982b32ea9/retrieve","id":"-321529194"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ca71c6cc-9093-4d2c-a0e9-b54dcfe48d38","pagecount":"4","content":"Mamadou Dembele I dentifiée par la Fédération des organisations des producteurs de banane du Mali comme une filière porteuse pour le développement économique national du pays, et dotée d'un fort potentiel de production (estimé à 35 000 t par an), la filière banane est pourtant sous-exploitée. En dépit de la position géographique favorable du Mali, différentes contraintes affectent sa production, notamment la non maîtrise des techniques appropriées. Or, la banane contribue à la sécurité alimentaire (elle représente une source substantielle de glucide) et constitue une opportunité socio-économique.L'une des préoccupations du Programme de productivité agricole en Afrique de l'Ouest (PPAAO-Mali), qui supporte la filière banane malienne depuis 2011-2012, est le développement et la diffusion de technologies en vue d'accroître la production agricole pour assurer la sécurité alimentaire et réduire la pauvreté. Aussi a-t-il initié, à l'intention des membres de la Fédération, une formation sur de nouvelles techniques de production visant à améliorer la productivité des bananerais et les revenus des producteurs. L'expérience a débuté dans le bassin de production à Koutiala (Sikasso) avant d'être étendue dans d'autres localités du cercle de Dioïla (Koulikoro).Le diagnostic effectué en 2010 par la Fédération sur la production de la banane au Mali, en particulier à Koutiala, a fait ressortir une diminution de la productivité des pieds de banane de 20 à 40 % de leur potentialité productive ces cinq dernières années due à un mode d'irrigation inapproprié, à l'apparition et au développement de la cercosporiose (une maladie de la souche de banane), et surtout à une méconnaissance de nouveaux itinéraires de production de la banane.Une formation sur ces nouveaux itinéraires a donc été mise place dans les zones de production avec pour objectifs i) d'accroître la productivité des pieds de banane en augmentant le poids des régimes des bannerais ; ii) de diminuer l'intensité de main d'oeuvre nécessaire dans les champs de banane ; iii) de permettre un développement végétatif normal du bannerais ; iv) de réduire les risques de cercosporiose ; v) et de permettre un bon murissement de la banane afin d'augmenter sa qualité organoleptique.La stratégie adoptée pour atteindre ces objectifs fut l'établissement d'un contrat de collaboration avec la Fédération des organisations des producteurs de la banane. Le chargé de la filière a dû suivre des formations en Côte d'Ivoire pour renforcer son expertise sur les nouveaux itinéraires de production.Pour améliorer la productivité des bananeraies et les revenus des producteurs de banane, la Fédération des organisations des producteurs de banane du Mali, en concertation avec le Programme de Productivité Agricole en Afrique de l'Ouest (PPAAO-Mali), a lancé un plan stratégique de développement de la filière consistant dans le renforcement des capacités de ses membres. C'est dans ce cadre que le PPAAO a initié un transfert de technologie dit « nouveaux itinéraires de production de la banane » dans le bassin de production à Koutiala (Sikasso).Couverture En plus de sa contribution à la sécurité alimentaire, la culture de la banane est un facteur de lutte contre l'exode rural et l'orpaillage en milieu rural devaient former à leur tour 80 producteurs dans les zones de production de la banane. Cette stratégie a permis de toucher un grand nombre de producteurs.L'évaluation technique menée par le Programme-Mali auprès des bénéficiaires dans le bassin de Koutiala a révélé plusieurs résultats positifs. Les 50 formateurs relais formés ont ainsi touché plus de 3 965 producteurs dans plusieurs villages. Le développement végétatif des plants de banane est désormais normal, et même excellent, ce qui permet au bananier d'arriver à maturité physiologique en huit ou neuf mois au lieu de douze mois. La combinaison des techniques (effeuillage, nettoyage, respect des écartements, etc.) a permis de passer à un rendement d'une tonne pour 25 régimes (contre moins d'une tonne pour 50 régimes auparavant). L'oeilletonnage, qui consiste à supprimer les rejets du bananier pour ne garder qu'un ou deux rejets par pieds-mère, a permis de réduire la quantité d'engrais à apporter aux plants de trois sacs à un sac et demi et d'augmenter le poids des régimes (70 régimes par t auparavant contre 30 régimes par t aujourd'hui). L'effeuillage, consistant à supprimer les feuilles mortes et celles du bas pour une meilleure aération de la bananeraie, a considérablement réduit l'infection par la cercosporiose et les grattages sur le fruit. La coupe de la fleur et la mise en place de tire-sève ont contribué à la maturité physiologique plus rapide du fruit. Le tuteurage, c'est à dire la mise en place d'une fourche de soutien afin d'empêcher les gros régimes de tomber au sol, a permis de réduire les pertes de bananes.Le nouvel itinéraire de production a permis de mettre en valeur 999 ha de surface supplémentaires.Les nouvelles techniques de production, importées de la Côte d'Ivoire, consistent à la destruction des rejets du bananier, l'effeuillage, la coupe des fleurs et la fertilisation. Elles ont été appliquées sur la banane Grande naine principalement cultivée au Mali. Cette variété a été choisie du fait de sa capacité d'adaptation aux conditions climatiques des zones de production et de son aptitude à se reproduire au champ par voie végétative (elle produit le matériel végétal, les rejets, nécessaire à la création de nouveaux plants).Pour bénéficier de cette intervention, les producteurs devaient posséder des parcelles de production et disposer d'équipements agricoles (motopompe et accessoires …), être capables de comprendre et d'appliquer les messages techniques et les conseils, se montrer motivés et disponibles. Une première séance de formation a concerné 50 formateurs relais qui La banane Grande naine a été choisie du fait de sa capacité d'adaptation aux conditions climatiques des zones de production et de son aptitude à se reproduire au champ par voie végétative.En vue d'assurer la durabilité du projet, la technique de production enseignée a été associée à la technique de plants issus de fragments de tige (PIF). Celle-ci répond au problème de vieillissement des bananeraies qui explique en partie les baisses de rendement enregistrées ces cinq dernières années et constitue un sérieux handicap pour le développement de la culture de la banane. C'est pourquoi la promotion de la technique PIF a été une innovation appréciable, accessible à tous les producteurs, même les plus petits, à moindre coût. Elle constitue une opportunité d'assurer la souveraineté semencière de la filière et de permettre une durabilité de la production de la banane au Mali.À travers les nouveaux itinéraires de production de la banane se dessinent les caractéristiques d'une nouvelle professionnalité de producteurs, et un ensemble de conditions qui définissent les traits d'une communauté apprenante et émergente dans la production de la banane au Mali. Cette communauté doit faire face à un certain nombre de défis :• Des difficultés de mobilisation de ressources financières pour amener un grand nombre de producteurs à la maitrise des nouvelles technologies de production de banane ;• L'insuffisance des mesures portant sur le renforcement de l'organisation des acteurs, la structuration de la filière, l'accès au financement, le développement des infrastructures adéquates pour une meilleure valorisation de la banane, les bonnes pratiques de gestion des eaux de surface, le développement du marché intérieur et l'amélioration de la qualité de la banane ;• De mauvaises conditions de stockage et de transport des bananes, qui contribuent pour beaucoup à l'altération de la qualité du fruit ;• La non sécurisation foncière, qui limite de plus en plus la culture de la banane aux environs des grandes villes, plus précisément dans le district de Bamako. Les terres se font rares du fait du développement de la ville et de la spéculation foncière qui atteint aujourd'hui même les villages éloignés ;• L'insuffisance de soutien matériel, financier et technique apporté aux femmes productrices de banane, celles-ci s'intéressant de plus en plus à la production de banane ;• L'insuffisance d'agents spécialisés dans le suiviaccompagnement des acteurs de la filière banane. ","tokenCount":"1286"}

data/part_2/0447361405.json

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"da1dde334c4e2b3ae214c9b53f436eee","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8b521ba3-cc75-4f55-9b32-1c2ba42fa631/retrieve","id":"-1762970835"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c9e755ba-656e-48aa-966e-bff1169b593e","pagecount":"8","content":"MAIZE is a very well structured, articulated and conceptualised CRP proposal. In general, it sets out a reasonable, achievable and important agenda for research. Following more than 30 years of maize research at CIMMYT and IITA, this proposal now brings forward a strategic, integrated and comprehensive international approach to maize research. Openness to develop collaboration with all key institutes involved in maize research is an important step forward to avoid duplicative work and thus increase efficiency and accelerate progress that builds on each partner's experience and expertise.As with CRP proposals previously approved, MAIZE has been developed without the guidance of an overarching CGIAR strategy for prioritizing research. However, maize is one of the three global food security crops, and among the three, the most dynamic in terms of demand growth, land area requirements, yield growth, and knock-on effects on land-use change. It is also very important as a food crop and as an income source to many of the world's poor. Given the projected importance of maize for achieving the broad development goals presented in the current Strategy and Results Framework, a program on maize and maize systems is justifiable. However, the expected dynamics of maize production and research have implications for this CRP as discussed below.Against the background of the CGIAR's overarching goals, the rationale of MAIZE is compelling for the research agenda presented in nine distinct but well integrated Strategic Initiatives (SI), and the overall goals are clear.Program objectives are consistent with the SRF. The program rationale is strongly based on the analysis of effects that commodity price fluctuations have on the poor and of the effects that increasing production demands have on expansion of land in maize production. The importance of maize to global food security and income for the poor is clear and increasing. In general, researchable topics are derived from careful analysis of current problems and opportunities. The nine Strategic Initiatives (SIs) constitute a comprehensive program that covers the essential aspects for enhancing sustainable productivity in maize-based systems. The regional focus of program implementation is appropriate. Working on clearly defined types of farming systems based on dominance of maize production is an effective organizing tool for this CRP, and also for delineating boundaries and linkages with other CRPs. However, given the complexity and heterogeneity of the factors affecting impact on agricultural development in these farming systems, the constraint analysis is necessarily at a very general level only. Refining and adjusting this framework with better data, analytical tools and a process of multi-stakeholder consultation should be given a high priority as this CRP develops to help adjust SI components in terms of resource allocation, objectives, geographic focus, program outcomes and impact pathways. The \"value chain\" perspective emerging in some of the SIs should more clearly influence hypothesis development and implementation of research.The proposal encompasses investments on a very broad range of activities-from increasing the efficiency of input use through smallholder precision agriculture, to molecular work on stress tolerance, to post-harvest processing. The very large agenda, squeezed into the nine SIs, and which include substantial components of continuing maize research from CIMMYT and IITA, would benefit from continuous review and prioritization. In this regard, it is positive that in most themes initial milestones include diagnostic analysis of opportunities and constraints. Strong donor influence in deciding on program orientation, which is indicated in the proposal, will challenge prioritization if based solely on the strategic framework developed for this CRP.The proposal defines two types of smallholders as the targeted beneficiary groups: (1) those in stress-prone environments with poor market access, and (2) those that are market-oriented but technology-constrained in more benign environments. The ISPC strongly believes, however, that more attention should be given to poor consumers. In many countries that are priority areas for the MAIZE proposal, urban maize consumers are a large and growing fraction of the population. However, little consideration is given to urban consumers, and especially poor urban consumers. The drivers, constraints and preferences relevant to this group are likely to be different from those relevant to the producers. Hence, the strategy should encompass consumers and other chain actors. More attention should also be placed on the dynamics between these target groups that currently are presented as very static. In many ways the proposed research that address the needs of Target Group 2 of maize producers and systems could have strong positive impact on urban consumers, but these linkages need to be considered explicitly as this CRP develops.The proposal has not sufficiently considered other dynamics that affect developing countries and even the resource poor smallholders. These include: declining importance of maize as a food relative to rice and wheat due to other drivers of demand, particularly animal feed, and possibly biofuels; effects of industrial development and multilateral trade agreements on poverty alleviation, particularly on smallholder segments of agriculture in some regions; rate of technology dispersion even in resource poor regions; synergy between research on tropical and temperate maize; role of private sector along with emerging markets in regions where Target Group 1 is prevalent, including its effects on seed market evolution where clear patterns of mergers and acquisitions can be observed due to takeovers of small local seed companies by much larger national and multinational companies. From a strategic viewpoint these trends must be recognized, understood, and addressed in subsequent priority setting and adjustment across SIs.The proposal is very clearly directed at delivery and impact, which are discussed for each SI. There is a clear description of outputs, outcomes, and milestones. In most SIs there is reference to earlier and current work done at CIMMYT in particular, but also at IITA, and in several cases both lessons learned and progress are explained, which supports the feasibility of the proposed milestones. Impact estimates are presented at the intermediate (first order) level, which is useful. These targets are, however, quite opaque because the baseline levels are not defined or quantified. Subsequently is it not easy to assess the feasibility of monitoring progress. While we commend the attempted ex ante impact analysis, the quantifications are not convincing, and we would like to see a discussion of how these numbers were arrived at. Perhaps most important, the outcomes and impacts on poor urban consumers should be included in the analysis, Furthermore, it would to evaluate the differential effect of different maize technology and/or policy interventions. We therefore encourage further development and refinement of this ex ante impact assessment methodology as a tool for continued improvement in prioritizing the research agenda as this CRP develops.A stronger a program-level theory of change should be developed, including the underlying assumptions and definitions of expected innovations, and HOW the program intends to achieve its objectives through the multi-institutional innovation systems. The proposal provides reasonably appropriate assumptions about risks although more thorough sensitivity analysis is needed of key assumptions that strongly affect likelihood of outcomes.For germplasm, impacts appear to be based on an assumption that pathways are relatively straightforward. However, generating impact from genetic improvement of crops and livestock that benefit poor farmers in resource constrained environments has been difficult due to a number of constraints. Several of these bottle necks are recognized; for instance capacity and risk aversion preventing adoption of improved varieties, but a more thorough analysis is recommended.Despite discussion of outcomes at the SI level, the proposal lacks a clear and coherent strategy for program-level outcomes beyond the sum of individual SI outputs. While objectives from all nine SIs can be justified as having significant potential to achieve impacts contribute to one or more SRF SLOs, only a small portion of these are likely to be widely adopted to provide significant quantifiable impact on smallholder target groups. This is especially true for improved germplasm where downstream constraints to adoption are many, especially in harsh environments. For example, identification of hybrids is left to NARS and Local Seed Companies-the latter of variable and declining quality following two decades of acquisition by multinationals looking to purchase high quality local companies. Thus a relatively well designed research program has a risk at the results management and delivery end, particularly regarding stock seed maintenance, hybrid seed production.It is commendable the Proposal recognizes the limited economic value of open pollinated maize even for resource poor smallholders and thus emphasizes the need for hybrid research and development. That, however, is more demanding, particularly at the delivery end. An effective delivery and outcome-oriented strategy for hybrids would need to better align the levels from up-stream research to delivery encompassing the following: (i) a strategy and concept for breeding product development, including acquisition of the necessary genetic components for prioritized traits and development of stocks and improved, appropriately adapted hybrids; (ii) support to NARS for regional and national breeding and evaluation; and (iii) support of local seed companies for quality control in seed multiplication and delivery. Management needs to support these linkages through capacity review among inhouse teams and partners. Policies, markers and financial services will also affect achievement of outcomes.The more upstream research is presented as having high potential for improving the efficiency and precision of germplasm improvement. For several advancements clear timelines are presented. It would be useful to identify also the risks associated to this research. In some cases the time lines seem too ambitious (breeder-ready markers for largeeffect QTLs for biotic stress resistance, efficient incorporation in adapted backgrounds of at least two transgenes for drought or nitrogen use efficiency, acid-, waterlogging-and heattolerant hybrids in advanced validation/PVS testing), and with SI8 (seeds of discovery) the outcomes may require a much longer time line. Some components of the program could be considered as too ambitious. Areas such as production systems (with innovation systems focus), precision agriculture and post harvest are relatively new to CGIAR maize research and represent risks in terms of finding the needed research skills, as well as new partners to adapt the new approaches to local conditions and formulate impact pathways. Pathways for these innovations will be quite different than the better understood impact pathways for germplasm. With SI2 the estimated impacts are very large by 2020-2030 considering the types of deliverables from the initiative (information, decision guides, and methods), unless there is a chain of other interventions enabled by the SI delivery. Some overlap can be seen between SI3 (sustainable intensification) and SI5 (double yield) and given the relatively small resource allocation to SI3 and what has earlier been said about enhancing focus on program outputs and outcomes, these two SIs could be merged. The CRP's process monitoring and impact assessment includes appropriate dimensions. Participatory reviews of milestones in each region and SI is commendable, and plans for quality monitoring involving partners and a learning loop (for instance for research and service delivery) can be further strengthened. However, plans for identification of performance metrics should be refined in concert with other CRPs, and in consultation with the Consortium. Good metrics should provide input to assessment and review of SIs and SI components, and such evaluations should foster incentives for high quality research and accountability for donors and stakeholders. Thus purely quantitative indicators for shortterm performance (p. 57) do not seem appropriate except for internal recording.The program proposes partnerships that span well into adaptive research and locally integrated approaches, local capacity building and scaling up. In these activities the Centers' role is bridging and supportive. There are indications that in the broad consultations that have preceded development of the proposal, regional and NARS priorities have been incorporated into the international agenda.Plans to address gender issues and inclusion of women as participants are systematically included for each SI. However, the research to address women's constraints is not well considered. For example, recognition of women's workload and drudgery are not considered although they have multiple implications, for instance in conservation tillage that often requires additional manual weeding and other labor requirements that can be constraints to adoption. More consideration should be put on technological interventions that have the potential to benefit women. Capacity building needs are identified in SI-specific contexts, which are appropriate, and training activities are planned in considerable detail. However, capacity building strategies could be strengthened with inclusion of institutional capacity and support for regional coordination.Baseline studies are included in plans to facilitate ex post impact assessment. However, because much of this CRP represents continuation of long-term maize research, adoption studies and ex post impact assessment on earlier work should also continue.The germplasm research and breeding approaches appear sound and include several innovative components. The track record of partners in these areas is also of high science quality. SI8 and 9 capture well the opportunities from advanced genomics and phenotyping. Much of this work has been advanced in the Generation Challenge Program (GCP) and can benefit from continuous cereal-wide collaboration within the CGIAR. General lists of methods, outstanding innovations (for instance in SI8 they are highly relevant) and partners give a good indication of quality research. Lists of references for each SI, and lessons learnt in Part 2 are very useful. Both novel, high-potential and proven research approaches and methods are used in a balanced way; for instance exploring intra-specific untapped genetic diversity but, at the same time, identifying opportunities for using transformation in particular situations (page 61). The ISPC supports the CRP's strategy and rationale for transgenic maize, which is the predominant transgenic crop globally. However, a necessary innovation regarding this technology is development of new and creative ways (science and policy based) to empower the international and national research systems to develop and distribute such technologies with the necessary degrees of freedom.In some cases there is clearly scope for improving quality. For instance, the reference upon which estimates of climate change impact on maize yields is very weak. In fact, improving capacity to estimate impact of climate change on future maize yields in developing countries should be a high priority and will require collaboration with CRP7. Another area of concern is the lack of minimum datasets (particularly on various biophysical parameters) to support research on SIs 2, 3 and 5. Specifications for baseline data collection, including suitable data to allow tracking farming system performance, should be included as a matter of priority. Attention should be given to how performance benchmarks can be measured and monitored at reasonable cost and accuracy, and how data collection and data use in monitoring can be made coherent across all CRPs for similar components. In addition to methods and accumulated benchmark data that have IPG nature, the proposal should be more explicit about the IPGs that are generated from SIs 2, 3 and 5.Although, on one hand, partners for state-of-the-art genomics and phenotyping are already identified and committed in collaborative projects; and, on the other hand, the Centers and partners hold well maintained maize genetic collections, it is the breeding, testing and scaling-up capacities, and their links with seed production systems, that will make the difference at regional and local levels for generating economic and social impacts. This has been discussed above. The CRP cannot lose sight of this aspect in the process of making research products available to national agricultural systems. Thus stakeholder involvement, particularly in ex ante analysis (SI1) and in SI3 focusing on closing the yield gap, is important. In aiming to double maize productivity for poor farmers (SI5) and some components of influencing policies (SI1), managing deliverables and attracting partners among stakeholders need to come together. Establishing clear rules for the use of intellectual property is essential for generating incentives and trust.The program is not particular elaborate regarding social science research, which is not especially innovative. Social science is essential in several SIs, and SI1 is designed to address targeting, institutional innovations and markets. Economics needs to be more prominent. Linkages with CRP2 could be stronger and more explicit.The partnerships are comprehensive, there is a strong framework defining the kinds of partners that provide value to each of the SIs, and partner linkages are defined for SIs. The proposal enlists support of dozens of the world's leading research institutions over a broad spectrum to leverage international resources as much as possible. Management of these partnerships is less clear. In fact, the large number of partners (>300) represents a challenge to management at different levels, particularly if there is frequent turnover among partners. Likewise, the number of institutions involved seems far in excess of the number that could be effectively coordinated. The question of what research takes place inside the MAIZE collaboration and what takes place outside the collaboration could end up being quite complicated.Therefore, the partnership strategy needs to be very clear. Particular challenges and opportunities of working with the big five multinational seed companies should be clearly analyzed, given that maize is a crop in which the private sector is spending at least 10 times what this CRP will spend. Private sector linkages are important regarding genome sequencing but the Program needs to be prepared to negotiate handling of restrictions to secure benefits from these partnerships. Intellectual property rights (IPR) issues are relevant for most of the SIs and the arrangements should be clear and transparent regarding final products and generating and publishing new knowledge. In networks there are plans to provide some exclusivity for partners to provide incentives. The conditions for such exclusivity agreements need to be clear. The concept of \"pre-competitive ag-commons\" and developing of \"open-source\" technology exchange and breeding practices is innovative and highly commendable.Links to other CRPs are discussed but there are more opportunities for MAIZE to leverage other CRPs. For example, CRP2 has considerable work on input and output markets and risk management, and these are major issues for maize in Africa. In countries where maize is the major food staple, the maize CRP should be able to partner with CRP2 as the lead CRP. Similarly, CRP4 (nutrition and health), once established could assume the lead on quality maize research and research on maize mycotoxins. Closer partnership with CRP7 (Climate Change) would also be beneficial. Collaboration both in planning and implementing components that address research production and innovation systems will be important. However, in management of all the cross-dimensional partnerships (MAIZE partners and CRP partners) transaction costs need to be controlled.The proposal is frank in its partnership risk assessment in stating that intended partner engagement depends significantly on availability of funding and other factors, such as dependence on restricted funding which could shift attention from the big picture due to sporadic partner engagement, and disturb the research dynamic thus leading to waste of resources. The capacity of NARS, and local seed companies also poses a potential risk and may require change of strategy. Risk analysis should thus be strengthened both at SI and Program levels.The CRP3.2 is dominated by the lead-center, CIMMYT, which is reflected also in the projected contribution from CIMMYT. No other partner has a comparable role in this CRP. Unlike GRiSP, the planning of which started some years before agreement of the CRP structure, MAIZE is a product of the reform. The CGIAR community can expect that the MAIZE partnership will foster future fruitful collaboration of CIMMYT and IITA, and management should support this aspiration. The current proposal does not show how this collaboration could be considered in designing program management. CRP management support receives little attention and only one staff is identified (to take care of the Web portal). CRP management expenses are described as an onerous affliction. The Management Committee includes relevant directors and representative of the research primary partners (three other organizations currently considered in addition to CIMMYT and IITA). Program management is, however, closely held by the lead-center. The ISPC would argue such tight control is not a good framework for management and governance of a multi-partner program in an increasingly collaborative funding environment. Aggregation of control exceeds the level needed to control risks related to the lead Center's legal and fiduciary responsibilities. Although half of the CRP management budget is allocated to knowledge management, monitoring and evaluation but the grounds for these budget estimates are not explained.The budget presentation indicates that CIMMYT's contribution is a very large part of the overall budget. While projections through 2013 are more speculative, the relative size of CIMMYT's role compared to that of IITA continues to track in a relatively constant manner. It is also projected that a large proportion of funding will come from bilateral sources. The associated influence of those bilateral donors is a concern if their priorities are not consistent with the strategic framework and this CRP.The CRP also lacks a strong mechanism for independent oversight and evaluation. There will be an Oversight Committee, but there are no details of how it will be elected. However, the Oversight Committee fulfil the role of independent oversight under the following conditions: A mechanism by which \"at large\" members (those not representing participating Centers or primary research partners) can be nominated and appointed in a manner not wholly influenced or controlled by the lead Center,  A greater number of at large than representative members  Term limits or a similar mechanism that provides for turnover among at large members and encourages individual performance  A committee chair that is nominated from among the committee members and serves for a fixed term  The authority to commission periodic external evaluations of the CRP, including its management and governanceThe ISPC therefore strongly recommends that the Oversight Committee be established according to these conditions.","tokenCount":"3548"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"857f41221f359303b0705cc9c5eb54e8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cff83285-cc7f-4513-b561-a0457e847724/retrieve","id":"-2008100276"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"877c4a36-8a60-4422-94db-dd69711d99fc","pagecount":"34","content":"Through action research and development partnerships, Africa RISING is creating opportunities for smallholder farm households to move out of hunger and poverty through sustainably intensified farming systems that improve food, nutrition, and income security, particularly for women and children, and conserve or enhance the natural resource base.For West Africa to be self-sufficient in food production, the need to adopt sustainable intensification (SI) approach is urgent. Low productivity across all farming systems is the major challenge for the region's agriculture. The major factors responsible for the low productivity include land degradation, low soil fertility, climate variability and poor adoption of improved technologies.The farm household scale is the focal domain for Africa RISING's SI investments and activities. This is the scale at which household production decisions, gender, nutrition issues, household welfare as well as soil health and productivity issues operate. Research activities at this scale focus on understanding household needs and incentives that support effective evaluation, adoption, and adaptation of the most relevant interventions.The program co-develops with partners and shares with end-user soil and water conservation technologies on cowpea in mixed farming systems. Beyond soil and water conservation, field observations in recent years have revealed that farmer planning, including timing of planting and agronomic management practices, is often haphazard. However, if planned well it offers numerous dividends such as early crop vigor, drought avoidance, tolerance to pests and diseases. This reference manual on soil and water conservation also complements training of extension agents and development partners on use of crop planning matrix for improved crop productivity, thus developing both human and institutional capacity. It has been prepared as a practical guide to help farmers produce crops sustainably. This user-friendly soil and water conservation manual was made possible with support from the American people delivered through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of the US Government's Feed the Future Initiative. The contents are the responsibility of the producing organization and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of USAID or the U.S. Government. The three regional projects are led by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (in West Africa and East and Southern Africa) and the International Livestock Research Institute (in the Ethiopian Highlands). The International Food Policy Research Institute leads the program's monitoring, evaluation, and impact assessment.The Africa RISING Program in West Africa aims at creating opportunities for smallholder farm households to move out of hunger and poverty. Sustainably intensification (SI) farming systems approach is used to conserve the land resource base to improve food, nutrition, and income security, particularly for women and children. It is now known that Soil and water conservation practices ensure that the land resource base is protected from degradation. However, the practices are not easy to implement on the field especially on mixed farming systems. This field manual is designed to assist Africa Rising Farmers practice soil and water conservation in mixed farming systems. These include the use of grassed waterways, erosion control methods, soil fertility improvement, crop-livestock systems, mixed cropping systems for optimum use of soil water at different soil depths.Climate smart soil and water conservation practices provide scalable SI innovation packages that improve sustainability, resilience, and equity in most farming systems. Training of farmers in Soil and water conservation Farmer Field schools enhances quick adoption of practices. This improves crop productivity (yield), economic profitability (crop sales), environment sustainability (reduced soil erosion, drought stress and improve soil fertility) and social conditions (improved nutrition).The manual targets extension and farmers. It covers aspects like knowing the soil and terrain that farmers work on. Features of erosion peculiar to farm fields. The soil texture and depth are important for characterizing potential soil moisture retention. Therefore, simple identification of soil texture has been illustrated. Contouring using A-Frame has been illustrated including composting and some methods to regenerate soil fertility. Cowpea living mulch in mixed farming system has been used for most of the illustrations.      Chapter 2: Know your terrainIt is appropriate to know your terrain. Best farmlands are generally flat or gently sloping. Note that most fields in Northern Ghana slope in multiple directions. To understand your terrain:��� Move round the field and observe erosion features on the soil surface (Figure 2.1a).• Identify the direction and level of slope as flat, steep, and gentle (Figure 2.3).• Use A-frame to determine master contour (Figure 2.4).  Use the line level to determine your slope as following:• Hold the two sticks vertically upright with the first stick placed at the starting point.• Stretch the string tightly between the two sticks.• Move the second stick along the direction of slope.• Move the string of the second graduated stick up until the bubble in the spirit-level indicates level. This gives the difference in height of the two (2) positions. • The height difference divided by the distance between the two sticks indicate the slope. To control soil erosion typical of Africa RISING farmers' fields in Ghana, the difference in land level between contour lines should be 0.3 -0.5 m. The following procedure should be adopted to establish the master contour and other subsequent contours.• Position your master contour in the middle of the field.• Use Line-Level to establish the master contour by stretching the string tightly between the two sticks across the slope. • Move the string of the second graduated stick up until the bubble in the spirit-level is at the centre. • Put a peg and continue.• Re-align zigzag pegs to smooth out the master contour.• Other contour lines should be established at the same distance upslope and downslope.Using A-frame to determine master contour.Alternatively, A-Frame can establish the master contour (Figure 2.4).• At the middle of the field, position the A-Frame and put a peg for the first point.• Swing the second leg slowly across the slope until the plumb line is at the center of marked line. • The two (2) points are at the same level so put a second peg.• Place the first leg at the second peg and swing the second leg to determine the next level. • Continue the process to the edge of the field.• Re-align zigzag pegs to smooth out the master contour.• Other contour lines should be established at the same distance upslope and downslope.Chapter 3: Agronomic soil and water conservationEffective soil and water conservation is a combination of a number of technologies. These may be classified as agronomic (Figures 3.1 and 3.2), crop management (Figure 3.3).The natural process of decay tends to change organic wastes into humus-like material usually called compost. Figure 3.1 shows preparation of compost. From soil and water resilience perspective, it can be used to improve soil fertility by: • Providing organic matter to the soil and improving capacity for nutrient retention.• Increasing soil water holding capacity and reducing soil erosion.Choose a site under shade close to the house and dig a pit about one (1) cubic meter. ii.Collect biodegradable materials and separate them into their components. Start the foundation with chopped maize/cowpea straw, animal beddings or leaves. ii.Sprinkle water and wood ash. iii.Add manure and repeat the process until pit is almost full. iv.Sprinkle urea or sulfate of ammonia if available. v.Cover with soil and sprinkle some water. vi.After 14 to 20 days open the pit and remove wastes layer by layer. vii.Re-pile the layers with the first layer at the bottom followed by the second layer in that order and cover with soil. viii.After 40 to 45 days, the compost is ready to use.  No-till mixed farming using maize and cowpea-living mulch • No-till is planting on unprepared land by opening narrow slits for seed coverage.Weeds may be controlled by using herbicides. Mixed cropping is planting different crops on the same piece of land.• Cultivate the soil and sow one main crop of longer duration.• Intersperse the main cover crop with crops of intermediate maturity periods.Suitability: Fields prone to sheet and rill erosion.• Provides maximum soil cover but exploits nutrients and soil water at different layers of the soil. • Provides food for household at different periods in the growing season.• Provides maximum soil cover.• Exploits nutrients and soil water at different layers of the soil.• Natural soil fertility is regenerated.This approach prevents water from causing damage by reducing runoff speed. This tends to conserve water and control runoff. The major limitation is the high cost of construction and the need for technical support. These include:• Earth and stone bunds (Figure 4.1).• Alternating beds/bunds and drainage channels (Figure 4.2).• Terracing (Figure 4.3).• Vegetated waterways (Figure 4.4). Stone bunds are piled stones parallel to the master contour at specific distances. Cropping is carried out within the inter-contour bunds. Earth bunds can be used.• Use A-Frame or line level to establish the master contour.• Determine the number of rows of the intended crops.• Arrange the stone barriers before and after the number of rows crop.Suitability: Stony areas.• Soil water storage is improved.• The stones trap soil particles and decomposed organic matter.Chapter 5: Cropping calendar for cereal-legume mixed cropping systems Onset and cessation of rains is very important for cropping calendar of Africa RISING farmers. The cropping calendar begins with land preparation, planting, fertilizer application, weeding, harvesting and fallow period. The cropping is interspersed/separated with drought depending on soil water requirements of the intended crop. Figure 5.1 presents the general cropping calendar for maize, groundnut, soybean, and cowpea in Northern Ghana for planning cereal-maize mixed farming systems. ","tokenCount":"1558"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7a807adde681d0102f43276bbed9646d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0330146e-4a21-4ba6-abee-f733dc27da49/retrieve","id":"1859450176"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"07f5f993-a3d2-485e-83b2-fd7838066378","pagecount":"2","content":"Description of the innovation: The IRRI Rice Quality Assessment Kit consists of a set of various tools that help measuring one or several paddy, milled rice or seed quality traits. It is intended to be used in postharvest and other quality related training courses but several of the kits have already been purchased by millers and other value chain actors to help them in their daily tasks too. It is used globally by millers, extension workers, etc. New Innovation: No Innovation type: Production systems and Management practices Stage of innovation: Stage 4: uptake by next user (USE) Geographic Scope: Global Number of individual improved lines/varieties: <Not Applicable> Outcome Impact Case Report: <Not Defined> Description of Stage reached:The IRRI Rice Quality Assessment Kit is available in the second half of 2019 from GrainPro Inc.; several of the kits have already been purchased by millers and other value chain actors to help them in their daily tasks too. There is a continuous flow of inquiries for the kit.","tokenCount":"166"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d4539e25ea5b3ba22cf83529701e6f03","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/b7c641a9-004c-44d0-bcaf-fbc05581a344/content","id":"2084663625"},"keywords":["Solanum tuberosum","genomic prediction in potato","genomic × environment interaction","multienvironment modeling","multiple trait modeling","single-environment modeling","single-trait modeling"],"sieverID":"d30b036a-11ba-4b4a-bd87-1b8f1ca72945","pagecount":"13","content":"In this study, we extend research on genomic prediction (GP) to polysomic polyploid plant species with the main objective to investigate single-trait (ST) and multitrait (MT) multienvironment (ME) models using field trial data from 3 locations in Sweden [Helgegården (HEL), Mosslunda (MOS), Umeå (UM)] over 2 years (2020, 2021)  of 253 potato cultivars and breeding clones for 5 tuber weight traits and 2 tuber flesh quality characteristics. This research investigated the GP of 4 genome-based prediction models with genotype × environment interactions (GEs): (1) ST reaction norm model (M1), (2) ST model considering covariances between environments (M2), (3) ST M2 extended to include a random vector that utilizes the environmental covariances (M3), and (4) MT model with GE (M4). Several prediction problems were analyzed for each of the GP accuracy of the 4 models. Results of the prediction of traits in HEL, the high yield potential testing site in 2021, show that the best-predicted traits were tuber flesh starch (%), weight of tuber above 60 or below 40 mm in size, and the total tuber weight. In terms of GP, accuracy model M4 gave the best prediction accuracy in 3 traits, namely tuber weight of 40-50 or above 60 mm in size, and total tuber weight, and very similar in the starch trait. For MOS in 2021, the best predictive traits were starch, weight of tubers above 60, 50-60, or below 40 mm in size, and the total tuber weight. MT model M4 was the best GP model based on its accuracy when some cultivars are observed in some traits. For the GP accuracy of traits in UM in 2021, the best predictive traits were the weight of tubers above 60, 50-60, or below 40 mm in size, and the best model was MT M4, followed by models ST M3 and M2.Genomic prediction (GP) and selection (GS) have changed the paradigm of plant and animal breeding (Meuwissen et al. 2001;de los Campos et al. 2009;Crossa et al. 2010Crossa et al. , 2011;;Desta and Ortiz 2014). Practical evidence has shown that GS provides important increases in prediction accuracy for genomic-aided breeding (Pérez-Rodríguez et al. 2012;Crossa et al. 2014Crossa et al. , 2017)). Additive genetic effects (breeding values) can be predicted directly from parametric and semi-parametric statistical models using marker effects like the ridge regression best linear unbiased prediction (Endelman 2011), or by developing the genomic relationship inear kernel matrix (G) to fit the genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP;VanRaden 2008). Departures from linearity can be assessed by semi-parametric approaches, such as Reproducing Kernel Hilbert Space regression using the Gaussian kernel (GK) or different types of neural networks (Gianola et al. 2006;Gianola and Van Kaam 2008;de los Campos et al. 2010;González-Camacho et al. 2012;Pérez-Rodríguez et al. 2012;Gianola et al. 2014;Sousa et al. 2017).Standard GP models were extended to multienvironment (ME) data by assessing genomic × environment interaction (GE; Burgueño et al. 2012). Jarquín et al. (2014) proposed an extension of the GBLUP or random effects model, where the main effects of markers and environmental covariates could be introduced using covariance structures that are functions of marker genotypes and environments. Consistently, GP accuracy substantially increased when incorporating GE and marker × environment interaction (Crossa et al. 2017). Cuevas et al. (2016) and Sousa et al. (2017) applied the marker × environment interaction GS model of Lopez-Cruz et al. (2015), but modeled not only through the standard GBLUP but also through a nonlinear GK like that used by de los Campos et al. (2010) and a GK with the bandwidth estimated through an empirical Bayesian method (Pérez-Elizalde et al. 2015). Cuevas et al. (2016) concluded that the higher prediction accuracy of GK models with the GE model is due to more flexible kernels that allow accounting for small, more complex marker main effects and marker-specific interaction effects.In GP, the training set usually includes a sufficient overlap of lines across environments, so that estimating the phenotypic covariance among environments for modeling GE is sufficient to specify it on the linear mixed model used. When modeling GE, some researchers used the mathematical operation defined by the Kronecker products or direct product (Cuevas et al. 2016) that allows operations of 2 matrices of different dimensions. Other authors model GE using the matrix operation named Hadamard products (also known as element-wise products), which is a binary operation between 2 matrices of the same dimensions as the operands (Jarquín et al. 2014;Lopez-Cruz et al. 2015;Acosta-Pech et al. 2017;Perez-Rodriguez et al. 2017;Sukumaran et al. 2017;Basnet et al. 2019). When modeling epistasis, Hadamard products of the additive genomic relationship have mainly been used (e.g. Jiang and Reif 2015;Martini et al. 2016;Vitezica et al. 2017;Varona et al. 2018;Martini et al. 2020). However, Burgueño et al. (2007) have used Kronecker products for modeling and the estimation of additive, additive × environment interaction, additive × additive epistasis, and additive × additive × environment interactions by means of the coefficient of parentage. In a recent study, Martini et al. (2020) gave theoretical proof that both methods lead to the same covariance model when used with some specific design matrices and illustrated how to explicitly model the interaction between markers, temperature, and precipitation.Traditionally, GP models have evolved from the singletrait (ST) and single-environment prediction (ST-SE) models to ST-ME models including GE. Furthermore, standard GS-assisted plant breeding models are concerned with the assessment of the GP accuracy of a multitrait (MT) measured in a single environment (MT-SE) or MT-MEs. In general, MT GP models have evolved from MT-SE to MT-ME. The MT models are keys for improving prediction accuracy in GS because they offer benefits regarding the ST models when the traits under study are correlated. Most existing models for GP are the ST models although the MT models have several advantages over the ST (Montesinos-López et al. 2019). Compared with ST, MT can simultaneously exploit the correlation between cultivar and traits and thus improve the accuracy of GP as they are computationally more efficient than ST (Montesinos-López et al. 2019). When the traits are correlated, MT models improve parameter estimates and prediction accuracy as compared to ST models (Schulthess et al. 2018;Calus and Veerkamp 2011;Jiang and Jannink 2012;Montesinos-López et al. 2016, 2019;He et al. 2016). With the continuous growth of computational power, MT models play an increasingly important role in data analysis in plant and animal genomic−aided breeding for selecting the best candidate genotypes.The use of MT models is not as widespread as the use of ST models because of several factors such as, among others, lack of efficient and friendly software, and not enough computational resources. Likewise, MT models have more complex GEs that make it difficult to assess and achieve MT model assumptions. Furthermore, MT models have more problems of convergence than ST models. Some models have been proposed for MT GP, e.g. MT mixed models and their Bayesian version. Bayesian MT genomic best linear unbiased predictor and MT models under artificial deep neural networks were applied to maize and wheat data sets (Montesinos-López et al. 2018, 2019). However, most researchers use MT models to improve prediction accuracy for traits to be predicted (i.e. the prediction set)-which are tedious and timeconsuming to measure and have low heritability-by using a few traits (i.e. the training set) with high heritability that are highly correlated with the former prediction set (Jiang and Jannink 2012;Semagn et al. 2022).It is widely recognized that from the statistical and quantitative genetics perspectives, when data on MTs are available, the preferred models are the MT as they can account for correlations between phenotypic traits in the training set because borrowing information from correlated traits increases GP accuracy. Montesinos-López et al. (2022) investigated Bayesian MT kernel methods for GP and illustrated the power of linear, Gaussian, polynomial, and sigmoid kernels. The authors compared these kernels with the conventional ridge regression and GBLUP MT models. Montesinos-López et al. (2022) showed that, in general, but not always, the GK method outperformed conventional Bayesian ridge and GBLUP MT in terms of GP prediction performance. These authors concluded that the improvement in terms of prediction performance of the Bayesian MT kernel method can be attributed to the proposed model being able to capture nonlinear patterns more efficiently than linear MT models. Semagn et al. (2022) were interested in comparing prediction accuracy estimates of a subset of lines that have been tested for an ST, with a subset of lines that have not been tested for certain proportion traits (MT1, certain cultivars were not tested for any of the traits), and a subset of lines that have been tested for some traits but not for other traits (MT2) across different bread wheat genetic backgrounds for agronomic traits of varying genetic architecture evaluated under conventional and organic management systems, and several host plant resistance traits evaluated in adult plants under standard field management. Their results show that the predictive ability of the MT2 model was significantly greater than that of the ST and MT1 models for most of the traits and populations, except common bunt, with the MT1 model being intermediate between them, thus demonstrating the high potential of the MT models in improving prediction accuracy.Although most GP research for ST and MT for SE or ME has been applied to diploid species, a recent study by Ortiz et al. (2022) demonstrated the increase in prediction accuracy of ST-ME over the ST-SE genomic-estimated breeding values for several tetrasomic potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) breeding clones and released cultivars for various traits evaluated in several sites for 1 year. Ortiz et al. (2022) considered 4 dosages of marker alleles (A) pseudo-diploid; (B) additive tetrasomic polyploidy, and (C) additive-nonadditive tetrasomic polyploidy, and B + C dosages together in the genome-based prediction models using the conventional linear GBLUP (GB) and the nonlinear GK for ST-SE and ST-ME together. Results show that GK did not show any clear advantage over GB, and ST-ME had prediction accuracy estimates higher than those obtained from ST-SE. The model with GB was the best method in combination with the marker structures C or B + C for predicting most of the tuber traits. Most of the traits gave relatively high prediction accuracy under this combination of marker structure C or (B + C) and methods GB and GK combined with ST-ME including the GE model.Based on the above considerations, and the need to extend research on GP to polysomic polyploid plant species, the main objectives of this research were to investigate ST vs MT for ME (GE) models using trial data from 3 locations [namely Helgegården (HEL), Mosslunda (MOS), and Umeå (UM)] over 2 years (2020,2021) of 253 potato cultivars and breeding clones, which were also included by Ortiz et al. (2022). In this study, we will use only the genomic relationship matrix obtained from the additivenonadditive tetrasomic polyploidy (C), because using this genomic relations matrix in terms of GP accuracy was found to be one with the best GP accuracy (Ortiz et al. 2022). This research investigated the GP of 4 genome-based prediction models including either Hadamard or Kronecker product matrices for assessing GE: (1) the conventional reaction norm model incorporating GE with Hadamard product (Jarquín et al. 2014) (2) GE model considering covariances between environments, similar to the model employed by Burgueño et al. (2012) or the GE with Kronecker product (M2); (3) GE model 2 including a random vector that attempts to more efficiently utilize the environmental covariances as in Cuevas et al. (2017) or a GE with Kronecker product (M3); and (4) an MT model with GE as in Montesinos-López et al. (2022), but including a GE model that joins Hadamard and Kronecker products (M4). Several prediction problems were analyzed for the GP accuracy of each of the 4 models. We investigated the prediction set of locations in the year 2021 from locations in the year 2020 using the 4 GP models combined with 2 of the prediction sets (100 and 70%) and predicting ST and MT.The MT experiments included 256 potato breeding clones and cultivars in trials at HEL, MOS, and UM. Their list is provided by Ortiz et al. (2022)   (Ortiz et al., 2020), while the cultivars are a sample of those released and grown in Europe during the last 200 years. HEL and MOS are near Kristianstad (56°01′ 46″N 14°09′24″E, Skåne, southern Sweden), while UM (63°49′30″N 20°15′50″E) is in the north of Sweden.An incomplete block design (simple lattice) with 2 replications of 10 plants each was the field layout for the field trials across testing sites. Fungicides were only used in HEL to avoid late blight caused by the oomycete Phytophthora infestans throughout the growing season, thus allowing tuber yield potential to be estimated at this site. Crop husbandry was used for potato farming at each site.Total tuber yield per plot (kg), tuber weight by size (<40, 40-50, 50-60, >60 mm; kg), while tuber flesh starch was measured as a percentage based on specific gravity after harvest. Reducing sugars in the tuber flesh after harvest was determined using potato glucose strip tests (Mann et al. 1991). Host plant resistance to late blight was evaluated using the area under the disease progress curve in MOS.After sampling using 4 leaf punches for each of the 256 breeding clones and cultivars included in the experiments, the materials were sent by AgriTech-Intertek ScanBi Diagnostics (Alnarp, Sweden) to Diversity Array Technology Pty Ltd (ACT, Australia) for targeted genotyping following a genotype-by-sequencing approach (https://www.diversityarrays.com/technology-andresources/targeted-genotyping/). More than 2,000 singlenucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) were used for genotyping. They derived mostly from SolCAP SNPs based on chromosome positions and MAF > 0.05 in germplasm from the Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP, Lima, Perú) and the United States of America. According to Selga et al. (2021), such a number of SNPs seems to be enough for researching GEBVs without losing information. Although there were very few missing genotyping data (0.1%), one breeding clone (97) and 2 cultivars (\"Leyla\" and \"Red Lady\") were not included further in the analysis because they were lacking enough SNP data.We briefly described the method used for codifying the molecular X matrix proposed by Slater et al. (2016) and used one of the options used by Ortiz et al. (2022) in the genomic-enabled prediction models.For coding matrix X, according to Slater et al. (2016), we considered additive and nonadditive effects in a full tetrasomic polyploid assuming each genotype, has its own effect. In this case, there were 5 possible (AAAA, AAAB, AABB, ABBB, BBBB) effects per SNP marker, coding 0, and 1, for the absence or presence of the genotype, respectively, in each of the 5 cases. For each SNP marker, exists 5 columns on X coding the presence or absence of the genotype. Then the genomic relationship between individuals j, k was computed aswhere M was the number of markers × 5, x ji represents the code of the absence or presence of the genotype from column ith of individual jth, and p i is the frequency of each genotype, i.e. the frequency in each column. To compute the diagonal of this matrix, we used:The standard reaction norm model incorporating GE (Jarquín et al. 2014), as shown below, explains the variation of the observations of a ST in each of the m environments (ME) represented by the vector y = (y ′ 1 , . . . , y ′ i , . . . y ′ m ) ′ by estimating each mean of the environment observations μ E , plus the prediction of the main genetic effects g and the prediction of the interaction random effects G × E represented by vector ge, the unexplained variation or random errors are represented by vector ɛ.where y is a column vector of size n T × 1, Considering n T as the sum of the number of observations in each environment. The incidence matrix Z E relates the observations to the mean of the environments. The random genetic vector of main effects g follows a multivariate normal distribution N(0, σ 2 g Z g KZ ′ g ) where σ 2 g is the variance component of g, Z g is an incidence matrix that relates the observations with the K matrix of genomic relations between the clones. In our study, K was computed as previously indicated for the case of a full tetrasomic genomic relationship matrix. The random vector of interaction effects ge follows a multivariate nor-, where σ 2 ge is the variance component, # denotes the Hadamard product, and E is a matrix of relationship between environments (in our case, an identity matrix is considered) such that Z E EZ ′ E is a block diagonal matrix with 1 s for all pairs of observations in the same environment and 0 s otherwise. This implies that the estimation of the effects ge is independent in each environment. Random errors ε are considered with homogeneous variance, that is, ε ∼ N(0, σ 2 ε I). This model is flexible because it allows predicting different numbers of clones in different environments or even predicting the entire environment. However, when the correlations between the environments are not positive, the GE model with the Hadamard product does not explain the phenotype variation well enough (Lopez-Cruz et al. 2015), because the model does not incorporate genomic covariances between environments.Based on Burgueño et al. (2012), the GP model including GE considered the genomic covariances between environments to attempt improving the GP accuracy of unobserved environments. In M2, we considered only one trait (ST) and MEs, but the main effect of genomic and the GE interaction effects are modeled jointly by using a single vector u assuming a multivariate normal distribution that considers the genomic covariances between environments. One form of this model iswhere the genetic random effects can be modeled as a normal dis-where U E is a matrix of genomic covariances between the environments of size m × m to be estimated, and ⊗ indicates the Kronecker product. The random errors are modeled as ε ∼ N(0, Σ ⊗ I), where matrix Σ is a diagonal matrix of size m × m, that has on its diagonal the variances of the errors between environments to be estimated, and I is the identity matrix of order n L × n L (Cuevas et al. 2017), where n L denotes the number of lines or clones in each environment (for balance data).Although model M2 is powerful when considering the genetic covariances between environments, it cannot predict full environments because it does not have a way of estimating the corresponding genomic covariances of those environments in the training sites with those in the testing sites where no data have been collected.Cuevas et al. (2017) showed that adding a random vector to M2 to account for the cultivar variation across environments that was accounted for by vector u, could increase the prediction accuracy.Here, we considered a ST measured in different environments (ME) to construct and add a random vector f to M2, that isThen a random vector f is added that is independent from u, and ε, and that has a normal distribution f ∼ N(0, F E ⊗ I), where F E is a matrix of environmental covariances of size m × m to be estimated, ⊗ indicates the Kronecker product, and matrix I represents the identity matrix. Note that the vector f allows predicting the nonadditive effects (or a proportion) for possible covariances that were not modeled in K. Model M3, like M2, allows improving the prediction accuracy of model M1, when the covariances (or correlations) of the observations between environments are negative or close to zero. Like M2, M3 could not be used to predict complete environments because, technically, it could not estimate covariances between related environments with the environments to be predicted because of the lack of data on the environments to be predicted.Note that M2 could be adopted to be a single environment MT (MT-SE) aswhere the vectors Z T μ T are similar to those of M2, that is, the μ T is a vector that represents the means of the t traits, and the incidence matrix Z T relates the observations with the mean of the traits, but now the number of cultivars is the same for each trait so that if we order the phenotypic observations of the first trait, then the second trait and so forth,then the genetic random effects can be modeled as a normal distribution u ∼ N(0, U T ⊗ K), where U T is a matrix of genomic covariances between the traits of size t × t to be estimated, and ⊗ indicates the Kronecker product. The matrix K represents the relationships between the genotypes built with molecular markers.The random errors are modeled as ε ∼ N(0, Σ ⊗ I), where the diagonal matrix Σ is a matrix of size t × t, expressing the covariances of the errors to be estimated; and I is the identity matrix of order n L × n L . This model MT-SE can also be represented as a multiresponse model, that is, instead of representing the observations as a vector, they can be arranged in a matrix so that M2 can be rewritten aswhere Y is a matrix of order n L × t that represents the phenotypic values ordered in such a way that the columns contain the data for each trait and the rows contain the data for each line or genotype. The intercepts or means of each trait are represented by a vector μ of size t × 1. The matrix of genetic random effects assumes that they follow a multivariate multiresponse normal distribution u ∼ MN nL×t (0, K, U T ). The random errors assume a multivariate multiresponse normal distribution ε ∼ MN nLxt (0, I, Σ).As already mentioned, when MT data are available, the models to be used are those that account for correlations between phenotypic traits because when the degree of correlation is moderate or large, this could increase the GP accuracy. The model, based on the Bayesian MT kernel of Montesinos-López et al. (2022), can be seen as the combination of the MT model 2a and the reaction norm G × E M1 for ME. Then M4 is represented aswhere the matrix Y is of size n T × t ordered in such a way that the columns represent the phenotypic values of each of the t traits and the rows are the lines or genotypes, ordered first by environments, and then by lines. The vector μ is of size t × 1 and it represents the intercept or mean of each trait. The matrix Z E is an incidence matrix of the environments of size n T × m, and μ E is a matrix of order m × t with the means of each environment in each trait. The matrix g is of order n T × t and follows a normal distribution g ∼ MN nT×t (0, Z g KZ ′ g , U g ), where Z g is an incidence matrix of the genotypes of order n T × n L , K is the relationship matrix of the genotypes of size n L × n L and U g is a variance-covariance matrix of main effects between the traits. The matrix ge is of order n T × t and follows a normal distribution ge ∼ MN nTxt (0,, where # is the Hadamard product and U ge is a variance-covariance matrix of interaction effects between the traits. Random errors are represented by the matrix ɛ of order n T × t that follows a normal distribution ε ∼ MN nTxt (0, I, Σ t ), where the identity matrix I is of dimension n T × n T .The GP accuracy of the different models can be assessed by means of several different validation schemes. The first validation scheme (predicts 100% of the cultivars next year) uses the traits from each of the 3 locations in 2020 (HEL, MOS, and UM) to predict all the values of the traits in each of the 3 locations in 2021 (HEL, MOS, and UM). The second validation scheme (predicts 70% next year) uses all the data from 2020 plus 30% of the value of the traits in 3 locations in 2021 to predict 70% (prediction set) of the value of the traits at the 3 locations in 2022; this second case was established with 10 groups or random samples.The acronyms used for identifying models M1-M4, ST (S) or MT (M) and prediction set comprising the prediction of all cultivars in each location during 2021 (a), or the prediction of a percentage of cultivars in each location during 2021 (p) are given in Table 1. A graphical explanation of the different combinations of models (M1-M4), considering 2 prediction sets (100 and 70%), and ST or MT cross-validation schemes for assessing the GP prediction accuracy of the models is shown in Fig. 1 for 10 hypothetical cultivars evaluated in HEL, MOS, and UM in 2020 to predict HEL in 2021. The only MT model is M4, whereas ST models are M1, M2, and M3.As shown in Fig. 1, the first cross-validations refer to 2 cases including models M1 and M4 for predicting all the values (100%) for each trait in location HEL 2021 using as a training set all the values for each trait in each location from 2020. Model M1 is an ST (traits are separated by black lines), whereas M4 is an MT model (traits are not separated). For these 2 cases, the given acronyms join (1) the model (M1-M4), (2) the ST or MT (S or M) prediction, and (3) include the prediction of all (100%) the lines in HEL 2021 and denoted by \"a,\" that is, M1Sa and M4Ma. The third and fourth crossvalidation schemes delineated by red lines included models M1, M2, and M3 for ST and model M4 for MT, and they predict 70% of the values of each trait in HEL 2021, using as training set values of the trait in each location from 2020, but also adding 30% of the values from HEL 2021 to the prediction set in the training set. As already mentioned, this prediction of 70% is performed 10 times using the 10 random samples for extracting 30% of the values of the prediction set (2021) and adding them to the training set (2020). The same 10 random samples were used for comparing the GP accuracy of the 4 models.The names of each of these model-prediction types and sizes are M1Sp, M2Sp, M3Sp, and M4Mp where the letter \"p\" refers to the percentage of the prediction set (70%). Note that for these 4 cases, 3 cultivars (out of 10) are missing in all the traits (Fig. 1). The fifth cross-validation scheme had MT M4 that predicts 70% of the cultivars in HEL in 2021 for all traits, but now, the crossvalidations between the traits and locations for HEL 2021 are different from those in the previous case (M4Mp) where some cultivars are observed in some traits and locations but not observed in other traits and locations. This cross-validation scheme is refereed to M4Mp*. Note that in this case, some cultivars are missing in some traits but not in other traits; for example, cultivars 1, 2, and 3 are not observed for the weight of tubers below 40 mm, but are observed for the weight of 40 − 50 mm tubers (Fig. 1).We used 2 metrics for comparing the genomic-enabled prediction accuracy of the different models (M1, M2, M3, and M4). One metric is the Pearson correlation coefficient (COR) between the observed and predicted values, whereas the second metric is the prediction mean squared error (PMSE) of the different prediction models.In this study, we used 3 genomic models (M1, M2, and M3) that predict one ST and various environments (ME). The first model M1 is the ST conventional reaction norm model that considers the genomic main effect and interaction effects with homogeneous variance for the environmental random errors. Model M2 considers together the genomic effects and heterogenous environmental variance error. Note that model M3 adds a random vector to M2 with the aim of capturing some nonadditive genetic effects that were not previously explained. Finally, model M4 includes MTs as multiresponse and MEs.Two main prediction scenarios were analyzed: (1) use models M1 and M2 to predict all potato cultivars for each of the 3 locations in 2021 where the training were the locations in 2020, and (2) using all 4 models to predict 70% of the potato cultivars of each location in 2021, and incorporating 30% of the prediction set in the training set. Note that we used acronyms to identify the model (M1-M4), the ST (S) or MT (M ), and the size of the prediction set, all cultivar (a) or a percentage (p) (Table 1, Fig. 1).Phenotypic correlations were computed for traits in each location (HEL, MOS, and UM) in 2021 (prediction set, PS) with those traits observed in the locations of the previous year (HEL, MOS, and UM in 2020; Table 2). The PS contains 7 traits (5 tuber weight traits and 2 tuber flesh quality characteristics) in each of the 3 locations of 2021 using the locations and traits of the previous year, 2020. The M1-M4 ST or MT prediction models for predicting all cultivars or a proportion of cultivars (all cultivars or 70%) are combined in the following acronyms: M1Sa, M4Ma, M1Sp, M2Sp, M3Sp, M4Mp, and M4Mp* (Tables 3-5 and Figs. 2-4). shown in Tables 3-5 and displayed in Figs. 2-4; i.e. the mean prediction accuracy estimates are higher for the cases when the phenotypic correlations between years were higher as was the case for starch. In these cases, where the phenotypic correlations between traits for the 2 years were high, the mean prediction accuracy between the models did not show significant differences. Furthermore, when the phenotypic correlations between locations are moderate, as for example for reducing sugars, the accuracy of the model's predictions did not show significant differences (Figs. 2-4). On the contrary, when the phenotypic correlations were negative or near zero, as for example, for the weight of 50-60 mm tubers for HEL 2021 (Fig. 2), the prediction accuracy estimates were low in the models except for M3Sp and M4Mp*. Similar results were observed for the weight of 40-50 mm tubers at HEL 2021 (Fig. 2) and UM 2021 (Fig. 4), where models M3Sp and M4Mp* had better predictions than models M1Sa and M1Sp, which showed lower predictions when the phenotypic correlations were close to zero or negatives. Table 2. Phenotypic correlations of each trait at HEL in 2021 with each trait at HEL 2020, MOS 2020, and Umeå (UM) 2020. Overall, the model showing the best prediction accuracy was M4Sp* closely followed by model M3Sp. However, the differences were higher when the phenotypic correlations between the locations were near zero or negative.Genomic predictions including all cultivars in HEL 2021 were the best for tuber flesh starch in all the models, whose GP accuracy estimates were above 0.85 (Table 3 and Fig. 2). Most of the 4 models had a very similar GP accuracy for starch; i.e. ranging from 0.852 (M2Sp and M4Mp) to 0.877 (M3Sp) (Table 3, Fig. 2).The second trait with an important GP accuracy shown by most of the models was the weight of 60 mm tubers. The MT model predicting a proportion of cultivars (M4Mp*) had the highest prediction accuracy (0.730, Table 3) and a ST conventional reaction norm model for predicting that all cultivars (M1Sa) had the lowest GP accuracy (0.627). The weight of tubers below 40 mm and the total tuber weight had a very similar GP accuracy except for the MT model M4Mp*, which was the worst model for the weight of tubers below 40 mm but the best model for total tuber weight. Excluding M4Mp*, the predictions ranged from 0.525 (<40 mm, M4Ma) to 0.623 (<40 mm M3Sp) for both traits. The best predictive model was M3Sp for the weight of tubers below 40 mm and M1Sa for total tuber weight (Fig. 2). Weight with 40-50 mm tubers and 50-60 mm tubers had the lowest prediction accuracy for most models except M3Sp (Fig. 2). Comparing the models with ST and MT, M3Sp was the best ST model for tuber weight below 40 mm and between 50 and 60 mm, and tuber flesh starch, whereas M4Mp* was best for weights of 40-50 mm and above 60 mm tubers, as well as for the total tuber weight.In summary, prediction of the 7 traits at HEL in 2021 shows that traits with a higher phenotypic correlation between location HEL 2021 and those at HEL, MOS, and UM in 2020 are tuber flesh starch and most of the tuber weights (except the weight of 50-60 mm tubers). In terms of GP accuracy, the MT model predicting 70% of the cultivars for some traits while observing others (M4Mp*) was the best for weight 40-50 mm tubers or above 60 mm tubers, and total tuber weight, and very similar to those for tuber flesh starch. Model M3Sp was the best GP for the weight of tubers below 40 mm and 50-60 mm, as well as for tuber flesh starch.The phenotypic correlation of traits measured in location MOS in 2020-2021 is given in Table 2. For all the traits, phenotypic correlations between traits in MOS for 2021 and 2020 were higher than those between MOS 2021 and the 2 other locations (HEL and UM) in 2020. Tuber flesh starch had the highest phenotypic correlation between MOS 2021and HEL, MOS, and UM 2020 (0.83, 0.89, and 0.72, respectively) followed by the weight of tubers above 60 mm (0.73, 0.74, and 0.62, respectively), total tuber weight (0.64, 0.74, and 0.52, respectively), and the weight of tubers below 40 mm (0.65, 0.64, and 0.55, respectively).Overall GP accuracy in MOS 2021 was higher than in HEL 2021. Tuber flesh starch was the best-predicted trait for all the models with GP accuracy below 0.85 (Table 4 and Fig. 3). Most of the 4 models showed a very similar GP accuracy for tuber flesh starch M3Sp is the prediction accuracy from model M3 (ST GE M2 extended to include a random vector that more efficiently utilizes the environmental covariances) when predicting 70% of each trait in 2021; M4Mp is the prediction accuracy from model M4 when predicting 70% of each trait in 2021, M4Mp* is the prediction accuracy from model M4 when predicting 70% of each trait in 2021, in which, some cultivars are observed in some traits. When predicting 70%, the mean and the standard deviations (SDs) from the 10-fold cross-validation are given in parentheses.but ST M2 and M3 predicting 70% of the cultivars (M2Sp and M3Sp) were the best genomic predictors, with 0.866 and 0.867, respectively. Models M1 and M4 predicting all potato cultivars (M1Sa and M4Ma) were slightly below in terms of prediction accuracy (0.847 and 0.848, respectively).The second trait with important GP accuracy shown by most of the models was the weight of tubers above 60 mm with M4Mp* with an accuracy of 0.817, followed byM1Sa having an accuracy of 0.791, followed by M3Sp with 0.790 (Table 4). Overall, the total tuber weight irrespective of size, ranked third based on GP accuracy, with model M4Mp* having a prediction accuracy of 0.808, followed by M3Sp with 0.758 prediction accuracy, followed by M2Sp (0.750). The weight of tubers below 40 mm had relatively high GP accuracy, with models M2Sp and M3Sp being the best with 0.717 and 0.714 of GP accuracy, respectively. Finally, the weight of 50-60 mm tubers had lower prediction accuracy than the previously mentioned traits, with the best predictor models being M4Mp*-whose GP accuracy was 0.711-followed by M2Sp and M3Sp (GP accuracy = 0.660).The GP accuracy estimates for the 7 traits in MOS during 2021 were slightly higher than those at HEL 2021. The traits with higher phenotypic correlations between MOS 2021 and those at HEL, MOS, and UM in 2020 were tuber flesh starch, the weight of tubers above 60 mm and below 40 mm, total tuber weight, and the weight of 50-60 mm tuber. Overall, the best models for predicting most of the 7 traits were the ST models M2 and M3 predicting 70% of the potato cultivars in each location (M3Sp and M2Sp), except for traits such as the weight of 50-60 mm and above 60 mm tubers, and the total tuber weight in which, the MT model M4Mp* was the best GP model.Table 2 lists the phenotypic correlation of traits measured at UM in 2020-2021. For all the traits, the phenotypic correlations between traits in UM for 2021 and 2020 are higher than those between UM 2021 and other locations (HEL and MOS) in 2020. The traits with the highest phenotypic correlation between UM 2021 and HEL, MOS, and UM 2020 were the weight of 50-60 mm, below 40 mm, and above 60 mm tubers, followed by tuber flesh starch.Overall, the GP accuracy in UM 2021 was lower than those of HEL and MOS in 2021. The weight of 50-60 mm and below 40 mm tubers were the best-predicted traits for all the models in UM 2021 (Table 5 and Fig. 4). The best GP model for all the traits, except reducing sugars and starch in the tuber flesh, was M4Mp*. ST and MT models predicting 70% of the cultivars (M3Sp and M4Mp) had the best GP accuracy for predicting traits of tuber flesh sugar and starch, respectively.Most of the 4 models showed similar GP accuracy for these 2 traits, but M2Sp had a GP accuracy of 0.688 for the weight of 50-60 mm tubers, and model M4Mp had an accuracy of 0.633 for the weight of tubers below 40 mm. Models M2Sp and M3Sp had a GP accuracy of around 0.578 for the weight of tubers above 60 mm that ranked third on overall GP accuracy (Table 5) followed by tuber flesh starch, with model M3Sp being the best with (prediction accuracy = 0.483), followed by M2Sp (0.481).    research (Crossa et al. 2021). The integration and exploitation of several big data sets are necessary, and the use of appropriate statistical machine-learning models has become important for modern breeding.When performing research on GS and GP accuracy, several problems become important; one is the inclusion of statistical machine-learning methods and models that include GE interaction. Another problem to be assessed is the addition of several traits for prediction rather than only one trait, and another issue is the methods used for comparing the GP accuracy of several traits using several models and various possible cross-validation schemes to develop a GP accuracy metric. Several options exist for investigating the GS accuracy for predicting the breeding value of cultivars that have been genotyped with genome-wide molecular markers. One scenario is predicting the performance of a proportion of cultivars (e.g. 70%) that have not yet been observed in any of the testing environments (usually location-year combinations); another option is to predict all cultivars (i.e. 100%) observed in all the environments except one (leave one environment out).Another scenario is predicting cultivars that were observed in some environments but not in others.In this study, predictions for these scenarios have been done using ST (M1, M2, and M3) and MT (M4) models. These ST and MT models combined with different prediction testing scenarios are described in Table 1 and graphically displayed in a small example in Fig. 1, where several proportions of the PS have been combined with the 4 different models. We included the predictions of all cultivars in 1 entire site-year combination or the prediction of a proportion of cultivars (70%) using the other 30% as TS together with the previous year. We found that for the majority of the traits in each location-year combination to be predicted (HEL, MOS, UM in 2021) M4 (MT), with a proportion of potato cultivars evaluated (30%) in some location-year combinations M4Mp* (Fig. 1) but not observed in other location-year combinations, was found to be the best predictive model, usually followed by ST models M3Sp and M2Sp.Results of this study demonstrate that for predicting traits in HEL 2021 using all environments in 2020, the superiority of the MT prediction method M4Mp* over the mean GP accuracy of the other 6 prediction methods including ST and MT for predicting the entire PS (100%) or 70% for traits tuber weights 40-50 mm, above 60 mm and total in this location were 65, 14, and 24%, respectively. However, this superiority of the MT over ST methods was not so when comparing M4Ma or M4Mp with other ST methods, especially for M3Sp for traits tuber weight <40 mm, 50-60 mm, and tuber flesh starch. Results for predicting traits at MOS in 2021 using all environments in 2020 show the superiority of the MT prediction method M4Mp* for 4 tuber weight traits and 1 tuber flesh quality characteristic over all the other 6 methods. The GP accuracy of method M4Mp* overcame the mean GP accuracy of all the other 6 methods by 10, 9, 4, 8, and 4% for the weight of 40-50 mm, 50-60 mm, above 60 mm tubers, total tuber weight and tuber flesh sugar, respectively. Similar results were obtained for the prediction of location UM in 2021 using the TS comprising HEL, MOS, and UM from 2020; the best GP accuracy method for all 5 tuber weight traits was method M4Mp* over the mean GP accuracy of all the other 6 methods by 7, 24, 12, 8, and 26% for tuber weights below 40 mm, 40-50 mm, 50-60 mm, above 60 mm and total tuber weight, respectively.Previous research noticed variable prediction accuracy that depends on factors such as heritability of the trait, size of TP, relatedness of PS and TS, statistical machine-learning models, marker density, linkage disequilibrium, and the incorporation of GE interactions in the prediction models. In a recent article, Semagn et al. (2022) compared the predictive abilities of wheat cultivars that have not been evaluated for an ST, not evaluated for MTs (MT1), and evaluated for some traits but not others (MT2) using agronomy and disease traits. Note that the partition of Semagn's MT1 is similar to the partitions of Sp (M1, M2, and M3) and Mp (M4) in this study, whereas the partitions of Semagn's MT2 are similar to that of M4Mp*. Semagn et al. (2022) found that the GP accuracy of MT2 (method M4Mp* in this study) increased over ST and other model-partitions in all traits from 9 to 82%. This occurred because, under the prediction scheme MT2 of Semagn et al. (2022), it is possible to exchange information between traits like method M4Mp* that allows borrowing of information between traits and also between environments, and thus, to efficiently use the available information in one single model combined with an appropriate prediction scheme.This demonstrated the high potential for improving prediction accuracies and the high potential of the MT models for improving prediction accuracy, thus offering researchers the opportunity to predict traits that were not observed, due to possible difficulties or because they are expensive to measure under certain environmental constraints (Semagn et al. 2022).Genomic prediction in potatoes is still in the early research stages before using it for routine breeding of this highly heterozygous tetrasomic polyploid tuberous crop with vegetative propagation (Ortiz et al. 2022, and references therein). The use of MT and ME models for GP in this research led to the highest accuracy for tuber yield and tuber flesh starch as per available literature. Tuber flesh starch, which is often estimated from specific gravity measurements, is a very highly heritable trait (Bradshaw 2021;Ortiz et al. 2021) that is affected very little by the GEs (Killick and Simmonds 1974), thus explaining the high prediction accuracy noted in this and research elsewhere. The high prediction accuracy noted in this, and previous research suggests that developing GEBV modeling in potatoes for tuber flesh starch does not require a very large training population, but it seems that just a few hundred (including both breeding clones and released cultivars that are relevant to the breeding program and covering a broad range of trait variation) may suffice.Genotype × environment interactions may significantly affect tuber yield, but the use of ME GP allows identifying promising germplasm in both crossing blocks (Ortiz et al. 2022) in potato breeding. The significantly high correlations noted when using MT, ME modeling suggest that GP may also be useful for the potato cultivar development pipeline even when using small breeding populations (Selga et al. 2022). Every year, F 1 seeds (resulting from crossing heterozygous parents) are planted in individual pots in a greenhouse, and one tuber (the best in size) for each plant is taken at harvest. Thus, thousands of tubers derived from these F 1 hybrid seeds are produced for further field testing in single plant plots during the first year. At harvest, all plants are dug up to assess their tuber number, size, shape, color, appearance, and health, which are used as the selection criteria for obtaining the next breeding generation for further testing the next year. After selection in early clonal generations [first (T 1 ), second (T 2 ), and often third (T 3 )], the aim is to have about a few dozens for field testing from the fourth generation onward and ending with a few promising breeding clones after the seventh year of field testing and selection to include them in MT trials in the target population of environments. The GP accuracy over the 2 years within each site suggests that it will be possible to select (based on GEBV models) in early generation trials for each target population of environments. Furthermore, as per previous GP accuracy estimates (Ortiz et al. 2022;Selga et al. 2022) and these results, it seems that GEBV for selection will be useful from T 3 onward, rather than in T 1 or even in T 2 . Hence, as shown herein, genomic selection appears to be feasible in potato breeding when using elite-bred germplasm.The ST model M3Sp was the best genomic predicted, followed by M1Sp and M1Sa at HEL in 2021. In terms of MT GP accuracy, M4Mp* was the best for the weight of 40-50 mm and above 60 mm tubers, and total tuber weight irrespective of size, and very similar to tuber flesh starch. The GP accuracy of the 7 traits at MOS in 2021 indicated that the best models for predicting the majority of the 7 traits were ST M3Sp and M2Sp, except for the weight of 50-60 mm tubers, above 60 mm tubers, and total tuber weight, where the MT model M4Mp* was the best GP model. The traits with higher phenotypic correlations between location UM 2021 and those at HEL, MOS, and UM in 2020 are the weight of tubers with the following sizes: 50-60 mm, below 40 mm, and above 60 mm. The best model method for predicting the majority of the 7 traits was MT M4Mp* because it allows the exchange of information between traits and environments followed by M3Sp and M2Sp, which efficiently used information between environments. According to Cuevas et al. (2017), M3Sp producing better or similar GP accuracy than M2Sp was expected.","tokenCount":"7865"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"04637c600fa27a670ff7bca936686f21","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/feceaf69-cec0-424d-81e5-d5168637e977/retrieve","id":"61067092"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9fdee72b-9643-4c57-a7d5-871e33bf162f","pagecount":"63","content":"La mécanisation agricole est l'emploi des machines dans le secteur agricole pour la production végétale, animale, halieutique, la transformation et le transport des produits agricoles.En résumé, c'est la substitution des opérations manuelles par celles des machines, pour réduire la pénibilité du travail et accroitre la productivité et la qualité des produits.C'est la substitution de la force humaine ou animale par un moteur (thermique, électrique, hydraulique, éolien, etc.).Il faut noter que la mécanisation n'est pas que la motorisation. La culture attelée est une forme de mécanisation.Les machines agricoles désignent l'ensemble du matériel (équipements) utilisé dans le domaine de l'agriculture pour les productions végétale, animale et halieutique et pour la transformation des produits agricoles.Une machine agricole est un équipement pouvant produire, transformer, communiquer un mouvement, effectuer un travail ou produire un effet (chaleur, froid, etc.) pour accroître la productivité.L'unité motrice est une source d'énergie mécanique (qui produit de la force) destinée à mettre en mouvement une machine ou mécanisme.Il s'agit entre autres de : l'homme, l'animal, le moteur (thermique, électrique), le tracteur, le motoculteur, l'automoteur. Permettre à l'apprenant de comprendre comment la construction métallique est fondamentalement la base du métier de fabricant d'équipements agricoles post récoltes.La construction métallique est un domaine de la mécanique qui s'intéresse à la fabrication des pièces, équipements et ouvrages en métal. Autrement dit, c'est le domaine de la transformation des métaux.Le fer et ses alliages sont très utilisés dans la construction métallique. C'est la matière première de l'artisan en construction métallique. Mais aussi, les métaux non ferreux et leurs alliages tels que le cuivre et l'aluminium sont très utilisés.Les propriétés mécaniques très variées des métaux permettent de multiples utilisations pour la fabrication de pièces, ouvrages et objets d'usage courant, tels que les petits instruments usuels, des machines et les grands ouvrages (charpentes, ponts, bateaux, etc.).L'artisan en construction métallique est un technicien qui travail les métaux par diverses techniques pour fabriquer des ouvrages. Il réalise des opérations de montage de pièces et d'ouvrages métalliques diverses au moyen d'outils, de machines et des techniques spécifiques.Les artisans formés auront la capacité de concevoir, de réaliser des équipements de transformation de produits agricoles et d'assurer leur maintenance (moulin, batteuse, broyeur, presse, râpeuse, etc.). Ils pourront de même intervenir sur divers équipements de production (charrues, herses, etc.). De façon spécifique à l'issue de cette formation, ils seront à même de fabriquer divers objets et ouvrages métalliques (table, porte, fenêtre, chaise, armoire, abreuvoir, mangeoires) et des gros ouvrages (charpente, citerne, tank, etc.).Pour  Permettre à l'apprenant de connaitre l'état du secteur de la production des équipements post récoltes au Bénin. De se faire une idée synoptique du secteur, les progrès réalisés et surtout les défis à relever.Le secteur de la transformation post récolte des produits agricoles est en plein développement au Bénin. Mais la croissance de la production et le besoin croissant des populations en produits agricoles transformés de qualité mettent le secteur face à un grand défi à relever. A savoir :-La réduction des pertes post récoltes -La réduction de la pénibilité du travail -La disponibilité de produits plus diversifiés, en quantité, de qualité et à des couts accessibles Ainsi, le sous-secteur de la production d'équipements de transformation des produits agricoles doit contribuer à relever ce défi par une production d'équipements de qualité.Le process ou procédé de transformation des produits agricoles est la succession des étapes, activités et opérations à suivre partant de la matière première (produit brut) jusqu'à l'obtention du produit fini.La machinerie post récolte est l'ensemble des machines ou équipements de transformation utilisé dans le secteur de la transformation des produits agricoles.Les perspectives du secteur de la production des équipements post récoltes, visent à contribuer à :-Améliorer substantiellement le plateau technique de production des machines de production et la disponibilité de machines de transformation de qualité Assurer à l'apprenant un minimum de connaissances en mécanique. Ceci devrait lui permettre de mieux maitriser l'environnement technique dans lequel il opère. Ces connaissances doivent aussi lui permettre de faire de petits calculs et de raisonner des choix techniques. Aperçu de quelques formes géométriques et leurs propriétés (Dimension, surface, volume) Les formes de représentations techniques des pièces sont :    En mécanique pour réaliser des ouvrages, mécanismes, machines, on procède à l'assemblage de divers éléments ou pièces. Assemblage ne nécessitant aucune pièce intermédiaire. Exemple : Soudage, sertissage.  Les mouvements se transmettent par interaction des pièces entre elles. Ainsi, la transmission est le fait d'entraîner ou de communiquer un mouvement d'une pièce (source) à une autre (réceptrice).On distingue deux formes de transmission de mouvement :- Les systèmes de transformation de mouvement permettent d'adapter le mouvement à l'utilisation visée. Ils ont pour objectifs de :changer la direction du mouvement changer l'intensité de l'effort (force ou couple) changer la vitesse rendre le système irréversible La force pour mettre en mouvement les différents objets ou mécanismes sont de différentes sources : musculaire (homme, animaux), moteurs : thermique, hydraulique, pneumatique, électrique, etc.Les organes ou pièces mécaniques utilisés dans les mécanismes de transmission sont entre autres : Poulie, roue dentée, pignon, crémaillère, vis sans fin, chaine, courroie, came/excentrique, articulation, roue et pièce de friction (avec garniture), bielle, poussoirs.Le tableau ci-dessous illustre quelques systèmes ou mécanismes de transformation de mouvements : La transmission par poulies-courroie est un système de transmission de mouvement de rotation entre deux arbres distants l'un de l'autre par l'intermédiaire de deux poulies (au moins) solidaires aux arbres et entrainées par une courroie. Elle permet de transformer le mouvement initial (vitesses, inversion de sens, position des arbres, etc.).C'est une solution simple et économique de transmission, présentant de nombreux avantages lorsqu'il n'y a pas une nécessité de synchronisation entre les arbres (simple d'entretien, silencieux, vitesse élevée, pas de lubrification, entre axe variable, etc.).- La transmission par roues dentées-chaîne est un système de transmission de mouvement de rotation entre deux arbres parallèles distants l'un de l'autre par l'intermédiaire de deux roues dentées (au moins) solidaires aux arbres et entrainées par une chaine.Elle permet transmettre des puissances plus élevées par rapport à la transmission par courroie, de transformer le mouvement initial (vitesse) et sans glissement (mouvements synchrones).La transmission par engrenage est un type de transmission de mouvement   Connaitre les métaux et leurs propriétés mécaniques, leur utilisation, et maitriser les techniques de fabrication (formage), l'utilisation des outils et savoir choisir les techniques les plus adaptés aux contextes.Dans le métier de construction métallique, les métaux utilisés sont : le fer, le fer inox, le fer galvanisé, l'aluminium, le cuivre et leurs alliages. C'est un travail qui consiste à transformer les tôles et les profilés en diverses formes d'ouvrages.Ainsi, les matières premières dans la construction métallique sont essentiellement les tôles et profilés en acier, en inox (acier inoxydable), en aluminium, en fers galvanisés et en cuivre (pas très courant).-Résistant (résiliant) -Soudable -Malléable (déformable, pliable) -Résistance à la rouille La construction métallique repose sur plusieurs spécialités dont : la chaudronnerie, la soudure, la fabrication mécanique (ajustage, usinage, etc.), forge, etc.Le technicien est donc appelé à maitriser les connaissances de ses spécialités.Le chaudronnier fabrique des ouvrages (équipements) à partir des feuilles, tubes et profilés de métaux comme l'acier, l'inox, l'aluminium, le cuivre, etc.Le travail de chaudronnerie se réalise en plusieurs étapes :-Etude de l'ouvrage à réaliser : la réalisation commence par le dessin. Ce qui permet d'évaluer les besoins en matière et matériel de travail ; -Traçage : il consiste à dessiner des pièces à plat sur la matière (développante des formes) avant de passer à la phase de découpage à l'aide de (gabarit) ou directement sur la matière ; -Découpage : des composantes de l'objet à réaliser sont découpées par diverses techniques par chalumeau, scie, cisaille, ciseaux, burin, tronçonneuse, etc. ; -Mise en forme (formage) : les composantes sont mises en forme par différents procédés : pliage, cintrage, roulage, emboutissage, estampages, etc. -Assemblage : les composantes son assemblées par diverses techniques : soudure, rivetage, vissage/boulonnage, agrafage, etc. Dans les assemblages, interviennent aussi les opérations d'ajustage, perçage, filetage, taraudage, meulage, etc.  Le découpage est une opération qui consiste à obtenir des morceaux de matière ou pièces prélevés dans une masse plus grande. Le découpage se fait par diverses techniques, telles que : le poinçonnage, le sciage, le cisaillement, au chalumeau, à la meule, au laser, etc. ;          Cette technique utilise des appareils électriques (générateur ou poste à souder) à courant électrique alternatif (220 ou 380 volts) ou continu (110 volts) pour produire l'énergie (la chaleur) nécessaire à la fusion du métal.Le principe de base est de conserver un écartement constant entre l'électrode et la pièce à souder afin de créer un arc électrique.-Si l'électrode touche la pièce, il ne se produira pas de fort dégagement de chaleur et l'électrode collera à la pièce.-Si, l'électrode est trop éloignée de la pièce, le passage d'électricité ne se fera pas et il n'y aura pas d'étincelle.Il faut veiller à choisir des électrodes de bonne qualité, de diamètre adapté. -Régler l'intensité du poste en fonction de la pièce à souder ; -Préparer les pièces : nettoyer au papier abrasif, et dégraisser les surfaces à souder et faire des chanfreins sur les pièces pour recevoir le cordon de soudure au besoin, -Mettre en contact les pièces à souder et les fixer au besoin avec un serre-joint ou étau afin de bien les immobiliser ; -Placer l'ensemble sur un support ininflammable et fixer la pince de masse sur la pièce à souder ; -Fixer l'électrode dans le porte-électrode du poste ; -Amorcer l'arc (frotter la pointe de l'électrode sur la pièce pour créer les étincelles) ; -Éloigner l'électrode de quelques millimètres afin de créer l'arc ; -Déplacer régulièrement l'électrode au-dessus de la zone à souder afin de réaliser un cordon de soudure ; -Laisser refroidir les pièces à la fin de l'opération -Couper le poste et le débrancher au besoin -L'opération terminée ; Cette technique de soudure utilise un générateur constitué de deux bouteilles de gaz dont l'une contient de l'oxygène et l'autre l'acétylène dont la brulure produit la chaleur de soudure.Indications : -La bouteille toujours marquée de rouge ou autre est celle de l'acétylène. Le raccord rouge lui est relié -La seconde est celle de l'oxygène souvent marquée de couleur bleue. Le raccord bleu lui est relié -Les deux sont reliés aux embouts du chalumeau      De façon générale, une machine transformation est constituée de grands éléments ci-après :-Le châssis ou bâtis : ossature servant de support pour les autres organes ;-Le système d'alimentation : stock, régule et introduit la matière dans la zone ou dans le mécanisme de traitement ;-Le mécanisme d'opération ou de transformation : permet de réaliser la transformation qui est l'objet (la raison d'être) de la machine ;-Le système d'évacuation : permet de sortir (expulser) les produits traités de la machine ;-La chaine cinématique : génère, transforme et transmet le mouvement aux organes. Unité motrice : manivelle, pédale, moteur avec transmission (poulie-courroie, chainedents, trains d'engrenage, came, etc.).-Les organes de protection : assurent la sécurité de l'opérateur, la perte ou la dispersion des matières (produits).-Les organes de fixation ou de roulement : servent à brider (équipements fixes) ou déplacer la machine. ","tokenCount":"1830"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"33999a325ac56c8643d1a7fcbeb7dbc5","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5aedd69f-4c7b-4835-861f-579f3915ba9a/retrieve","id":"449691644"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f21840b0-e8a6-4963-9b63-0f0c2d890719","pagecount":"29","content":"Guide d'utilisation de la boîte à outils pour travailler avec les systèmes semenciers de racines, tubercules et bananes. Lima (Pérou). Programme de recherche du CGIAR sur les racines, tubercules et bananes (RTB) Guide d'utilisation RTB N° 2024-1.Annexes. GlossaireCe guide d'utilisation de la boîte à outils pour travailler avec les systèmes semenciers des racines, tubercules et bananes présente des outils pour diagnostiquer, évaluer et améliorer les systèmes semenciers de pomme de terre, de patate douce et d'igname. Dans l'ensemble, ces cultures sont appelées racines, tubercules et bananes, et elles sont cruciales pour la sécurité alimentaire et la génération de revenus, en particulier dans les pays en développement. Toutes ces cultures sont reproduites végétativement, à partir de racines, de tubercules, de tiges, de rejets ou de vignes. Ce matériel de plantation volumineux est coûteux à transporter. Les semences végétatives sont périssables et (sauf pour les pommes de terre, les ignames et quelques autres exceptions) doivent être plantées aussi fraîches que possible, et elles sont plus susceptibles de véhiculer des ravageurs et des maladies que les vraies semences. Outre ces défis uniques, les systèmes semenciers améliorés des cultures de racines, de tubercules et de bananes donnent aux agriculteurs la possibilité d'améliorer leurs moyens de subsistance en accédant à du matériel végétal de meilleure qualité provenant de variétés locales ou de variétés améliorées à haut rendement, résistantes aux stress, plus nutritives ou plus sensibles aux besoins des consommateurs.Les outils de cette boîte à outils comprennent des méthodes, des modèles, des approches et des technologies de l'information et de la communication (TIC), qui peuvent être utilisés par les chercheurs, les décideurs et les praticiens travaillant sur les systèmes semenciers des cultures de racines, de tubercules et de bananes. La section 1 de ce guide de l'utilisateur décrit l'importance d'un bon matériel de plantation, les concepts clés des systèmes semenciers, outils et de la boîte à outils, et comment ils ont été développés. La Section 2 traite des utilisateurs, des objectifs et des points d'entrée pour l'utilisation des outils du point de vue d'une chaîne de valeur des semences ou d'un cycle de projet. La Section 3 décrit le glossaire des systèmes semenciers des racines, tubercules et bananes et les 11 outils dans la boîte à outils : (1) cadre multipartite pour intervenir dans les systèmes semenciers de racines, de tubercules et de bananes ,(2) Analyse des réseaux d'impact (INA), (3) «Seed Tracker», (4) Approches et modèles intégrés pour la santé des semences, (5) Analyse de circulation de semences, (6) Étude de cas exploratoire à petite échelle, (7) Méthode des quatre carrés, (8) Analyse de chaînages cognitifs, (9) Enchères expérimentales, (10) Analyse du cadre réglementaire des semences et (11) Outil d'analyse de la durabilité des entreprises de production de semences de première génération (SEGSBAT). Chaque description comprend des exemples de questions auxquelles l'outil peut aider à répondre, ainsi que la manière dont le sexe et les groupes sociaux sont pris en compte. La Section 4 décrit les résultats attendus de l'utilisation des outils, avec des exemples de leur utilisation. La Section 5, conclusions et perspectives, traite de la formation, du soutien et de la rétroaction, ainsi que des nouveaux outils qui pourraient être inclus à l'avenir.Il y a des références bibliographiques et un bref glossaire des termes du système semencier.Ce guide d'utilisation est destiné à être utilisé avec cette page Web de la boîte à outils https://tools4seedsystems.org/, où des liens vers des informations détaillées sont disponibles, y compris des guides de l'utilisateur, des fiches descriptives, des documents de recherche et des blogs pour chaque outil.L'application des outils décrits dans ce guide de l'utilisateur vise à soutenir les interventions du système semencier qui s'efforcent de contribuer à cinq défis mondiaux dirigés par les ODD : la nutrition, la pauvreté, l'équité (inclusion), l'environnement et le changement climatique.Guide d'utilisation de la boîte à outils pour travailler avec les systèmes semenciers des racines, tubercules et bananesCe guide d'utilisation explique comment les systèmes semenciers de la banane, du manioc, de la pomme de terre, de la patate douce et de l'igname -racines, tubercules et bananes -peuvent être étudiés et améliorés à l'aide d'outils (méthodes, modèles, approches et technologies de l'information et de la communication [TIC]), qui sont regroupés dans la boîte à outils décrite ici. L'objectif est de fournir des conseils aux différents utilisateurs -chercheurs, décideurs et praticiens -dans l'utilisation des outils pour répondre aux questions clés afin de comprendre les systèmes semenciers des tubercules et des bananes, de les améliorer en menant des projets, et  On peut visualiser un système semencier de différentes manières. La Figure 1 présente le système semencier en tant que chaîne de valeur semencière, avec une représentation schématique de l'ensemble des 11 outils. Il montre comment les outils fournissent des informations sur un ou plusieurs segments de la chaîne de valeur des semences. Parce qu'une chaîne de valeur semencière fonctionnelle exige que tous les segments fonctionnent bien, des outils d'intégration sont également nécessaires pour localiser les forces et les faiblesses. Des exemples de questions auxquelles les outils peuvent répondre sont décrits dans la section 3, à la fin de chaque descriptif d'outil. Un projet de système semencier comprend généralement plusieurs phases : diagnostic, conception, mise en oeuvre, suivi et analyse de scénarios (Figure 2). Chaque phase peut nécessiter différents types d'informations.Les outils présentés dans le Tableau 1 peuvent jouer un rôle à différents moments du cycle de projet. Pour suivre le changement à des fins de diagnostic, de conception, de mise en oeuvre et de suivi, des informations similaires sont collectées périodiquement. Pour l'analyse de scénarios, une approche de modélisation est généralement suivie. Quel est le taux de dégénérescence des semences conservées à la ferme ?Concevoir À quelle fréquence les agriculteurs doivent-ils acheter des semences certifiées ?Comment la qualité des semences de ferme s'est-elle améliorée avec l'utilisation périodique de semences certifiées ?Comment différentes combinaisons de semences certifiées, de résistance de l'hôte et de gestion des semences à la ferme affectent-elles le taux de dégénérescence des semences conservées à la ferme ?Une autre considération pour l'utilisation des outils est la disponibilité des ressources : temps, argent, maind'oeuvre et expertise. Certains outils nécessitent des connaissances spécialisées et d'autres sont plus faciles à appliquer. Une collecte de données extensive augmente généralement les coûts et le temps nécessaire pour traiter et analyser les données. Ces considérations sont prises en compte dans les fiches descriptives des outils disponibles sur le site web décrit ci-dessous.Des informations détaillées pour chaque outil sont fournies sur cette page Web de la boîte à outils https://tools4seedsystems.org/ avec des liens vers :• Une fiche descriptive de l'outil, pour un aperçu rapide de l'outil, y compris des références à la littérature et à d'autres ressources • Un guide de l'utilisateur, avec des procédures sur la façon d'utiliser l'outil • Un article évalué par des pairs qui décrit comment l'outil est utilisé et comment il a été développé ou adapté à partir d'un outil existant • Et, dans certains cas, un blog et d'autres supports de communication.Les outils sont décrits ci-dessous, accompagnés d'exemples de questions auxquelles chacun peut répondre.Le cadre multipartite donne aux chercheurs, aux décideurs et aux praticiens un aperçu rapide des systèmes semenciers des racines, tubercules et bananes. Le cadre est un tableau, avec des rangées de parties prenantes (producteurs de semences, négociants en semences, vulgarisateurs, etc.) et des colonnes de fonctions du système semencier (disponibilité des semences, accès et qualité). Il est idéalement appliqué lors d'ateliers et de visites sur le terrain comme première étape vers la compréhension d'un système semencier ou le suivi d'un projet, ou son évaluation. Lorsqu'il est utilisé avant le démarrage d'un projet ou pour analyser un système semencier, le cadre aide à identifier les prenantes, les goulots d'étranglement et les actions clés pour le projet à venir. Lorsqu'il est utilisé pour suivre ou évaluer un projet, le cadre peut aider à documenter les rôles des parties prenantes en ce qui concerne l'accès, la disponibilité et la qualité des semences, les ruptures de coordination entre les acteurs, et à constituer une base de données plus solide pour les interventions futures. Le cadre offre la possibilité de différencier l'accès et la disponibilité des semences et des variétés pour différents types d'agriculteurs, y compris les hommes et les femmes. Les résultats obtenus avec le cadre doivent généralement être complétés par des études plus approfondies réalisées avec d'autres outils.Questions pouvant être traitées avec le cadre multi-acteurs : Qui sont les acteurs spécifiques d'un système semencier ? Quel est leur point de vue concernant la disponibilité, l'accès et la qualité des semences ? En quoi les agriculteurs et agricultrices diffèrent-ils dans leur accès à des semences de qualité ? Quelles ruptures de coordination se produisent entre les parties prenantes et comment peuvent-elles être résolues ?L'analyse des réseaux d'impact (INA) est un outil d'évaluation des résultats probables d'un projet de système semencier actuel ou potentiel. Ces résultats appuient la prise de décision par les chercheurs, les décideurs et les praticiens. Les résultats peuvent être définis en termes de caractéristiques importantes, notamment la propagation potentielle de la maladie dans le système, l'adoption probable de nouvelles variétés dans la région et la manière dont le système sert différentes catégories de parties prenantes. INA inclut un package R qui simule les résultats pour différents scénarios définis par l'utilisateur. Les utilisateurs directs seraient familiarisés avec les applications R et collaboreraient avec les utilisateurs indirects. Les scénarios sont définis avec des données sur les systèmes semenciers obtenues à partir d'autres outils de la boîte à outils (tels que l'analyse de circulation de semences) ou d'autres sources de données. L'INA peut être appliquée pendant le développement du projet pour aider à prendre des décisions et à identifier les lacunes d'information pour une étude plus approfondie. L'INA peut utiliser des données désagrégées sur les agriculteurs hommes et femmes, les jeunes et les personnes âgées, ou entre les groupes professionnels (tels que les producteurs de semences par rapport aux commerçants). Les scénarios d'intervention peuvent inclure la surveillance d'une maladie transmise par les semences, des subventions pour soutenir l'adoption de nouvelles variétés ou une formation pour promouvoir de nouvelles techniques.Questions qui peuvent être traitées avec l'analyse des réseaux d'impact (INA) : Quels types d'interventions sont susceptibles de conduire à une adoption plus large d'une nouvelle variété ? Quelles sont les meilleures stratégies pour gérer une maladie dans le système semencier ? Quelles subventions profiteraient aux jeunes ou aux femmes ?Le « Seed Tracker » (ST) est un outil TIC qui relie numériquement les acteurs de la chaîne de valeur des semences, suit la production de semences et organise les informations. Le ST fournit des outils de collecte de données numériques (utilisables sur tout appareil connecté à Internet avec un système d'exploitation Android). Il propose des comptes sécurisés individuels et de groupe, ainsi qu'une base de données avec des outils d'analyse et de Système d'information géographique (SIG). Le ST couvre toutes les étapes de la chaîne de valeur des semences et les besoins des parties prenantes : chercheurs, vulgarisateurs, régulateurs, producteurs de semences, commerçants, fournisseurs de services et agriculteurs. Il prend en charge la planification de la production de semences, la traçabilité des semences, la gestion des stocks de semences et l'assurance qualité. Le « Seed Tracker » permet aux autorités de régulation de surveiller la production de semences certifiées et fournit un échange d'informations en temps réel entre les producteurs de semences et les régulateurs. C'est aussi un outil commercial qui permet de mettre en relation les producteurs de semences avec les clients. Il offre des informations en temps réel sur la production de semences par classe de semences, variété, volume et emplacement. Le ST peut être personnalisé pour s'adapter à différentes cultures, réglementations nationales sur les semences et besoins définis par l'utilisateur. Il a le potentiel de cartographier des informations ventilées par sexe.Questions qui peuvent être traitées avec le « Seed Tracker » : Le ST a été conçu à l'origine pour des objectifs pragmatiques et individuels de tous les acteurs de la chaîne de valeur des semences, afin que les producteurs de semences puissent demander : Où puis-je trouver des clients ? Et comment puis-je m'inscrire et obtenir la certification de ma semence en ligne ? Cependant, le tracker de semences peut également être utilisé pour poser des questions au niveau du système telles que : Quelles sont les tendances actuelles en matière de production et de certification de semences ? Où et qui sont les producteurs de semences, les clients, les variétés cultivées, les volumes et les champs de production de semences ? Les régulateurs des semences peuvent l'utiliser comme une plateforme en ligne pour l'enregistrement et la certification de la qualité des champs de semences afin de régulariser les producteurs de semences informels des VPC.Les approches et modèles intégrés pour la santé des semences fournissent un cadre pour combiner trois composantes clés de la gestion de la santé des semences : semences propres, variétés résistantes aux maladies et gestion à la ferme. Une dépendance excessive à l'égard d'un seul élément tend à être moins efficace que des combinaisons stratégiques des trois. Les modèles de santé des semences, en particulier le package R seedHealth, soutiennent la prise en compte d'approches intégrées de la santé des semences en évaluant des scénarios pour combiner ces trois composants. Ces résultats appuient la formation et la prise de décision par les chercheurs, les décideurs et les praticiens. Dans une interface en ligne pour la formation, le package seedHealth illustre les résultats probables de la modification des trois composants. Les utilisateurs directs seraient familiarisés avec les applications R, tandis que les utilisateurs indirects collaboreraient avec les utilisateurs directs. L'interface en ligne est conviviale, même pour ceux qui ne sont pas familiers avec R. Le package seedHealth peut également être utilisé pour évaluer la maladie probable et produire des résultats pour des systèmes et des groupes d'utilisateurs spécifiques (par exemple, le sexe ou les groupes d'âge), lorsque des données suffisantes sont disponibles sur les taux de dégénérescence des graines et les réponses. Le package seedHealth peut être utilisé pour la modélisation d'aide à la décision par les utilisateurs qui peuvent développer ou accéder à des estimations des taux de dégénérescence des semences pour leurs systèmes.Quelle combinaison de semences propres, de résistance aux maladies et de gestion à la ferme sera la meilleure pour un emplacement particulier ? À quelle fréquence faut-il acheter des semences exemptes de maladies ? Si les agriculteurs hommes et femmes ont des pratiques de gestion des semences différentes, comment cela affecte-t-il la dégénérescence et les rendements associés ?L'analyse de circulation de semences peut être utilisé pour cartographier les flux de semences, en particulier lorsque les agriculteurs multiplient de nouvelles variétés et les distribuent dans le système semencier informel. Le jeu de données peut constituer la base d'une Analyse des réseaux d'impact (INA, voir ci-dessus) : il constitue un « jeu de données minimum ». La cartographie des flux de semences aide à comprendre la distribution, la conservation et la propagation des agents pathogènes transmis par les semences dans un système semencier. L'analyse du réseau met en évidence les dimensions sociales d'un système semencier. Par exemple, il peut montrer comment l'accès et l'échange de semences dépendent du sexe ou de la richesse du ménage. Cela peut également révéler quels agriculteurs ont un meilleur accès aux semences formelles. Lors de l'analyse de circulation de semences (par échantillonnage en boule de neige), des données peuvent être collectées sur les transactions entre les acteurs, y compris les volumes, la qualité et les prix. Les transactions forment les liens ou les bords dans l'analyse du réseau et les noeuds représentent les acteurs, tels que les sélectionneurs, les multiplicateurs de semences et les agriculteurs. Le genre, la richesse, la localisation et d'autres informations peuvent être collectées auprès de ces acteurs, en fonction de la question de recherche.Questions qui peuvent être résolues avec l'analyse de circulation de semences. Comment une nouvelle variété se propage-t-elle d'un agriculteur à l'autre ? Comment les hommes et les femmes partagent-ils les semences de différentes manières ? Qu'est-ce que cela signifie pour une introduction efficace de matériel végétal de qualité ?La petite étude de cas exploratoire recueille des données pour se concentrer sur plusieurs sujets, pour obtenir une première compréhension de la façon dont les agriculteurs utilisent et manipulent leurs semences. Une petite enquête N est exploratoire et utilise des données quantitatives et quantitatives. Elle ne prétend pas être représentative ; elle est plus orientée vers une description large que vers des différences et des corrélations statistiquement significatives. Les données sont généralement collectées à l'aide d'un formulaire d'enquête comportant un nombre modeste de questions ouvertes et fermées ; il faut environ une heure ou 90 minutes pour terminer avec chaque agriculteur. Il y a également un espace pour inclure d'autres informations fournies volontairement par les personnes interrogées. Pour identifier les modèles d'utilisation des semences lors d'une première reconnaissance, il est important d'échantillonner stratégiquement différents groupes, tels que les agriculteurs contre les commerçants, les petits exploitants contre les grands agriculteurs, les hommes contre les femmes agriculteurs. Une étude peut nécessiter 12 à 15 enquêtes par type d'agriculteur et 35 à 50 agriculteurs par communauté. Il y a une puissance supplémentaire lors de la comparaison d'études de cas, par exemple en comparant différentes communautés.Questions qui peuvent être abordées avec l'étude de cas exploratoire à petite échelle. Quels agriculteurs conservent leurs propres semences et lesquels les obtiennent en dehors de la ferme ? Où les agriculteurs obtiennent-ils des semences lorsqu'ils n'utilisent pas les leurs ? Quelles semences et variétés les grands et les petits exploitants utilisent-ils ? Quels paiements et échanges les agriculteurs masculins et les agricultrices utilisent-ils ? En quoi l'utilisation des semences des agriculteurs plus âgés diffère-t-elle de celle des jeunes ?La méthode des quatre carrés signifiait à l'origine identifier les variétés de cultures communes, uniques et menacées d'une communauté pour la conservation génétique. Pour les semences végétatives, la méthode peut générer un inventaire des variétés cultivées dans un lieu particulier et discuter de leur importance avec les agriculteurs. Ces informations aident à identifier les interventions semencières nécessaires pour conserver les variétés de cultures et à mettre en évidence les caractéristiques souhaitables dans les nouvelles variétés. La méthode des quatre carrés trace les réponses en deux dimensions (popularité et échelle) pour former quatre cellules dans lesquelles les variétés de semences et de cultures sont positionnées : Cellule 1) variétés cultivées par de nombreux agriculteurs sur une grande surface, Cellule 2) celles cultivées par de nombreux agriculteurs sur une petite surface, Cellule 3) variétés cultivées par quelques agriculteurs sur une grande surface et Cellule 4) celles cultivées par quelques agriculteurs sur une petite zone. La méthode est principalement appliquée comme première étape pour comprendre les variétés cultivées dans une communauté et pourquoi les gens les plantent. La méthode est généralement utilisée dans les groupes de discussion (FGD) qui peuvent être menées séparément pour différents groupes sociaux (sexe, âge, statut social, etc.) afin de saisir des perspectives et des expériences différenciées. Les résultats peuvent aider à identifier les points d'entrée pour des recherches ultérieures. Il peut également compléter une petite étude de cas exploratoire.Questions qui peuvent être traitées avec la méthode des quatre carrés. Quelles variétés locales et améliorées les agriculteurs cultivent-ils ? A quoi servent les différentes variétés ? Que peuvent dire les agriculteurs sur leurs variétés ? En quoi les connaissances et l'expérience des hommes agriculteurs diffèrentelles de celles des femmes ? Quelle est la valeur des variétés locales et améliorées, selon les jeunes agriculteurs ? Quel est l'impact des interventions du système semencier sur la diversité variétale ?L'analyse de chaînages cognitifs (MEC) est une approche issue du domaine des études de consommation. Son attractivité est la liberté qu'elle donne aux répondants de sélectionner et de verbaliser leurs propres construits pour évaluer un produit ou un service. Les entretiens de chaînages cognitifs se composent de deux parties : (1) l'élicitation d'attributs et (2) l'échelonnement. La technique d'élicitation consiste en un tri triadique basé sur la grille du répertoire de Kelly. Typiquement, les agriculteurs ou les commerçants voient trois produits ou services assez similaires, qu'ils doivent trier par similitudes et différences. Ces constructions personnellement pertinentes sont ensuite liées aux propres objectifs des personnes interrogées via des entretiens en échelle dans lesquels l'intervieweur demande uniquement « lequel préférez-vous ? » et « pourquoi est-ce important pour vous ? » En montrant aux personnes interrogées le matériel de plantation réel, les agriculteurs peuvent proposer des caractéristiques ou des motivations que les chercheurs n'auraient pas pu imaginer comme importantes. L'approche a été appliquée pour saisir les perceptions des agriculteurs sur les sources formelles et informelles de plants de pomme de terre au Pérou et de matériel de plantation de bananes en Ouganda. Une étude MEC nécessite environ 40 entretiens, voire moins lorsque les réponses sont très similaires. On peut comparer les réponses des agriculteurs hommes et femmes ou des agriculteurs aisés et pauvres, par exemple. Une certaine formation est nécessaire, en particulier dans l'enregistrement et l'analyse des données.Questions qui peuvent être abordées avec l'analyse de la chaîne moyens-fins. Quelles caractéristiques variétales les agriculteurs apprécient-ils et pourquoi ? Où les agriculteurs préfèrent-ils s'approvisionner en semences et pourquoi ? Les agriculteurs hommes et femmes préfèrent-ils les mêmes caractéristiques variétales et si oui, est-ce pour les mêmes raisons ?Les enchères expérimentales sont devenues une méthode de recherche populaire car elles obtiennent une valeur pour la Volonté réelle de payer (WTP) et la Volonté d'adopter (WTA) d'une personne. Cette valeur réelle ne s'exprime que lorsque les enchères sont bien organisées et que l'enchère pour le produit ressemble à une situation réelle. Les économistes proposent différentes manières d'organiser les enchères et le paiement. Les scientifiques de l'alimentation ont utilisé les enchères pour déterminer les préférences et les valeurs marchandes des nouveaux produits alimentaires. Ce mécanisme est relativement nouveau pour les cultures de racines, de tubercules et de bananes, et pour les semences et les variétés en général, mais un nombre croissant d'études utilisent ce mécanisme. Ils offrent de bonnes occasions de comparer la valeur accordée aux semences, aux variétés ou aux traits variétaux par différents groupes sociaux, c'est-à-dire les hommes et les femmes. Une étude WTP utilisant les mécanismes d'enchères et d'enchères validés existants est coûteuse.Questions qui peuvent être traitées avec des enchères expérimentales. Quelle est la valeur marchande réelle des semences ? Quelle est la différence entre le prix réel que les agriculteurs et les agricultrices sont prêts à payer ? Quel est le WTP relatif entre les semences de différentes caractéristiques, telles que la variété, la source, le niveau de qualité et l'étiquetage ?Cet outil fournit des preuves exploitables sur les politiques et les options d'investissement pour accélérer le développement du système semencier et du marché dans les pays où les cultures à multiplication végétative (VPC) sont importantes pour la sécurité alimentaire et le développement agricole. Les utilisateurs de l'outil sont les chercheurs agricoles et les analystes des politiques. L'outil consiste en une série de listes de contrôle pour les entretiens avec des informateurs clés (KII) à utiliser avec différentes parties prenantes du système semencier, par ex. les sélectionneurs de plantes, les régulateurs publics du matériel végétal VPC, les experts de l'industrie, les entrepreneurs, les commerçants, les producteurs de semences, les importateurs de semences, les ONG ou d'autres parties prenantes, y compris les agriculteurs et les dirigeants de leurs associations. Les entretiens posent des questions sur les différences entre les sexes dans les perceptions sur l'utilisation et les implications des réglementations sur les semences. Les entretiens avec des informateurs clés doivent être complétés par une revue de la littérature, des données secondaires et une analyse de documents.Questions qui peuvent être abordées avec l'analyse du cadre réglementaire des semences. Quels types de politiques publiques et de réglementations sont en place pour les cultures concernées dans un pays ? Comment ces politiques et réglementations sont-elles mises en oeuvre ? Quel type d'assurance qualité est rentable pour accroître l'accès, la disponibilité et la qualité du matériel de plantation ? Comment améliorer l'accès des agricultrices à des semences de qualité ?Cet outil permet d'analyser les performances financières des entreprises de semences de première génération (EGS) gérées par des producteurs de semences spécialisés, tels que les SNRA et des entreprises privées. Les EGS comprennent les plantes in vitro, les semences de pré-base et les semences de base. L'approvisionnement en EGS est souvent un goulot d'étranglement pour l'amélioration des systèmes semenciers formels. SEGSBAT mesure la viabilité financière en six étapes : (1) identifier la capacité de production minimale pour chaque étape de la production d'EGS afin d'atteindre les objectifs de vente minimaux, (2) mesurer le total des coûts récurrents de production pour le produit final, (3) formuler des stratégies de tarification basées sur le type de client et le moment de commande, (4) calculer les fonds, tels que les fonds renouvelables, nécessaires pour couvrir les coûts récurrents totaux, (5) estimer le flux de trésorerie net sur la base des ventes réelles, et (6) examiner et mettre à jour le plan de production chaque saison pour suivre les performances réelles du commerce de semences. Cet outil peut être utilisé par toute personne familiarisée avec Microsoft Excel. Cet outil n'effectue pas d'analyse de faisabilité financière, qui comprend les valeurs actualisées nettes, le taux de rendement interne et l'analyse de sensibilité de l'entreprise. Le genre ne joue aucun rôle évident dans l'application de l'outil ou l'utilisation des informations qui en résultent.Questions qui peuvent être traitées avec SEGSBAT. Qu'est-ce qu'un coût précis de production d'EGS ? Comment déterminer le prix des produits EGS et formuler une stratégie de prix pour les produits EGS afin d'attirer plus de clients ? Existe-t-il des inefficacités de production qui peuvent être rationalisées pour rendre EGS plus rentable pour les fournisseurs ?Un glossaire est particulièrement important pour un sujet comme les systèmes semenciers, qui rassemble des experts de nombreux domaines différents de la biologie, de l'agronomie et des sciences sociales. Ce glossaire détaillé est basé sur une revue de la littérature de publications évaluées par des pairs, citant les textes et fournissant les références, afin que les lecteurs puissent avoir un aperçu rapide du langage technique des systèmes semenciers, tout en pouvant également consulter la littérature originale pour un contexte plus large.Questions qui peuvent être traitées avec le glossaire. Quelle est la différence entre semence « de qualité » et « semence de qualité déclarée » ? J'ai besoin de commencer une revue de littérature (pour ma thèse, pour un cours que j'enseigne, pour un article que j'écris), où puis-je trouver des références solides pour commencer ?Cette section décrit les résultats attendus de l'utilisation des outils, puis quelques exemples de résultats de l'utilisation des outils pour la banane, le manioc, la pomme de terre, la patate douce et l'igname.Le troisième résultat attendu se situe au niveau politique : l'allocation de ressources éclairée par des preuves scientifiques. La plupart des interventions agricoles dans les pays en développement comprennent des composantes solides du système semencier. Cependant, où allouer les ressources est généralement une préoccupation majeure pour les bailleurs de fonds et les décideurs politiques. Les outils présentés ici peuvent aider à allouer des ressources sur la base de preuves scientifiques. Par exemple, pour gérer à long terme la dégénérescence des semences pour les agriculteurs pauvres, il pourrait être plus rentable d'investir dans la sélection de variétés résistantes que dans des systèmes complexes de fourniture de semences propres aux agriculteurs, comme l'évalue le modèle seedHealth.Les cinq exemples suivants, un pour chaque culture majeure d'intérêt pour RTB, décrivent où les outils ont été utilisés et leur potentiel pour mieux comprendre et améliorer les systèmes semenciers :Les pommes de terre sont le « second pain » en République de Géorgie. Cependant, le rendement est de 8,9 à 12 tonnes par ha, tandis que le rendement potentiel peut atteindre 50 tonnes par ha. L'un des obstacles à l'amélioration du rendement de la pomme de terre est la mauvaise qualité du matériel de plantation. Les producteurs de pommes de terre conservent les tubercules de la récolte précédente pour planter la saison suivante. Cette pratique conduit à la dégénérescence des graines, car les agents pathogènes, tels que les virus et Synchytrium endobioticum (l'agent causal de la verrue de la pomme de terre), s'accumulent dans les tubercules de semence, forçant les rendements à diminuer avec le temps. Avec le soutien de l'Agence autrichienne de développement (ADA), le CIP, l'UF et des partenaires locaux ont conçu une intervention pour améliorer la qualité du matériel de plantation (https://ishpotato.cipotato.org/) et un plan national d'amélioration de la pomme de terre de semence (CIP 2019), basée sur l'approche intégrée de la santé des semences (Thomas-Sharma et al. 2015) (Outil 3, Tableau 1). Les résultats de cette intervention incluent l'adoption par des centaines d'agriculteurs de la sélection positive, une technique simple pour sélectionner les meilleurs tubercules de semence ; l'identification de trois clones de pomme de terre résistants aux virus à diffuser en tant que variétés ; et l'adaptation des normes internationales de certification des semences aux conditions géorgiennes. De même, à l'aide d'une analyse des réseaux d'impact (INA) (Outil 2, Tableau 1), l'équipe de l'étude a modélisé des scénarios de propagation de S. endobioticum, dans le cadre d'une analyse d'évaluation des risques, et identifié les zones où l'agent pathogène doit être surveillé attentivement pour éviter des pertes importantes (Andersen et coll. 2020), s'appuyant sur des concepts développés dans une étude des systèmes semenciers de patate douce en Ouganda (Andersen et al. 2019).Le manioc est l'une des cultures de rente les plus importantes en Asie du Sud-Est. Les racines féculentes de la culture sont largement produites par de petits exploitants au Cambodge, au Laos, au Vietnam, en Thaïlande, en Indonésie et aux Philippines, alimentant des chaînes de valeur de plusieurs milliards de dollars. Mais malgré sa taille et son importance économique, l'industrie reste vulnérable à l'invasion de ravageurs et de maladies limitant le rendement. En 2017, le virus de la mosaïque du manioc du Sri Lanka (SLCMV) a été signalé au Cambodge et s'est depuis propagé à quatre autres pays de la région. L'Asie du Sud-Est manque de variétés résistantes et la maladie s'est rapidement propagée à l'aide de vecteurs d'aleurodes et d'échange de tiges de plantation infectées (Minato et al. 2019). La réponse a été particulièrement entravée par l'absence de connaissance systématique des réseaux de semences de manioc. Grâce à une subvention du Centre australien pour la recherche agricole internationale (ACIAR), le Centre international pour l'agriculture tropicale (CIAT) a mené une étude avec WUR, UF et des partenaires nationaux au Cambodge, au Vietnam et en Chine pour comprendre l'utilisation et le mouvement de semences du manioc, et pour modéliser la propagation probable et l'impact des interventions d'atténuation. L'approche a utilisé une combinaison d'analyse de circulation de semences (Outil 5, Tableau 1) pour cartographier les réseaux d'échange de matériel végétal existants (Delaquis et al. 2018) et l'analyse des réseaux d'impact (Outil 2, Tableau 1) pour construire des modèles épidémiologiques combinant à la fois des paramètres environnementaux et des réseaux d'échange de semences pour modéliser des scénarios de propagation (publication à venir). Les résultats de ce travail ont conduit à un vaste nouveau projet de recherche ACIAR sur la réponse SLCMV, et ont été présentés lors d'ateliers de parties prenantes et de réunions des groupes de travail régionaux pour SLCMV, fournissant aux représentants du gouvernement régional et aux acteurs de la chaîne de valeur du manioc les toutes premières données régionales sur SLCMV, échange de semences et analyses de scénarios pour la planification des interventions.Dans la patate douce, le cadre multipartite (Outil 1, Tableau 1) a été utilisé dans le cadre d'un examen postintervention et d'un atelier d'apprentissage du projet Marando Bora (Better Vines) mis en oeuvre dans Lake Zone, en Tanzanie (Ogero et al. 2015). Le projet a formé des multiplicateurs de vigne décentralisés (DVM) pour multiplier le matériel de plantation de variétés améliorées et le distribuer par le biais d'un système de bons subventionnés. Le cadre multipartite a permis une réflexion systématique à partir des perspectives de différentes parties prenantes sur les succès et les défis de l'amélioration de la disponibilité, de l'accès et de la qualité du matériel de plantation de patate douce pour différents types d'agriculteurs. Plusieurs défis ont été mis en évidence : certaines variétés étaient sensibles aux maladies virales de la patate douce ; les connaissances sur la dégénérescence des semences étaient insuffisantes et il n'était pas clair quand les agriculteurs devraient remplacer leur matériel de plantation. Ces questions ont ensuite été explorées dans un projet de suivi, Kinga Marando (Protéger les vignes), qui a introduit une technologie innovante de gestion des maladies utilisant des tunnels en filet pour protéger le matériel de plantation des insectes. Des modèles de santé des semences (Outil 4, Tableau 1) ont ensuite été utilisés pour évaluer la dégénérescence des semences pour deux variétés préférées, avec et sans filets. Les résultats de cette recherche ont été utilisés pour recommander le nombre de saisons où les agriculteurs peuvent réutiliser le matériel de plantation avant d'atteindre un seuil économique potentiel de 40 % de perte de rendement (Ogero et al. 2019).Le « Seed Tracker » (Outil 3, Tableau 1) a été utilisé pour la première fois avec le manioc au Nigeria et en Tanzanie. Son utilisation récente avec l'igname au Nigéria illustre les avantages de l'application des TIC pour la collecte de données dans le suivi en temps réel de la production de graines d'igname (Ouma et al. 2019). Les données sur les semences d'igname au Nigéria sont principalement collectées à l'aide de carnets de terrain, puis saisies dans une feuille Microsoft Access. Les faiblesses de ces systèmes de données comprennent le retour d'information tardif et le manque de données sur demande, ce qui entrave l'analyse de circulation de semences à divers stades de la production et de la gestion des cultures. L'étude a fourni aux collecteurs de données une application préinstallée « Seed Tracker » (ST) à utiliser sur un appareil Android. Cette application a amélioré l'efficacité, la rapidité et la commodité de la collecte et de la visualisation des données, montrant que le ST peut être utilisé dans la gestion des cultures et la recherche, pas seulement avec des semences. Recevoir une rétroaction utile et rapide a été à la fois une incitation pour les agriculteurs à fournir des données de qualité et une justification sur laquelle fonder leurs décisions de gestion pour augmenter les rendements. Les parties prenantes ont pu visualiser les tendances de la production et de la commercialisation de l'igname.Dans le cas de la banane, la méthode des quatre carrés a été utilisée au Burundi pour évaluer comment la diversité de la banane était influencée par la maladie invasive du Bunchy top et par les interventions du système semencier utilisées pour la contrôler (Simbare et al. 2020). Cela a permis une discussion avec les agriculteurs sur les changements dans la diversité du groupe bananier des hautes terres d'Afrique de l'Est, ce qui était important parce que les agriculteurs sont des acteurs des semences et les gardiens de la diversité à la ferme. Les agriculteurs pourraient également anticiper la pénétration éventuelle de variétés introduites via des interventions de culture tissulaire. Cette étude a révélé la nécessité d'inclure un objectif de conservation dans les interventions du système semencier dans les lieux qui sont des centres de diversité secondaire, fournissant ainsi un argument solide pour des approches alternatives à l'assurance qualité des semences dans ces zones. Les données de ces études ont également constitué la base d'une étude du réseau d'impact en cours sur les systèmes semenciers de banane afin de révéler les interactions des systèmes d'acquisition de semences coexistants. L'étude a révélé qu'un mélange d'approches formelles et informelles est nécessaire pour développer le système de semences de banane afin de répondre aux multiples besoins des ménages et de les aider à améliorer leur productivité et à faire face aux défis émergents.La boîte à outils est composée de 11 outils (méthodes, modèles, approches et TIC) et d'un glossaire qui peut être utilisé par les chercheurs, les décideurs et les praticiens pour diagnostiquer, évaluer et améliorer les systèmes semenciers de banane, manioc, pomme de terre, patate douce, et l'igname. Les outils et la boîte à outils sont le résultat de l'effort combiné de plus de 50 scientifiques de différents horizons techniques et scientifiques travaillant depuis 2012. En fonction de leurs intérêts et de leurs questions, les chercheurs, les décideurs et les praticiens peuvent sélectionner un outil dans la perspective d'une chaîne de valeur des semences (des ressources phytogénétiques aux marchés et aux consommateurs) ou d'un cycle de projet (du diagnostic à l'analyse de scénarios). Les résultats attendus de l'utilisation des outils comprennent une meilleure compréhension des systèmes semenciers tubercules et de bananes, une conception et une évaluation améliorées des interventions, et l'allocation des ressources sur la base de preuves scientifiques. Plusieurs de ces résultats sont décrits dans des exemples fournis pour la pomme de terre en Géorgie ; le manioc en Asie du Sud-Est, au Nigeria en Tanzanie ; patate douce en Tanzanie ; l'igname au Nigeria ; et la banane au Burundi.Les auteurs envisagent la boîte à outils comme une initiative vivante qui évoluera avec le temps. La Figure 1 montre qu'il existe des composants dans une chaîne de valeur des semences qui ne sont pas entièrement pris en compte par les outils actuels. Par exemple, davantage d'outils sont nécessaires pour aider à concevoir des stratégies de diffusion de variétés améliorées, ou pour aider à sélectionner des techniques de multiplication rapide pour produire des semences de première génération. De nouveaux outils seront ajoutés pour combler ces lacunes à l'avenir.","tokenCount":"6244"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5a850e9555999a2ee607f4f337573b56","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f560b6b8-0917-4e72-ad6e-0ea96c67c67e/retrieve","id":"1282071909"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ba92c492-290a-47a8-ba7b-e1c7a90831f1","pagecount":"57","content":"por su acompañamiento en la construcción del enfoque de las MTA y su liderazgo en el proceso de implementación.Los autores agradecen sinceramente a las siguientes instituciones por el apoyo brindado para el desarrollo del enfoque MTA como insumos en la elaboración del presente manual: ElManual de implementación: Guía detallada sobre el uso de MTA, paso por paso Introducción Las nuevas herramientas de información climática que incluyen análisis históricos, sistemas de monitoreo, predicciones climáticas tienen el poder de ayudar a los agricultores a adaptarse a los impactos de la variabilidad y cambio climático. Al proporcionar información climática local traducida junto con los servicios de extensión, los agricultores están mejor preparados para protegerse de los fenómenos climáticos extremos y aprovechar las buenas condiciones climáticas, cerrando así la brecha entre la generación de información agro-climática y su uso por parte de los agricultores.Bajo el proyecto financiado por el Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural en Colombia durante 2013 hasta 2015 se da inicio al enfoque de las Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas (MTA), que fue inspirado en el trabajo de las aldeas en Senegal (PNUMA, 2014). En las metas de Colombia (formalmente conocidos como \"Contribuciones Determinadas Nacionales\" o NDC) negociadas en el acuerdo de Paris 2015 bajo el Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático (CMNUCC), Colombia se comprometió a que el país disponga una red de MTA con 15 departamentos participando, y un millón de productores recibiendo información agroclimática. Por lo anterior, en un proceso de sostenibilidad gremios como Fedarroz y Fenalce iniciaron el liderazgo de las MTA locales con el apoyo del servicio meteorológico nacional -IDEAM, que lidera la MTA a escala Nacional. A partir del 2017, MADR continuó liderando la iniciativa de las MTA, y a través de una alianza con FAO la implementación de las MTA locales en un proceso de escalamiento con ocho (8) MTA en Colombia.La MTA es un proceso de diálogo entre una diversidad de actores locales incluyendo científicos, técnicos, representantes del sector público, privado y agricultores que busca comprender el posible comportamiento del clima en una localidad y generar recomendaciones para disminuir los riesgos asociados a la variabilidad climática esperada (Loboguerrero et al. 2018). Como resultado de dicho diálogo, se genera un boletín agroclimático que contiene la predicción climática, su posible impacto en los cultivos para condiciones específicas en tiempo y espacio, asociado a recomendaciones como toma de decisión para cada rubro productivo. Las predicciones climáticas, son generadas en consenso con el servicio meteorológico de cada país y los grupos de agro meteorología existentes de las instituciones, con el fin de identificar las mejores prácticas de adaptación a los fenómenos climáticos, que son transferidas a técnicos y productores locales por medio del Boletín Agroclimático Local.Este manual brinda instrucciones paso a paso para trabajar el enfoque de las MTA. Está dirigido principalmente a instituciones líderes del sector agropecuario que tengan interés de implementar un espacio de discusión en su región. Este enfoque consta de siete pasos, que se llevan a cabo con las instituciones participantes. Dada la naturaleza específica por lugar, hay una serie de actividades de preparación que son necesarias realizar antes de cada reunión. A lo largo del manual se destacarán unos recuadros naranja los que indican consideraciones de género e inclusión social para la implementación de las MTAEs necesario identificar las demandas y preferencias de los agricultores para obtener información agroclimática, debido a importantes diferencias sociales que se encuentran en su entorno habitacional entre estas la desigualdad y falta de equidad entre hombres y mujeres. Por lo anterior, los roles, responsabilidades y actividades diarias que llevan a cabo las mujeres y los hombres determinan cómo perciben el cambio y el riesgo socio ambiental y cómo responden y se adaptan a ellos (Bee, 2016). En consecuencia, las mujeres y los hombres pueden tener diferentes necesidades, acceso y respuesta a la información climática (Kristjanson et al., 2017).Los servicios climáticos pueden correr el riesgo de exacerbar las desigualdades de género que prevalecen en otras estructuras institucionales, por lo tanto es relevante evaluar los diversos desafíos y oportunidades que enfrentan hombres y mujeres para incorporar información climática en la toma de decisiones agrícolas y la planificación de medios de vida (Gumucio, et al., 2018a). En este contexto, este manual identifica las consideraciones relacionadas a género para la implementación de las MTA, a fin de garantizar que tanto las mujeres como los hombres tengan la oportunidad de beneficiarse de la información agroclimática que se genera. También se abordan aspectos generales sobre inclusión social, aquí unos puntos importantes: La información generada a través de las MTA deben ser relevante para los agricultores; esto a menudo implica incorporar mecanismos en la MTA para asegurar que los intereses de mujeres y hombres, y de los diversos grupos sociales existentes en el territorio, estén representados.  También es de suma importancia que la MTA utilice canales de comunicación apropiados para mujeres y hombres para la difusión de información agroclimática, como el contenido del boletín agroclimático.Al pasar por cada fase y paso del proceso de las MTA, el Manual destaca la importancia de garantizar que las consideraciones para la igualdad y equidad entre hombres y mujeres se incorporen de manera integral, desde el principio hasta el final.En el presente manual, las actividades están divididas en pasos claros y lógicos. Cada paso se basa en lo que se cubrió en los pasos anteriores. Así, los primeros se centran en la implementación de la mesa, la información climática y agronómica de los diferentes cultivos. Un componente transversal en todos los pasos es el fortalecimiento de capacidades o alfabetización agroclimática; como se denomina en Colombia, anexo podrá encontrar el contenido de alfabetización agroclimática promovidos por la FAO en Colombia en las MTA (Anexo 1).Los siguientes pasos le permiten al lector, participar en un diálogo sobre los posibles impactos de la predicción climática sobre su cultivo e identificar las mejores prácticas de adaptación con base en la información presentada, que luego serán traducidas y plasmadas en el boletín agroclimático regional. Finalmente, el lector tendrá la responsabilidad de difundir el boletín a su entorno de trabajo (ej. agricultores, servicio extensión), y lograr retroalimentar la MTA con los hallazgos encontrados en el proceso de difusión. El proceso se puede dividir en 7 pasos (como se indica a continuación y en el diagrama de actividades de la página 5): Paso 1: ¿Cómo iniciar la primera reunión de implementación de la MTA? Paso 2: Información climática: datos históricos, monitoreo y pronósticos  Paso 3: Información de cultivo: mesas de trabajo y modelos de cultivo  Paso 4: ¿Cómo generar las recomendaciones dada la predicción agroclimática? Paso 5: Generación del boletín agroclimático local  Paso 6: Difusión del boletín agroclimático local  Paso 7: Lecciones aprendidas y mejora del proceso.Manual de implementación Mesa Técnica Agroclimática (MTA) Guía detallada -paso a paso -Cada paso tiene un conjunto de actividades que el líder del proceso, implementa con los participantes, mediante una serie de reuniones. Las actividades de cada paso se explican con mayor detalle en las hojas de actividades que se encuentran a lo largo de este manual. Los nombres de las hojas de actividades corresponden al nombre del paso al que corresponden, p. ej. Paso 1, Hojas de actividades 1a y 1b. Una de las primeras responsabilidades del líder, es establecer un cronograma de reuniones. Cuando elabore el programa, necesitará tomar en consideración en qué época del año se llevará a cabo cada paso, con el objetivo de que el usuario final del boletín agroclimático local pueda tener el insumo para tomar decisiones de su cultivo a tiempo. Si los participantes de la MTA acostumbran a realizar reuniones periódicas con los agricultores, la información presentada en la MTA puede ser insumo en dichas reuniones.Esta es solo una sugerencia de programa y se debe adaptar a las necesidades del contexto específico, rubros productivos y logística de cada MTA local. Por ejemplo: 1) En Colombia, las reuniones de las MTA se realizan mes a mes, en cada reunión se presenta el pronóstico de tiempo y clima, las recomendaciones de los cultivos para las fases más importantes, y se genera un boletín agroclimático local mensual, 2) En Honduras, las reuniones de las MTA se realizan antes del inicio de las fecha de siembra importante de los principales cultivos y una reunión al final del ciclo, en total se generan 3 boletines agroclimáticos regionales al año para las siembras de primera, postrera y apante 2 .A continuación se presenta el diagrama de actividades de cada paso, asociado cronológicamente al inicio de época de lluvias, que es de importancia para las actividades agropecuarias del país. Seguir esta secuencia paso a paso brinda un proceso práctico y lógico para ayudar en la generación del boletín agroclimático como instrumento en la planificación y toma decisiones. Sin embargo, para algunos pasos, puede que no sea necesario seguir todas las actividades descritas del presente manual, dada la naturaleza o contexto específico de cada MTA.Mucho antes de la época de lluvias Paso 1: ¿Cómo iniciar la primera reunión de implementación de la MTA?Paso 2: Información climática: datos históricos, monitoreo y pronósticos Paso 3: Información de cultivo: mesas de trabajo y modelos de cultivoPaso 4: ¿Toma de decisiones dada la predicción agroclimática?Paso 5: Generación del boletín agroclimático local Paso 6: Difusión del boletín agroclimático localPaso 7: Lecciones aprendidas y mejora del proceso.Nota importante: se recomienda que la(s) institución(es) que implemente(n) la MTA, sea líder en la región, con poder de convocatoria. Como líder de la MTA, es importante que siempre tenga en mente su función, que es la de facilitar el aprendizaje, análisis compartidos entre los participantes, y la generación del boletín agroclimático local, así como la comunicación permanente con el servicio meteorológico de su país y otras instituciones clave a nivel nacional.Ingredientes a tener en cuenta antes de iniciar el proceso:¿Por qué implementar una MTA? Pensar en implementar una MTA implica iniciar un proceso de cambio en actitud, conocimientos y habilidades de los actores que participan. Este proceso es resultado de la reflexión por parte de los actores involucrados sobre la necesidad de cerrar la brecha entre la generación de información climática y su uso por parte de las instituciones, servicios de extensión y agricultores, donde se puedan tomar decisiones en los cultivos dadas las variaciones climáticas esperadas en su región.Es necesario hacer una revisión de los documentos que hacen parte de los antecedentes del trabajo de CCAFS (Fig. 1), en la creación de las Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas, definiéndose la documentación que debe ser parte del marco conceptual y las lecciones aprendidas de las instituciones que han liderado la implementación de las MTA en otros territorios.También, es clave identificar iniciativas lideradas que se enfocan en los intereses de mujeres y hombres en el territorio e incluir a estos actores en la MTA. Los sesgos basados en género a menudo pueden subyacer a organizaciones agropecuarias, de manera que los intereses de las mujeres pueden ser descuidados (Perez et al., 2015). Ejemplos de organizaciones a incluir en la MTA: instituciones para el desarrollo con un mandato de igualdad de género, ONG sectoriales relevantes que tengan interés o experiencia en asuntos de género, y una organización inclusiva de mujeres. Desde el sector gubernamental, es relevante incluir puntos focales de género del ministerio de agricultura, medio ambiente o sectores asociados.Funciones de la institución que lidera la primera reunión de la MTA a) Identificar los actores potenciales (instituciones) que conformarían la MTA. b) Identificación potencial de recursos humanos y financieros, socios que puedan hacer sostenible la MTA. c) Generar una carta de invitación que indique el motivo de la reunión, así como la fecha y lugar d) Generar una agenda de trabajo para esta primera reunión e) Tener un grupo con la lista de correos de los actores a convocar a la reunión, para enviarle la invitación Figura 1. Para los antecedentes de la creación de las MTA, consultar la página de CCAFS (https://goo.gl/Jq4DhG)Es la persona(s) de la institución que lidera la MTA, que preside, coordina y enlaza el grupo de debate durante el diálogo. Debe hacer aportes, conciliar el trabajo de los miembros, dar la palabra, anunciar los tiempos y mantener un ambiente de polémica pero de buena actitud entre los participantes. Deberá ser imparcial y objetivo en sus intervenciones, resúmenes y conclusiones.Cuando se explica una actividad es útil proporcionar un ejemplo. Después de presentar los ejemplos es importante recordar que en todos los métodos participativos son los asistentes los que llevan a cabo las actividades. Sus actividades como facilitador durante el desarrollo del evento son: abrir la sesión con palabras iniciales, mencionando el tema por tratarse, explicar el procedimiento que ha de seguirse, hacer la presentación de los expositores, comunicar al auditorio la metodología de preguntas y ofrecer la palabra al primer expositor.Son los expertos que presentan las predicciones climáticas y los análisis agroclimáticos, cuyos resultados representan las bases para generar la discusión y análisis entre los participantes de la MTA, con el fin de proponer las medidas adaptativas en los cultivos priorizados, teniendo en cuenta las evaluaciones agroclimáticas. Deben tener conocimiento en temas de modelación, análisis de predicción climática y agroclimática.Después de seleccionada(s) la(s) institución(es) líder(es) de la MTA, se convocan para iniciar el proceso participativo, trabajando en sesiones mensuales (o según sea decidido con los miembros de la MTA), poner en marcha y así replicar la experiencia del trabajo de las MTA en otras regiones del país. La metodología antes, durante y después de la MTA, debe comprender la planificación y concertación local para el abordaje de los temas o problemas relacionados con las actividades agropecuarias, en lo relacionado con la toma de decisiones, acciones preventivas y la reducción de pérdidas por fenómenos meteorológicos y climáticos adversos.De manera general, las sesiones mensuales constan de cinco fases: i) la introducción (presentación de la agenda y de los asistentes), ii) el cuerpo de la discusión (presentación de las predicciones agroclimáticas para los próximos meses, con la sesión de preguntas y respuestas), iii) análisis de medidas adaptativas de manera participativa (por grupos temáticos, por ejemplo los conocedores de cada cultivo), iv) construcción del boletín agroclimático local , y v) comentarios finales (sobre la dinámica de la MTA, conclusiones y compromisos adquiridos). La reunión inicia con la introducción: El facilitador comienza presentando una introducción del tema que se va a tratar, explica cómo se va a desarrollar la MTA, la estrategia y los tiempos asignados, presenta a los expositores y comunica al auditorio la metodología para la formulación de preguntas. Documentar la experiencia durante el evento: Para lograr registros confiables y de incidencia es necesario documentar durante el desarrollo de la MTA, las acciones de cada reunión, así como de los acuerdos entre las partes y listados de asistencia, el cual serán consignados en las ayudas de memoria. Además de tomar apuntes, dejar registrado el evento con fotografías, en twitter y videos para el desarrollo de las memorias o actas.Nota importante: Tiene que considerar que para muchos de los participantes los conceptos relacionados con información meteorológica y climática son nuevos, y que existe una brecha entre la generación de información climática y su uso por parte del sector agropecuario. Así que, usted deberá asegurar que antes de generar un boletín agroclimático local, los participantes de la MTA manejen y conozcan los conceptos, que haya una homologación de lenguajes, que se cumpla con las capacitaciones y evaluaciones respectivas de los temas.En las MTA ya establecidas, las primeras 2 o 3 reuniones se tomaron para transferencia de capacidades en temas climáticos, y luego se diseña un currículo de capacitaciones de acuerdo a las necesidades y requerimientos de la MTA que contribuya a mejorar la información agroclimática contenida en el boletín. Estas capacitaciones se dictan en una sesión aparte a la reunión de la MTA. Es decir en horas de la mañana (8:30 -12:00) se tenía la reunión de la MTA, y en horas de la tarde, o al día siguiente todo el día se dictaba la capacitación del tema priorizado.¿Cómo iniciar la primera reunión de implementación de la MTA?Paso 1Paso 1 -¿Cómo iniciar la primera reunión de implementación de la MTA?Al finalizar este paso, tanto usted lector, como los participantes a la MTA deben tener muy claro cuál es la visión y misión de la MTA a implementar, así como el compromiso y aporte de cada institución. Este será el punto de partida para generar el mapeo de información de clima y cultivo, y posteriormente el plan de trabajo. Es importante que los participantes trabajen en conjunto por un mismo objetivo.1. Comprender el alcance, antecedentes y lecciones aprendidas en las MTA ya implementadas en los diferentes países. 2. Identificar qué actividades lleva a cabo cada institución, en que cultivos y zonas trabaja, y su interés en ser parte de la MTA (mediante un mapeo de actores). 3. Revisar si existe coherencia entre los objetivos, metas y actividades para el establecimiento de la MTA a través de un mecanismo de formalización (ej. carta, reglamento, acuerdo). 4. Generar un punto de partida para explorar la información climática y de cultivo disponible en la región. 5. Construir un plan estratégico de funcionamiento de la MTA Mapa de actores (ver Hoja de actividades 1a).  Antecedentes de la MTA ya implementadas en los diferentes países  Carta de formalización de la MTA (misión, visión, compromisos)  Matriz de información de clima y cultivo (ver Hoja de actividades 1b).  Plan de trabajo (ver Hoja de actividades 1c)Dado que es la primera reunión de la MTA, asegúrese de tomarse el tiempo para explicar todo el proceso en general y el propósito de las diferentes reuniones que se planificarán. Según concertaciones previas y experiencias derivadas de las MTA anteriores, se propone la agenda para este primer día que se realice entre las 08:30 AM y las 04:00 PM.Manual de implementación Mesa Técnica Agroclimática (MTA) Guía detallada -paso a paso -Un mapa de actores es una herramienta participativa que describe cuales son los actores que intervienen en el proceso de generar, difundir y recibir información relacionada con clima y cultivo, además un análisis del papel de los actores, sus aportes y sus capacidades para el abordaje de las temáticas. La participación de los \"actores clave\" es crucial para el éxito de cualquier iniciativa, contando con un proceso previo de identificación. Esta incorporación de actores es dinámica y se fortalece a medida que todos sus participantes se apropian del proceso.Las capacidades técnicas institucionales que los actores aportan a la estrategia de las MTA son analizadas desde la generación, transferencia y mecanismos de apropiación de información agroclimática. Lo anterior, hace referencia con lo que cuentan las instituciones del sector agropecuario para la generación, la apropiación y divulgación de información agroclimática, por ejemplo: oficinas internas de cambio climático, personal especializado, equipos de extensión, acceso a radios comunitarias, programas radiales, boletines internos, cobertura regional, estaciones agroclimáticas, entre otros.Necesitará lista de asistencia, cartulinas de colores y marcadores para escribir el nombre de las instituciones. Adicionalmente, necesitará una cartulina con las preguntas iniciales.1. Después de dar la bienvenida a los participantes, usted como facilitador realizará las siguientes preguntas a los participantes como una introducción, a) nombre y profesión, b) institución a la que representa, y c) en la opinión de los participantes que es una mesa técnica agroclimática. Esta dinámica puede ser tan creativa como sea posible para romper el hielo entre los asistentes. 2. Los nombres de las instituciones participantes se escriben en tarjetas de cartulina y se agrupan según el tipo de institución (ej. organización de cooperación internacional, organización de enseñanza, investigación y/o desarrollo, organización gubernamental, gobierno central, agremiaciones, asociaciones y cooperativas, productores del departamento/municipio, gobierno local o instancia de gobierno local, y medios de difusión). 3. Una encuesta pequeña con una escala sobre las capacidades técnicas de cada institución. 4. En cartulinas de color blanco recopilar las opiniones de cada participante sobre que es una MTA. 5. Al final de este paso socializar el mapeo de actores (Fig. 3), que será utilizado en los próximos pasos.Figura 3. Ejemplo de mapeo de Actores en Santander -ColombiaEs importante saber que esta iniciativa comenzó en el año 2013 cuando CCAFS facilitó una experiencia de intercambio en el cual, una delegación de Colombia y Honduras visitó el Territorio Sostenible Adaptado al Clima de Kaffrine 3 en Senegal 4 para aprender cómo la información meteorológica estaba ayudando a los agricultores a adaptarse a la variabilidad climática. En 2014, una delegación Senegal-Honduras visitó Colombia para continuar el proceso de aprendizaje 5 . Posteriormente, CCAFS junto con el Ministerio de Agricultura y Desarrollo Rural (MADR) y otros socios nacionales iniciaron en Colombia el proyecto de las MTA a finales de 2014.En un proceso de sostenibilidad gremios como Fedarroz y Fenalce iniciaron el liderazgo de las MTA locales con el apoyo del servicio meteorológico nacional -IDEAM, que lidera la MTA a escala Nacional. A partir del 2017, MADR continuó liderando la iniciativa de las MTA, y a través de una alianza con FAO la implementación de las MTA locales en un proceso de escalamiento con ocho (8) MTA en Colombia.Se recomienda presentar el video \"Información climática puesta en manos de los agricultores\" 6Un proyector para presentaciones de diapositivas y audio para video.1. Coordinar previo a la reunión con un representante de CCAFS, para dar una presentación de una hora (con preguntas) sobre los antecedentes de las Mesas Técnicas Agroclimáticas, los componentes de trabajo y cómo funciona la colaboración interinstitucional. El trabajo que se ha realizado en las MTA ya implementadas y presentar estudios de caso sobre su funcionamiento, así como las lecciones aprendidas. 2. Coordinar previo a la reunión con un representante de otra MTA ya implementada, para dar una presentación de media hora (con preguntas) sobre su funcionamiento, cómo se genera el boletín agroclimático y qué impactos ha generado.Las iniciativas de creación de espacios de discusión entre multi-actores, resulta en muchas ocasiones reuniones informales con un fin inmediato específico. En ese sentido, la preocupación en consolidar el proceso de la gobernanza agroclimática en los departamentos se debe considerar como puntos clave a resolver los siguientes aspectos: participación permanente y sistémica de los actores del sector agropecuario; difusión y trascendencia de la información generada; y sostenibilidad técnico operativa de las MTA.Al desarrollar las reglas y acuerdos para formalizar la MTA, es importante considerar los procesos y procedimientos que pueden facilitar la discusión grupal y la toma de decisión inclusiva. Esto es crítico, reconociendo la diversidad de actores que se reúnen para la MTA y las desigualdades en la participación que pueden resultar debido a las diferencias de género, etnia, etapa de la vida y otros atributos socioeconómicos. Es importante promover la incorporación de las mujeres a las capacitaciones técnicas convocándolas de manera directa, o a través de organizaciones en las que tengan participación efectiva.También, promocionar también mecanismos que permitan aumentar las capacidades institucionales en la apropiación de información agroclimática en especial a los actores regionales. La creación de una MTA trae consigo un proceso de compromiso por parte de las instituciones participantes. Por tal razón, se recomienda que la MTA tenga un proceso de formalización y fijación de metas, que hace posible la medición de los resultados y la evaluación del grado de cumplimiento y eficiencia logrados por los miembros. La formalización de la MTA se puede llevar a cabo de varias formas: a) Un proceso de apropiación y gobernanza durante el transcurso de la implementación de la MTA, con actividades que van desde un análisis DOFA de los actores, análisis de la participación e interés de las instituciones en la temática, apropiación de la información agroclimática, para en el largo plazo generar un acuerdo de voluntades de la MTA (Caso MTA Colombia) b) Un acuerdo de voluntades firmado por las instituciones participantes para el establecimiento de la MTA. Se aclara que, en ningún caso, el presente acuerdo faculta a las instituciones firmantes para la delegación de las funciones que por ley le corresponde (caso MTA Guatemala) c) Un reglamento (capítulos y artículos) de la MTA firmado por las instituciones participantes (caso MTA Honduras) que incluye: a. Capítulo I: Creación, objeto, visión, misión, domicilio y duración b. Capitulo II: Estructura Organizativa c. Capitulo III: Atribuciones de los cargos directivos MTA, anexo plan de trabajo, cumplimiento de objetivos, acuerdos y plazos. d. Capitulo IV: Acceso, generación y difusión de información de la MTA Este reglamento fue promovido por la Secretaria de Agricultura y Ganadería (SAG), para que las MTA quedaran dentro el marco legal y político de la Estrategia de Adaptación para el sector agroalimentario de Honduras, este acuerdo ministerial para la creación de las MTA facilitó su establecimiento y sostenibilidad.Necesitará un rotafolio, cartulina de colores y marcadores Procedimiento 1. Retomar las opiniones de cada participante sobre que es una MTA escritas en las cartulinas blancas (paso del mapeo de actores), y consolidar participativamente una sola definición sobre que es una MTA. 2. Entendiendo qué es una MTA por todos los participantes, se procede a entregar 3 cartulinas de diferentes colores, para que cada institución escriba desde su punto de vista cual sería el objeto, misión, visión de la MTA de su región.100% de acuerdo en una MTA para mi región Figura 4. Creación de la misión, visión y objetivos de la MTA en Danli -Honduras 3. Luego de definir en conjunto el objeto, la misión, y visión de la MTA, se procede a realizar las siguientes preguntas: a. ¿Cuál sería el papel y aporte de mi institución dentro de la MTA? b. ¿Qué instituciones deberían ser invitadas a participar en la MTA?Al realizar el mapeo de cultivos y clima, es importante distinguir los roles de las mujeres y los hombres en la agricultura, la ganadería y la seguridad alimentaria, e incluir una discusión sobre los cultivos y las actividades agrícolas de las que son responsables.Los agricultores hombres y mujeres a menudo tienen responsabilidades domésticas distintas y desempeñan roles diferenciados en las actividades comerciales y de subsistencia y en el uso de los recursos naturales. En consecuencia, pueden participar de manera diferente en las cadenas de valor, y también pueden llevar a cabo distintas actividades productivas. Por ejemplo, las mujeres a menudo pueden desempeñar roles primarios en las cadenas de valor de los cultivos y productos derivados destinados para la subsistencia del hogar (como ejemplo, las mujeres suelen participar significativamente a lo largo de las cadenas de valor de las setas; este producto suele ser importante para el rol de las mujeres en la preparación de comidas y la seguridad alimentaria del hogar).Es importante definir con los participantes, el alcance geográfico de la MTA (regional, departamental, municipal). Por lo cual, identificar la cobertura de información climática proveniente de estaciones meteorológicas es un punto de partida. El facilitador antes de iniciar la primera MTA, debe realizar los siguientes pasos:1) Contactar al servicio meteorológico de su país, contarle la iniciativa de la implementación de la MTA, hacerlo parte de la MTA.2) De acuerdo a la región o departamento en la cual se va implementar el proceso de la MTA, solicitar al servicio meteorológico la ubicación (coordenadas y altura) de las estaciones meteorológicas de esa zona con sus respectivos metadatos (temporalidad, fecha de instalación, tipo de estación, % de datos faltantes). 3) A través de un sistema de información geográfica se debe generar un mapa con los límites administrativos de la región, departamento, municipios y la ubicación de las estaciones meteorológicas con su respectiva leyenda.Necesitará un rotafolio, 3 plotters de los mapas, marcadores de varios colores, y una hoja anexo por cada institución participante (Anexo 3)De acuerdo al número de participantes, divida tres grupos de trabajo con el objetivo de realizar un ejercicio de identificación de los principales municipios donde se utilizará la información climática generada por la MTA para la toma de decisiones. Así mismo, se deberá identificar las zonas de trabajo y acciones de cada institución participante. Se identificarán los principales rubros (cultivos) y temáticas de trabajo a nivel comunitario, municipal o departamental y las estaciones meteorológicas más cercanas a sus zonas de trabajo. Los resultados de esta sesión se presentará en plenaria.En la plenaria, los participantes de cada grupo deberán responder las siguientes preguntas: ¿Dónde trabaja usted (zonas, municipios)? ¿Por qué trabaja en esas zonas? ¿Cuáles son los principales rubros, actividades? ¿Qué cultivos? ¿Hay estaciones del servicio meteorológico cercanas en el municipio que seleccioné? ¿Mi institución tiene estaciones, dónde?  ¿Qué problemas tengo en esas zonas/cultivos relacionados con clima? ¿Qué información contenida en el boletín agroclimático puede ayudarme con estos problemas? ¿cuáles son los principales sectores y actividades en las que mujeres y hombres participan en el territorio? En consecuencia, ¿cuáles son los principales cultivos de los cuales son responsables las mujeres y los hombres en el territorio? Hay que tener en cuenta que mujeres y hombres pueden ser significativamente responsables de los mismos cultivos, pero pueden llevar a cabo diferentes actividades/tareas relacionadas con el cultivo, la cosecha, la post-cosecha, las ventas, etc.Después de terminar la primera reunión de la MTA, usted como facilitador debe realizar las siguientes actividades: Conformar un comité técnico cuyas principales funciones son la elaboración de las ayudas de memoria y los boletines agroclimáticos, las cuales son rotadas por los miembros del comité en cada reunión. Los criterios para la conformación de este comité tendrán en cuenta el rol y la motivación de las instituciones identificadas en la primera reunión. El comité también se encargará de apoyar al facilitador de la MTA con las fotos, logística de las reuniones (convocatoria, confirmación de asistencia, lugar de encuentro), y lista de asistencia. Con la información plasmada en los mapas y las hojas anexo, el facilitador de la MTA tiene la responsabilidad de digitalizar la información y consolidarla en un mapa final, lo anterior, hará parte de las memorias de la primera MTA. Tener la lista de asistencia en formato digital, crear una lista de correo de los participantes, y un grupo de WhatsApp para mantener informado a los integrantes de la MTA sobre las últimas noticias, eventos, y fechas de reunión, este grupo tendrá como único fin comunicar información relevante para los objetivos de la MTA. Organizar un plan de trabajo para presentarlo en la siguiente reunión, incluyendo la justificación, importancia, objetivos, metodología, líneas de acción, organización, recursos, y limitaciones. Elaboración de la agenda con los expositores, presentaciones y dinámicas. La agenda debe contener el tema que se va a tratar y dar el título a la misma, definiendo el orden de presentación de los subtemas. La forma de iniciación, generalmente consta de una introducción de bienvenida a la MTA, seguida de las exposiciones de predicción climática y el análisis agroclimático, Figura 6. Mesas de trabajo: Priorización de acciones y zonas de trabajo en Chiquimula -Guatemala trabajo participativo y las conclusiones y recomendaciones. La agenda de trabajo se construye de acuerdo a las necesidades y disponibilidad de recursos. El facilitador puede encargarse de invitar a los participantes como expositores para que presenten ante la MTA sus trabajos en la región o a otras personas que puedan exponer temas relacionados y de interés para la MTA.Ejemplo del mapa final:Paso 2 ¿Cómo presentar la información climática: histórica, monitoreo y pronósticos?Paso 2 -¿Cómo presentar la Información climática: histórica, monitoreo y pronósticos?Según BSA una empresa dedicada a la creación de soluciones de software (www.bsa.org), a lo largo de la historia de los seres humanos, los hitos de la civilización estuvieron marcados por avances en nuestra capacidad para observar y reunir información. Nuestros ancestros desarrollaron herramientas para medir la distancia, el peso, el volumen, la temperatura, el tiempo y el lugar -cada una fue mejorando con el tiempo y cada una fue fundamental para la transición de cazadores y recolectores a agricultores y a residentes de ciudades. Ya en el 6000 A.C., se utilizaron los datos del rendimiento de las cosechas y los ciclos de barbecho para incrementar la producción agrícola y alimentar a más gente. En el siglo XV, se utilizaron los datos del firmamento para navegar por el mundo y abrir los profundos mares al comercio global. En la década de 1850, se utilizaron los datos para relacionar los brotes de cólera con el clima y así salvar vidas.En el siglo XXI, estamos experimentando un aceleramiento de este proceso. A medida que los datos empiezan a abundar más y su costo de almacenamiento baja, las nuevas tecnologías les están proporcionando a los científicos de datos herramientas de vanguardia que dejan al descubierto valiosos conocimientos a partir de enormes cantidades de datos que adquieren características más transformadoras. Nos dirigimos a un mundo de información y posibilidades casi ilimitadas.La MTA debe asegurarse de tener en cuenta los conocimientos territoriales tradicionales sobre la variabilidad y el cambio climático y tener en cuenta las costumbres, medidas y prácticas que los agricultores mujeres y hombres usan para observar el clima y los problemas relacionados con el clima, según corresponda. La comprensión de las percepciones locales y el conocimiento del cambio climático y la variabilidad es fundamental para la comunicación efectiva de los pronósticos de tiempo y clima. Para esto es importante que se identifiquen y se generen procesos de formación técnica con énfasis en las mujeres, para mejorar sus habilidades, sobre todo en lo relacionado a temas de variabilidad y cambio climático, y de sensibilización de los hombres, para que se desarrolle de mejor manera el rol de las mujeres.Por lo anterior, los agricultores hace muchos años, comparten el reto de aprender a convivir con el clima para asegurar e incrementar su producción agrícola. Este enorme desafío sumado a la variabilidad climática, supone llevar a cabo estrategias de adaptación, y aunar esfuerzos para desarrollar recomendaciones de investigación que generen soluciones útiles, confiables y aplicables para mejorar la toma de decisiones. La información relativa a las condiciones climáticas del pasado, el presente y el futuro es importante para la elaboración de políticas y estrategias nacionales. Al finalizar este paso, los participantes de la MTA deberían comprender en esta segunda y tercera reunión de la MTA los siguientes conceptos:1. Conocer y aprender del clima pasado: Necesitamos una buena caracterización y análisis históricos desde el punto vista climático. Por lo anterior, necesitamos analizar las series de tiempo de las estaciones meteorológicas y sus métricas estadísticas más relevantes, asegurando el control de calidad de la información.2. Monitoreo del clima presente: Se pueden tomar medidas preventivas, con un buen monitoreo de las condiciones de clima; lo que está pasando y donde se van encendiendo esas alertas para tomar decisiones en tiempo cuasi-real, por ejemplo cuando aparece un plaga o enfermedad, que en una semana puede causar daños o incluso la perdida de nuestro cultivo. Por lo anterior, necesitamos conocer los productos de información a escala diaria, semanal, así como, las herramientas de monitoreo en tiempo real, que nos permitan tomar decisiones a corto plazo.3. Información relevante hacia futuro: El pronóstico climático ha tomado relevancia en los últimos años debido a su utilización como un instrumento básico en la planificación y toma de decisiones. Lo anterior, para diferentes sectores socio-económicos, incluyendo el agropecuario, dirigidos a la evaluación de riesgo ante fenómenos de variabilidad del clima para asegurar el abastecimiento de alimentos. Preguntas como esta ¿Cómo va estar el clima en mi próximo ciclo de cultivo?, son muy frecuentes en nuestros agricultores.• Proporcionar a los participantes la información climática de la zona que puedan utilizar para reflexionar sobre el clima y su variabilidad, compararla con la percepción que tienen del cambio, y sus efectos en los rubros productivos (ver Hoja de actividades 2a y 2b).• Los participantes comprendan que son los pronósticos a corto plazo y las alertas, cuales son las herramientas y productos que pueden consultar para obtener esta información y su utilidad (ver Hoja de actividades 2a). • Proporcionar a los participantes la predicción climática para los próximos 3 meses, así como, las ventajas y limitaciones en el uso de la información, y sus implicaciones para la toma de decisiones (ver Hoja de actividades 2d y 2e).Durante este paso usted debería facilitar: (con los expositores) Aplicar una encuesta (línea base) de conocimiento a los participantes sobre los conceptos asociados a esta segunda y tercera reunión. El entendimiento de dónde viene la información climática, y la interpretación de las gráficas y mapas climatológicos con los totales de precipitación anual, acumulados mensuales, números de días con lluvia. Con ejemplos, el análisis de las herramientas y productos de información disponibles de pronósticos a corto plazo y alertas, para que los participantes estén mejor preparados para tomar decisiones de acuerdo a los pronósticos y alertas que reciban. El conocimiento sobre qué es una predicción climática y cómo se genera. Asegurar que los participantes entiendan los conceptos asociados al pronóstico como son: probabilidad, terciles, análogos, incertidumbre, verificación y validación.La información climática histórica es esencial dentro del enfoque de la MTA. Es importante que los participantes conozcan de dónde viene dicha información y cómo ha sido colectada, para que puedan confiar en los resultados que se les presentan durante el paso 2d, también los datos de las estaciones en tiempo real serán la base para el monitoreo y posterior verificación de los pronósticos de tiempo y clima. El facilitador antes de convocar la segunda reunión de la MTA, debe tener en cuenta los temas a tratar y expositores para esta reunión. Por lo anterior, usted deberá considerar: Reunirse con el servicio meteorológico de su país para analizar la información histórica de la zona y solicitar la presenten en la MTA. Si lo anterior no es posible, deberá indagar con ellos la posibilidad de acceder a los productos de información históricos (mapas) y a las mismas series climáticas históricas de las estaciones meteorológicas priorizadas en el paso 1d. Contar con un profesional experto en clima para el procesamiento de la información de las estaciones meteorológicas 7 , dado el caso que la información no cuente con un proceso de control de calidad y el servicio meteorológico no pueda acompañar el proceso (no es la situación ideal).En este paso, antes de mostrar la información histórica de la zona, es importante impartir una serie de capacitaciones a los participantes de la MTA, aquí algunas sugerencias que pueden socializarse: Homologación de conceptos: Es importante explicar las diferencias entre tiempo y clima, qué es variabilidad y cambio climático, las escalas de variabilidad climática, los elementos meteorológicos. Estaciones meteorológicas: Muchas veces las instituciones a través de proyectos o donaciones instalan sus propias redes de estaciones meteorológicas, las cuales cuando el proyecto se acaba no tienen una sostenibilidad. Muchas estaciones terminan abandonadas y todo el esfuerzo que se hizo para construir una historia del clima a escala local queda desvanecido. Así que es importante dar una charla sobre: el rol de las estaciones meteorológicas, su clasificación, representatividad y sostenibilidad a lo largo de los años, ventajas y desventajas del tipo de estaciones; el enfoque es que esa estación instalada logre la determinación de una normal climatológica (30 años). Refuerzo de estadística con la herramienta RClimTool: El uso de datos históricos con la suficiente calidad y cantidad es de vital importancia para obtener resultados en modelación de cultivos y predicción climática con la mejor evaluación posible de las incertidumbres asociadas. Es común encontrar errores tipográficos, datos faltantes, atípicos y tendencias en la información de series de tiempo, lo que implica ejecutar un proceso minucioso para el control de calidad, estimación de la información faltante y análisis de las series. Por lo anterior, en el 2014 se desarrolló RClimTool, una interfaz en R de libre acceso y fácil uso. Necesitará la hoja de los metadatos de las estaciones meteorológicas que están instaladas en la zona con los siguientes datos: latitud, longitud, elevación, nombre de la institución a la que pertenece, temporalidad de la serie (número de años desde la instalación), % de datos faltantes. Así mismo, deberá asegurarse de tener a la mano la ficha técnica de la estación meteorológica y su estado actual. Necesitará entregar a los participantes de la MTA las gráficas de la climatología (30 años) de las estaciones en su zona para las variables disponibles (precipitaciones, temperaturas máximas) y las gráficas multianuales de toda la serie de datos disponible.Ejemplo Ficha técnica de la estación:Procedimiento 1. Cuando el expositor presente la charla sobre las estaciones meteorológicas. Reparta un ejemplo de la ficha técnica de una de las estaciones de la zona. Asegúrese de que los participantes comprendan: a. Cómo se miden las variables más importantes, cantidad de precipitación y temperaturas con un equipo estándar. b. Cómo se registra diariamente el total de precipitación y las temperaturas (máxima y mínima), y si esta información es colectada en forma manual o en tiempo real. 2. Pida al experto de clima explicar las gráficas de la climatología promedio mensual de las estaciones presentes en la zona de estudio, cuáles son las épocas secas, lluviosas, las temperaturas máximas y mínimas históricas a través de cada mes.Ejemplo presentación de información climatológica por estación:La fuente de esta grafica son datos del servicio meteorológico de Colombia -IDEAM y las gráficas elaboración CIAT.Ejemplo presentación de información climatológica a nivel espacial:Es importante que los participantes se familiaricen con la información climática existente en su zona, pero también comprendan qué es lo que llamamos la normal climatológica, que \"nuestra historia, el promedio\" está cambiando como consecuencia del cambio climático. Bajo este contexto, ¿cuántas medidas, estrategias de planificación o toma de decisiones se basan en esperar un año promedio? Se siembran cultivos en determinadas épocas porque en promedio la lluvia o la temperatura se comportan de tal manera. ¡Planificamos para un año que no va a existir! Por lo anterior, los objetivos de este paso son: Formar mesas de trabajo por rubros productivos según la experticia de los participantes para dibujar un calendario agroclimático con las actividades agropecuarias mes a mes, realizadas durante todo el año.  Con la serie histórica de la estación meteorológica de la zona (mínimo 20 años), los participantes tendrán la habilidad de identificar los años de altas y bajas precipitaciones, y relacionarlos con los eventos de El Niño y La Niña, y a su vez analizar y replantear el calendario de producción agrícola, pecuaria y de subsistencia cuando se presentan estos eventos y qué implicaciones tienen para las actividades.Al formar las mesas de discusión para desarrollar calendarios agroclimáticos de acuerdo con los sectores/cultivos clave, es importante considerar en cuáles actividades agrícolas/ganaderas/de subsistencia participan mujeres y hombres. Esto puede significar: formar un grupo de discusión específico para un cultivo o sector clave en el que las mujeres desempeñan un papel primordial (por ejemplo, las mujeres a menudo pueden participar significativamente en la pequeña producción ganadera en casos en América Latina, África subsahariana y Asia) y/o asegurándose de identificar aquellas actividades a las que contribuyen las mujeres y los hombres dentro de cada uno de los grupos que se forman (por ejemplo, tanto las mujeres como los hombres pueden desempeñar un papel importante en las actividades de cosecha y post-cosecha de café en Nicaragua; sin embargo, los hombres pueden ser en gran parte responsables del cultivo del café). Necesitará tres rotafolios y marcadores de colores para dibujar el calendario agroclimático. Necesitará imprimir los mapas de precipitación en un año característico El Niño y La Niña, y el índice oceánico ONI de la NOAA. Necesitará un juego completo de gráficas de la estación climática más reciente que se encuentre disponible. Saque copias suficientes, de modo que cada participante tenga un juego.1. Comience por hacer circular entre los grupos las gráficas de la climatología mensual de la estación de referencia y pídale a los integrantes que dibujen el calendario de actividades agrícolas, pecuarias o de subsistencia de acuerdo a la experticia de cada participante. Al finalizar el calendario agroclimático seleccione un representante de cada grupo para que pase y explique el calendario, de acuerdo a las siguientes preguntas:o ¿Qué actividades se realizan en el rubro asignado a cada grupo en los diferentes meses del año? o ¿Qué actividades realizan las mujeres y los hombres cada mes durante el año? o ¿Qué actividades son afectadas o beneficiadas por el clima y cómo?Figura 7. Calendario agroclimático del cultivo de Maíz 2. El experto en clima introducirá los fenómenos de variabilidad climática El Niño y La Niña, como se desarrollan, y como se calcula el índice, apoyado en la explicación de la tabla suministrada por la NOAA 8 . Como ejemplos utilizará los mapas suministrados por el servicio meteorológico, seleccionando años de referencia.3. Luego de entender los conceptos de El Niño y La Niña, se procede a entregar las gráficas de las series de tiempo de las estaciones meteorológicas cercanas de precipitación y temperaturas correlacionadas con el índice ONI. Los participantes responderán las siguientes preguntas de acuerdo a las gráficas:o ¿En qué año se presentaron sequías? o ¿En qué año se presentaron lluvias abundantes? o ¿Cree usted que el clima ha cambiado en los últimos 30 años? De ser así, ¿cómo cree usted que ha cambiado? o ¿Cree usted que hay más, menos o igual cantidad de lluvia? o ¿Ésta información es útil y cómo podría usted aprovecharla en sus planes/opciones/decisiones?Ejemplo presentación de información de la serie histórica:Así como la información climática es la base para generar nuestro boletín agroclimático, es importante que los participantes de la MTA se familiaricen con la información de tiempo 9 (corto plazo): ¿cuáles son las herramientas y productos que pueden consultar para obtener esta información y como pueden ser útiles en la toma de decisiones? La información en tiempo real de las estaciones meteorológicas o los mapas suministrados por los servicios meteorológicos de los próximos días (1-10 días) es información valiosaManual de implementación Mesa Técnica Agroclimática (MTA) Guía detallada -paso a pasopara tomar decisiones en el sector agropecuario, tales como la preparación de labores antes de la siembra, la aplicación de fertilizantes, labores específicas de nuestro cultivo (secado de granos) o el control de plagas y enfermedades.Por lo anterior, tener información de estaciones meteorológicas automáticas con información cercano a tiempo real nos permite realizar un seguimiento continuo de las condiciones diarias en épocas claves de nuestro cultivo como una herramienta de monitoreo. Si no contamos con información de estaciones meteorológicas automáticas, podemos consultar herramientas como información de radar o imágenes de satélites, esta última como un insumo clave para la era de la agricultura de precisión. Por lo anterior los objetivos de este paso antes de finalizar la segunda reunión de la MTA son: Reunirse con el servicio meteorológico de su país para conocer los productos de información relacionados con el estado del tiempo. Se debe asegurar que para cada MTA se presente dicha información 10  Dar a conocer graficas de interés para la agricultura con los datos diarios procesados de las estaciones meteorológicas: variación de inicio y finalización de la estación lluviosa, duración de la estación lluviosa, numero de periodos de sequía, duración del periodo de sequía más largo, lluvias extremas. Dar a conocer que es el estado del tiempo, su pronóstico y las fuentes de consulta  Introducir los conceptos de ondas (MJO), huracanes y frentes, su pronóstico y las fuentes consultaEn este paso, es importante impartir una serie de capacitaciones a los participantes de la MTA, aquí algunas sugerencias que pueden socializarse:• Dar a conocer el funcionamiento de un radar y cómo interpretar su información • Dar a conocer qué es una imagen de satélite, cómo se interpreta y dónde consultar dicha información en tiempo real.• Necesitará entregar a los participantes de la mesa las gráficas de variación de inicio y finalización de la estación lluviosa, duración de la estación lluviosa, número de periodos de sequía, duración del periodo de sequía más largo, lluvias extremas.1. Si no hay suficiente tiempo para tratar cada una de las gráficas, pida a los participantes que seleccionen las dos o tres gráficas que ellos consideren más útiles para discutir. Busque un espacio donde se puedan desplegar todas las gráficas para que todos las puedan ver y participar de la discusión.Ejemplo presentación con información diaria de las estaciones meteorológicas:Pida a los participantes que respondan las siguientes preguntas, de acuerdo a la gráfica y al conocimiento de la zona: ¿En qué épocas del año llueve más en la primera o segunda época?  ¿En qué época del año los días con lluvia son más constantes?  ¿En qué época siembran sus cultivos y en que variables basa esta decisión?Pida a los participantes que respondan las siguientes preguntas, de acuerdo a la gráfica y al conocimiento de la zona:• ¿De acuerdo a la gráfica, por qué varía cada año la fecha de inicio de lluvias?• ¿Qué impactos tiene para sus cultivos un retraso o adelanto en la fecha de inicio de lluvias?• ¿La gráfica es útil, y cómo podría usted aprovecharla en sus planes/opciones/decisiones? Pida a los participantes que respondan las siguientes preguntas, de acuerdo a la gráfica y al conocimiento de la zona:• ¿Qué etapas de su cultivo son las más sensibles a periodos largos de días sin lluvias?• ¿Cuántos días sin lluvia consecutivos tiene un impacto en su cultivo?• ¿La grafica es útil y cómo podría usted aprovecharla en sus planes/opciones/decisiones? 2. Después de la trasferencia de capacidades, y asegurando que los participantes de la MTA conocen el concepto de pronóstico del estado del tiempo, su interpretación y fuentes de consulta (páginas web). Pida al experto de clima que explique el consenso del pronóstico de tiempo para los próximos días para la zona de estudio. 3. Pida a los participantes que como ejercicio y previamente capacitados en el tema interpreten una imagen de satélite, lo anterior les ayudara a entender la información satelital cuando sea presentada en la MTA o enviada como parte del monitoreo de las condiciones diarias en el grupo de Whatapps.La predicción del clima se basa en la comprensión de las interacciones que existen entre los océanos y la atmósfera, que nos permiten conocer mejor el clima en un horizonte de tiempo futuro (1 -3 meses) (Martínez et al., 2011). Si bien, la variabilidad climática es una de las principales fuentes de riesgos de producción (Fraisse et al., 2006), beneficios significativos han surgido a partir del uso de pronósticos de tiempo y clima como una herramienta fundamental para reducir los riesgos de la producción agrícola y apoyar la toma de decisiones de siembra, variedades, insumos, manejo, y demás.Al proporcionar información local a los pequeños agricultores traducida junto con los servicios de extensión (Ortega et al., 2018), los agricultores están mejor preparados para protegerse de los fenómenos extremos y aprovechar las buenas condiciones climáticas. Por lo anterior, los objetivos de esta tercera reunión de la MTA son: Conocer la metodología y productos de información en la generación de predicciones climáticas por el servicio meteorológico de su país, asegurando que para cada MTA se presente dicha información como el insumo principal para la construcción del boletín agroclimático.  Dar a conocer a los participantes de la MTA que es la predicción climática, como se genera (estadístico dinámico), modelos dinámicos y estadísticos de consulta de la predicción, y sus fuentes de incertidumbre.  Explicar a la MTA de una manera didáctica y con ejemplos claros los conceptos de terciles, años análogos, probabilidad e incertidumbre Nota importante: Antes de convocar la tercera reunión de la MTA, el experto de clima debe asegurar que el servicio meteorológico cuenta con una evaluación retrospectiva de las predicciones climáticas para su región. Ya que la primera pregunta que surge en la MTA es cuantas veces ha sido acertada o se ha equivocado la predicción climática. Para lo anterior, ver artículo de Esquivel et al., 2018.• Bolsa con 10 pelotas de cada color (rojo, verde, azul) • Necesitará entregar a los participantes de la MTA un ejemplo de una gráfica de la serie histórica de los próximos meses en consideración, con la definición de los terciles.Entregará la gráfica de la precipitación acumulada de la serie histórica durante el trimestre en consideración • Entregará la predicción climática en probabilidades de los próximos meses a los participantes Procedimiento 1. Con dinámicas se introducirán los conceptos de:Manual de implementación Mesa Técnica Agroclimática (MTA) Guía detallada -paso a paso -3. Años análogos: La metodología de análogos tiene como objetivo aproximarse a años que experimentaron condiciones climáticas similares, tanto estadísticamente como en la dinámica de procesos océano-atmosféricos. Pero, es importante recordar que este debe ser un método exploratorio, ya que para encontrar análogos naturales se necesita información de muchos años. En la gráfica de lado izquierdo se muestra los posible años con condiciones análogos para el mes de referencia de pronóstico, lo anterior se contrasta con un análisis de la precipitación acumulada de la serie histórica para el periodo de referencia y su posible comportamiento a años análogos.4. Predicción climática de los próximos meses: La incorporación de modelos de estructura estadística, como el de Análisis de Correlación Canónica (ACC), con ayuda de la herramienta CPT 12 (Climate Predictability Tool) desarrollada por el IRI (Instituto Internacional de Investigación sobre el Clima y la Sociedad, de la Universidad de Columbia, EE.UU.) y utilizada en muchos países para la predicción operativa del clima, permite poner en marcha un programa para realizar predicciones periódicas en una forma rápida y fácil y así suministrar perspectivas climáticas en la escala temporal de meses.Figura 12. Grafica de terciles para una serie climática y metodología de cálculo Figura 13. Años análogos a nivel espacial y precipitación acumulada de la serie históricaManual de implementación Mesa Técnica Agroclimática (MTA) Guía detallada -paso a paso -Ya con los conceptos claros por parte de los participantes de la MTA de que es una predicción climática y su interpretación, se procede a entregar la gráfica de la predicción climática de los próximos meses y su fuente de consulta. Es importante no confundir a los participantes presentando varias fuentes de predicción climática, ya que el experto de clima debería presentar el consenso (dinámico y estadístico) final de la predicción y sus fuentes de incertidumbre.Usted debe asegurar que la información de la predicción esté disponible en la Web como fuente oficial en la página del servicio meteorológico y sea actualizada al menos cada tres meses como insumo principal para la generación del boletín agroclimático. Algunos ejemplos puede consultarlos en la página del foro regional de clima Centroamericano 14 y en la página de Clima y sector agropecuario Colombiano 15 .Si bien las predicciones tienen un elemento de incertidumbre, en particular para periodos de tiempo más largos, la retroalimentación con los usuarios que usaron este tipo de información sugieren que la misma les da una orientación útil en la planificación. Por ello, es fundamental establecer una relación fuerte entre los generadores de las predicciones climáticas y los usuarios para el entendimiento de sus necesidades.Paso 3Paso 3 -Información de cultivo: agronomía y modelos de cultivoSegún la Organización Meteorológica Mundial -OMM los servicios agroclimáticos sean convertido en una herramienta esencial para hacer frente a los cambios en la producción agrícola debido al incremento de la variabilidad, asociado con eventos extremos y el cambio climático. Por ejemplo, la diseminación de información meteorológica convertida en índices de importancia para la agricultura permite al agricultor tomar decisiones tácticas de planeación de su cultivo a corto plazo e las diferentes etapas del cultivo que se pueden traducir en impactos económicos como reducir la aplicación de insumos químicos para el control de una plaga o enfermedad o el uso eficiente del recurso agua. Independiente del tipo de decisión, es importante mejorar el entendimiento de los efectos del tiempo y clima sobre los cultivos para asegurar el uso de esta información de forma adecuada y en el momento preciso.El uso de modelos de cultivo ha avanzado rápidamente en los últimos 30 años con el objetivo de proveer las ecuaciones que describen la fisiología de la planta y como estos procesos son afectados por el genotipo, ambiente y prácticas de manejo agronómico (Wheeler et al., 2007). Para el uso de estos modelos se requiere así como clima una serie histórica de los parámetros importantes de nuestro cultivo de estudio para ser ajustados y verificados, así como la opinión del experto en el cultivo. Para hacer los análisis agroclimáticos, las predicciones climáticas se convierten en predicciones agroclimáticas locales, con apoyo del uso de modelos y/o conocimiento del experto de cultivo para responder las preguntas más frecuentes del agricultor: ¿Qué cultivo/variedad puedo sembrar? ¿Cuál será la fecha optima se siembra de mi cultivo? ¿Mi cultivo tendrá el agua necesaria para desarrollarse? ¿Cuál será el rendimiento de mi cultivo?Al finalizar este paso, los participantes de la MTA deberían comprender en esta tercera reunión de la MTA como planificar las actividades agrícolas basados en la disponibilidad de información de predicción de tiempo y clima, que tipo de variables climáticas afectan más mi cultivo y son relevantes para la planificación de nuestras actividades en el cultivo. Aplicar una encuesta de conocimientos sobe lo aprendido en el paso 2.  Los participantes generan un nuevo calendario de planificación de sus actividades agrícolas de acuerdo con la predicción climática dada de los próximos meses  Conocer cuáles son los factores climáticos más limitantes en el desarrollo de los cultivos presentes en la MTA, así como sus requerimientos hídricos.  Los participantes comprendan cómo funcionan los modelos de cultivo y su importancia como herramienta de planificación.Cuando los participantes conocen como se genera la información climática, se ha analizado la historia, monitoreado el presente, y como interpretar la predicción climática, se procede a retomar el calendario agroclimático de la actividad 2b trabajando con la historia, para discutir qué cambios se harían en la planificación de los cultivos dada la predicción climática y que otro tipo de información climática (variables y escalas) serían relevantes para el cultivo. También, es importante continuar formando grupos de discusión que aborden los sectores productivos y las actividades relevantes para mujeres y hombres. Por lo anterior, los objetivos de este paso son:  Formar mesas de trabajo por rubros productivos según la experticia de los participantes para re-dibujar un calendario agroclimático con la planificación de las actividades agropecuarias dada la predicción climática.  Discutir los requerimientos y demandas de información climática para la planificación de mi próximo cultivo Necesitaras retomar los calendarios agroclimáticos históricos  Necesitará los rotafolios y marcadores de colores para dibujar el nuevo calendario agroclimático.  Necesitará imprimir las hojas con la predicción climática1. Es importante que en este punto se retome una homologación de conceptos entre todos los participantes sobre que es: a. Medida de adaptación b. Modelo de cultivo c. Vulnerabilidad d. Impacto 2. Comience por hacer circular entre los grupos las gráficas de la predicción climática de los próximos meses y pídale a los integrantes que modifiquen el calendario de actividades agrícolas, pecuarias o de subsistencia de acuerdo a la predicción. Al finalizar el calendario agroclimático seleccione un representante de cada grupo para que pase y explique el calendario, de acuerdo a las siguientes preguntas: ¿Qué actividades realizo en el cultivo diferente a las tradicionales dada la predicción?  ¿Cuál de las actividades de hombres y mujeres se llevaría a cabo de manera diferente dada la predicción?  ¿Qué otro tipo de variables y escalas de información climática necesito para tomar decisiones?Tomando como ejemplo el caso de las mujeres involucradas en la producción de ganado de especies menores, los pronósticos de fuertes lluvias e inundaciones podrían influir en la decisión de vacunar a las gallinas de sus hogares. En consecuencia, ¿qué otras variables y escalas de tiempo de información climática necesitarían mujeres y hombres para tomar decisiones?Los resultados de las predicciones climáticas, se distribuyen entre los participantes para que puedan establecer relaciones con los factores de la producción agrícola, asimismo se constituirán en datos de entrada en los modelos de cultivos que analizan diferentes medidas agronómicas de adaptación, en un clima cambiante. Las predicciones climáticas locales determinísticas se convierten en Figura 15. Variables y escalas de información climática necesarias para la planificación del cultivo de Maíz en el 2014-II semestre dado un evento de lluvias por encima de lo normal.predicciones agroclimáticas locales, con apoyo de modelaciones clima-suelo-agua-manejo (con modelos CROPWAT 16 , AQUACROP 17 , entre otros), para responder preguntas como: ¿Qué pasa si adelanto o retraso mi fecha de siembra? ¿Cuánta y con qué frecuencia necesita agua mi cultivo? Por lo anterior, los objetivos de este paso son: Conocer cuáles son las etapas fisiológicas de cada cultivo y sus requerimientos hídricos.  Que los expertos en cada cultivo den a conocer los factores que limitan la producción.  Dar una presentación sobre aplicaciones de los modelos de cultivos y su importancia como herramienta de planificación.En este paso, es importante impartir una serie de capacitaciones a los participantes de la MTA, aquí algunas sugerencias que pueden socializarse: Dar a conocer la metodología para traducir las probabilidades de la predicción climática en escenarios determinísticos basados en la historia climática de la serie.  Dar a conocer que es un modelo de cultivo y las partes que lo integran.  Realizar sesiones prácticas de corridas con los modelos CropWat y AquaCropEntregar los datos mensuales de precipitación de los últimos 5 años para la estación cercana • Necesitará entregar a los participantes un rotafolio para que ellos grafiquen las etapas fenológicas vs los requerimientos hídricos.Necesitaras entregar a los participantes una hoja del modelo de cultivo con las variables para completar cada módulo de cultivo Procedimiento 1. Formar grupos por experticia de cultivos, en el cual graficarán la duración de las etapas fenológicas del cultivo y los requerimientos hídricos ideales en (mm). Luego se les entregará los datos de precipitación mensual de los últimos 5 años, los participantes escogerán un año de interés el cual graficaran junto la curva de requerimientos ideales. Otro indicador interesante es contabilizar número de días con lluvias en relación a cada etapa fenológica.Figura 16. Grafica de requerimientos hídricos del cultivo de frijol comparado con la precipitación real de una época de cultivo y su número asociado de días con lluvia.Manual de implementación Mesa Técnica Agroclimática (MTA) Guía detallada -paso a paso -Con el uso de los modelos mencionados se analiza la sensibilidad de los cultivos, ya que permiten determinar los impactos de ocurrencia de eventos climáticos como El Niño, La Niña y otros que generen condiciones pluviales extremas, en el desarrollo (en etapas fenológicas críticas) y productividad de esos cultivos. De este modo con los modelos será posible diferenciar la sensibilidad de cada uno de los cultivos analizados, así como de sus fases fenológicas críticas, ante la ocurrencia de variaciones climáticas desfavorables. Este análisis permite definir medidas adaptativas orientadas a un mejor uso y manejo del recurso hídrico regional disponible.2. Un recorrido por los modelos de cultivo: Preguntar a los participantes en una sesión abierta sobre cuáles variables debe considerar un modelo de cultivo, luego agrupar las variables de acuerdo con los módulos encontrados en los modelos con el propósito de consolidar los conocimientos sobre el funcionamiento de un modelo de cultivo y sus diferentes módulos e interacciones. Los participantes completaran un esquema del modelo AquaCrop con las diferentes variables entregadas como fichas.Figura 17. Actividad \"AquaCrop\" un recorrido hacia las funciones, variables y módulos.\"Paso 4Paso 4 -Toma de decisiones dada la predicción agroclimáticaSegún la Comisión de meteorología agrícola (CAgM, siglas en inglés) de la Organización Meteorológica mundial (OMM), los servicios agro meteorológicos en los países en desarrollo deben asumir mayores responsabilidades debido a la mayor presión de la población y los modos cambiantes de las prácticas agrícolas. En el futuro, se esperan cada vez más demandas de información y servicios agrometeorológicos con respecto a las tecnologías, los sistemas y patrones agrícolas, la gestión del agua y el control de plagas y enfermedades basadas en el clima, preferiblemente con innovaciones locales como puntos de partida. Por lo tanto, los desafíos futuros incluirán la necesidad de enfatizar un enfoque de abajo hacia arriba para asegurar que los pronósticos, las alertas tempranas y la planificación de contingencia lleguen incluso a los pequeños agricultores, de modo que puedan aplicar esta información en su planificación y en el desarrollo agrícola diario.En esta cuarta reunión se debe tener el conjunto de prácticas de seleccionadas a través de múltiples procesos analíticos y participativos que refleja el deseo colectivo de promover un sector agropecuario productivo y adaptado al clima. Para estos fines, se deben tomar decisiones con respecto a la combinación correcta y la combinación de estrategias de adaptación tradicionales, conocimiento del agricultor con la ciencia y tecnología, y entornos de políticas apropiados. Conocer cómo se generan los portafolios de medidas sostenibles adaptadas al clima con ejemplos claros.  Generar el portafolio de medidas para las zonas de influencia de la MTA y analizar los cuellos de botella para la no implementación de estas por parte de los agricultores.  Seleccionar las medidas de adaptación a promover con los agricultores dada la predicción climáticaEsta parte corresponde a la formulación de un portafolio de prácticas de Agricultura Sostenible Adaptada al Clima (ASAC) 18 , que se ajusten a las condiciones del territorio en el cual se implementa la MTA.Existen principalmente dos tipos de prácticas ASAC y corresponden a aquellas de corto plazo y aquellas de mediano o largo plazo. Las prácticas de corto plazo son las que se pueden tomar de forma inmediata como respuesta a las predicciones climáticas, con el objetivo de reducir o evitar los posibles impactos del clima sobre los cultivos. Un ejemplo de una práctica de corto plazo sería la selección para la siembra de una variedad de frijol de ciclo corto (precoz), como respuesta a un pronóstico de reducción de periodo de lluvias habitual. Por su parte, las prácticas de mediano y largo plazo son aquellas que responden a eventos recurrentes y aumentan de forma permanente la resiliencia de los sistemas productivos.Un ejemplo de prácticas de mediano plazo es el uso de compostaje en zonas secas con poca retención de agua en los suelos, ya que esta medida tiene un efecto inmediato sobre la nutrición del cultivo, pero a la vez con su uso recurrente va mejorando la estructura del suelo, permitiendo al cabo de unos ciclos de cultivo una mayor retención de agua en el suelo. Finalmente, un ejemplo de una práctica de largo plazo es la siembra de árboles como barreras vivas rompevientos, con el fin de evitar el volcamiento de cultivos como el maíz. Esta práctica es de largo plazo, ya que después de sembrados los arboles el tiempo de crecimiento de estos es prolongado, lo que significa que los efectos de la práctica se verán reflejados sobre los cultivos varios años después.Con base en la explicación anterior el objetivo de este paso es:  Construir un amplio portafolio de prácticas ASAC tanto de corto como de mediano y largo plazo, el cual debe ser retroalimentado constantemente entre los distintos integrantes de la mesa con el fin de incluir ideas innovadoras que respondan a los retos climáticos. Necesitará un proyector para presentaciones de diapositivas y consolidación de una hoja de Excel con el portafolio de medidas ASAC1. Coordinar previo a la reunión de la primera MTA con un representante de CCAFS, para dar una presentación sobre las prácticas ASAC y los tres pilares sobre los cuales están fundamentadas (adaptación, mitigación, y productividad y seguridad alimentaria). 2. Compartir con los participantes un listado con algunas prácticas ASAC, como insumo para iniciar la discusión y poder enriquecer el portafolio. 3. De acuerdo al número de participantes, las instituciones en que trabajan y/o los cultivos de interés de la zona, divida en grupos de trabajo de máximo 10 personas. El objetivo es que en conjunto revisen y discutan las prácticas propuestas, con el objetivo de descartar las que no sea relevantes para la región e incluir las ideas nuevas que surjan de los grupos de trabajo. 4. Al final en plenaria los grupos van a argumentar porqué descartaron algunas prácticas y por qué incluyeron otras, y con base en esta plenaria se consolidará una versión regional de portafolio de prácticas ASAC, las cuales servirán como insumo para desarrollar estrategias de corto plazo dependiendo de los pronósticos climáticos discutidos en cada MTA y de mediano y largo plazo con base en las estadísticas multianuales de eventos climáticos recurrentes. 5. A partir de la segunda sesión de las MTA, el portafolio de prácticas ASAC podrá ser enriquecido durante cada sesión, ya que es probable los integrantes de la misma con el tiempo desarrollen o conozcan nuevas prácticas innovadoras que permitan hacer más resilientes los sistemas productivos.Ejemplo de portafolio de prácticas:Este ejemplo es parte del marco de priorización de prácticas sostenibles adaptadas al clima en el corredor seco en Guatemala con apoyo del Ministerio de Agricultura, Ganadería y Alimentación de Guatemala (MAGA) con el objetivo de identificar, priorizar y promover las prácticas o tecnologías agrícolas que contribuyan al logro de los objetivos planteados, a través de un esfuerzo integrado en tres pilares fundamentales: el fortalecimiento de la seguridad alimentaria por medio del incremento de la productividad de forma sostenible, el aumento la capacidad de adaptación de los agricultores y el desarrollo agropecuario bajo en emisiones a través de la reducción/eliminación de gases de efecto invernadero (mitigación).El aporte de los participantes que integran la MTA es el de buscar y promover las medidas adaptivas en su región en los rubro productivos priorizados con el grupo de agricultores y/o usuarios del boletín agroclimático, con base en las predicciones climáticas presentadas para los próximos meses. En este paso, se plantean soluciones conjuntas a los problemas planteados, se discuten ideas, se toman decisiones, en lo que se refiere a acciones que contribuyan a reducir el impacto ante las anomalías climáticas y evaluaciones agroclimáticas presentadas. En Colombia lo anterior se realiza a través de un panel de expertos, por rubro productivo se reúnen y se discuten bajo la predicción climática dada cuáles serán las recomendaciones seleccionadas. El objetivo de este paso es: Dado el portafolio de prácticas sostenibles adaptadas al clima identificadas para la región y cultivo de interés de las actividades 4a, seleccionar aquellas medidas respuesta dada la predicción climática. Entregar impreso el portafolio de prácticas sostenibles adaptadas al clima desarrolladas en la actividad 4a  Necesitará rotafolios y marcadores de colores para escribirEn esta etapa se hace un trabajo en grupo con los participantes de la MTA. Los grupos pueden conformarse de acuerdo a los temas o competencia en sus trabajos y las entidades que representan (por ejemplo grupos de suelos, agua y cultivos). Cada grupo tiene que responder las siguientes preguntas: ¿Cuáles son los impactos (positivos o negativos) en los rubros productivos priorizados dada la predicción climática?  ¿Qué medidas o prácticas de adaptación puedo seleccionar dada la predicción climática?  ¿Qué recomendaciones daría a qué agricultores (mujeres, hombres, de diferentes grupos sociales), dada la predicción del clima?  ¿Cuál es mi compromiso para promover estas prácticas en mi región? Figura 18. Foto de la MTA en Cauca, durante el análisis por grupos temáticos, sobre medidas adaptativas para el sector agrícola local, según predicciones y análisis previos Paso 5Paso 5 -Generación del boletín agroclimático Al finalizar la cuarta reunión se debe contar con un borrador del boletín agroclimático debe reflejar la recolección de resultados y análisis elaborados en cada uno de los pasos de la MTA. Es importante que después de realizada la MTA, en los siguientes 3 días (máximo) sea generado el boletín agroclimático que será enviado a los participantes de la para su revisión y adiciones, y en los dos días subsiguientes publicado 19 .Construcción del boletín agroclimático, se recomienda la siguiente estructura:1. Logos de las instituciones participantes en la MTA 2. Información de la climatología para los meses de referencia 3. Diagnóstico sobre la evolución y seguimiento del fenómeno meteorológico actual influyente en el comportamiento meteorológico (precipitación, temperatura, viento) de la región (ejemplo el fenómeno El Niño/La Niña) o la temporada de Huracanes. 4. Verificación de la predicción climática realizada en la reunión anterior 5. Predicción climática local para los próximos meses. 6. Evaluaciones y perspectivas agroclimáticas. 7. Conclusiones y recomendaciones agroclimáticas provenientes de los actores participantes en la MTA (medidas adaptativas para los cultivos de interés). En este paso es importante pedir insumos como fotos de los cultivos que reflejen el trabajo de las instituciones en la región.A continuación para cada uno de los numerales se mostrara ejemplos del boletín agroclimático de los departamentos de Cauca y Córdoba 20 en Colombia:Paso 6Paso 6 -Difusión del boletín agroclimático Además de conocer información climática relevante hacia futuro, es necesario buscar alternativas de manejo agrícola para adaptarse a tales condiciones e implementar mecanismos eficaces que puedan ser sostenibles, bajo un marco de comunicación efectiva con el agricultor (Jones, 2003;Pulwarty et al., 2003). Según Podestá et al. (2002) y Bert et al. (2006), se necesitan varias condiciones para el uso efectivo de las predicciones climáticas en la mejora de la toma de decisiones:  La información debe ser relevante, traducida y compatible con las decisiones de producción, llegando en momentos adecuados y con apropiada resolución geográfica y temporal.  Deben de existir diferentes alternativas que pueden ser tomadas en respuesta a las predicciones climáticas, y que dan resultados bajo diferentes escenarios climáticos.  Los tomadores de decisiones pueden evaluar (p. ej. económicamente) los resultados de estas acciones alternativas.  Los tomadores de decisiones tienen la voluntad de adoptar un manejo adaptativo al clima en un contexto complejo de toma de decisiones. Podestá et al. (2002) y sus coautores destacan que un elemento clave que facilita el uso de los pronósticos del clima, es un sistema de herramientas de soporte a la toma de decisiones para evaluar los impactos de las alternativas implementadas. Además, la información traducida que proviene de fuentes confiables tales como agentes de extensión agrícola o asesores técnicos tiene más probabilidad de ser tomada en cuenta.En un estudio de campo, Patt et al. (2005) muestran que agricultores de subsistencia que aplican los pronósticos durante varios años para tomar decisiones mejoran significativamente sus cosechas. Además, muestran que los agricultores que han asistido a breves talleres participativos y han aprendido más sobre los pronósticos son significativamente más propensos a utilizarlos que los agricultores que aprendieron sobre los pronósticos a través de canales no participativos.Los factores basados en género pueden influir en que las mujeres y los hombres tengan un acceso diferente a los canales de comunicación. Por ejemplo, finanzas limitadas a menudo pueden impedir que las mujeres posean TICs (Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación) y los activos de comunicación, como teléfonos celulares y radios. Además, debido a las diferencias en la alfabetización, el conocimiento técnico y los niveles de escolaridad, los hombres pueden ser más capaces de interpretar los formatos de las TICs (Gumucio et al., 2018b) . Las responsabilidades del hogar pueden limitar el tiempo disponible de las mujeres para escuchar también los programas agrícolas por radio (Gumucio et al., 2018c) Objetivos de este paso: Los participantes de la mesa tienen la responsabilidad de difundir la información técnica agroclimática generada en las MTA, centrada en las necesidades de los agricultores, que faciliten la toma de decisiones y la gestión de riesgo del sector agropecuario.Un punto relevante de las MTA es generar información agroclimática, pero también divulgarla entre instituciones, servicios de extensión, hacia los agricultores, entre otros actores locales, regionales que se consideren relevantes, que podrían hacer buen uso de la información suministrada. Para esto se utilizan diferentes medios de comunicación como la prensa, la radio y los servicios de redes sociales como correos electrónicos y grupos Whatsapp, que sirven para divulgar el trabajo que adelanta la MTA, le da identidad a la misma y representa una mejora para el buen desempeño de estas a escala regional, permitiendo la difusión de toda la información agro meteorológica a los integrantes y a la comunidad en general. Otros medios de difusión constituye la realización de Foros, Seminarios y Talleres.A continuación se da a conocer algunos ejemplos de difusión: La difusión de la información debe ser de doble vía (intercambio de información y conocimiento), para que haya oportunidad en la información, es decir, que llegue al productor local (las comunidades), que se entienda, sea utilizada y genere un cambio mental dirigido hacia la generación de capacidades de adaptación ante el clima cambiante. Las comunidades deben adquirir conocimiento en aspectos climáticos locales, recolección y suministro oportuno de información agro meteorológica local. Lo anterior, implica iniciar un proceso de cambio de actitud y aptitud en las comunidades, desde que perciben la existencia del problema que afecta su realidad, y se genera la necesidad de enfrentarlo.  Conocer el canal de comunicación preferido por los agricultores locales: Boletín físico, Mensaje de texto (celular), Radio y Prensa. Como ejemplo, en la MTA de Cauca como territorio de Postconflicto en Colombia asisten soldados y oficiales para capacitarse en temas de agro climatología y lograr difundir esta información a los campesinos para la adaptación de la agricultura a la variabilidad climática con información local.  Aprovechar la participación de los comunicadores locales, los periodistas (prensa, radio), mediante un acercamiento para hacer un análisis de la difusión de la información para que sea efectivo. Es importante que la MTA considere las preferencias de los agricultores hombres y mujeres. Esto implica aprovechar los diferentes tipos de fuentes de información relevantes a nivel local y los formatos disponibles (por ejemplo, mensajes SMS, radio, pizarras meteorológicas, personas influyentes). También puede ser útil identificar contactos clave en la comunidad.Por ejemplo, las mujeres que poseen su propio teléfono celular pueden compartir información recibida con otros familiares y amigos. De manera similar, las intervenciones deben garantizar que el uso de las TICs o los dispositivos de medios sea compatible con las actividades de subsistencia de las mujeres y/o que ahorre tiempo.  Tener en cuenta que las normas e instituciones socioculturales relativas a las interacciones entre mujeres y hombres, el espacio y la movilidad pueden limitar la participación de las mujeres en grupos donde se comparte información sobre el clima. Incluir a los grupos de mujeres como canales de comunicación puede ser una forma importante de responder a estos desafíos.Las \"comunicadoras\" mujeres también pueden facilitar el acceso de las mujeres agricultoras a la información agroclimática clave.Paso 7Paso 7 -Implementación de medidas de adaptaciónDado el aumento en la frecuencia de eventos hidro meteorológicos extremos, asociados a la variabilidad climática y/o cambio climático, y la mayor vulnerabilidad de las sociedades humanas frente a estas amenazas, se presenta un mayor interés en la implementación de medidas de adaptación sostenibles adaptadas al clima. Teniendo en cuenta, que la adaptación y la gestión del riesgo, deben integrase con una visión holística para reducir la vulnerabilidad de los agricultores.El conjunto de medidas de adaptación identificadas deberían ser de interés y beneficio para mujeres y hombres. No obstante, la MTA debe considerar que el control limitado de los recursos y la falta de oportunidades para participar en la toma de decisiones agrícolas pueden restringir significativamente la capacidad de las mujeres para hacer un uso completo de la información climática y aplicar medidas, en algunos casos. Los hombres tienden a poseer el equipo agrícola, el ganado y la tierra necesarios, más a menudo que las mujeres. Además, las normas socioculturales arraigadas con respecto a los roles y responsabilidades agrícolas y de los hogares pueden impedir que las mujeres participen en los procesos de toma de decisiones relevantes para abordar los riesgos climáticos.Es de suma importancia evaluar los desafíos que mujeres y hombres pueden enfrentar de manera diferente para implementar las medidas de adaptación identificadas y buscar oportunidades para coordinarse con otras iniciativas/actores de desarrollo para abordar las limitaciones de recursos productivos de los grupos más marginados. Es importante coordinar con socios locales como municipalidades y mancomunidades para brindar un mayor apoyo a planes de adaptación que mejoren o mantengan los medios de vida de las familias rurales. Implementar las medidas de adaptación seleccionadas de acuerdo a predicciones climáticas y análisis agroclimáticos de modo participativo entre especialistas externos (investigadores, académicos, técnicos) y comunidades (conocedores locales), que trabajan de modo integrado en talleres y jornadas de campo.A continuación unos ejemplo de la ficha técnica de implementación de las medidas de adaptación:Número de la medida: 2 Nombre de la medida: Construcción de sistema de cosecha de aguas lluviasComo mejora la capacidad de adaptación: Permite almacenar agua para disponer de ella en verano; asociada a un sistema de riego por goteo puede contribuir a la seguridad alimentaria La escasez de agua en el Territorio Sostenible Adaptado al Clima en Cauca, ha limitado las posibilidades de obtener alimentos a partir de la huerta familiar en épocas de sequía, incrementando la vulnerabilidad de los productores locales a los efectos adversos de la sequía. A través de la instalación de sistemas de cosecha de agua, propone contribuir con la disminución de la vulnerabilidad identificada de manera participativa con la comunidad.Para esto asociamos la medida de \"Cosechas de Aguas Lluvias\", a otras medidas complementarias como son: a. Riego por goteo; b. Huertas circulares, c. Huertas tradicionales con cubiertas o c. Huertas verticales, y d. cuando sea posible, a Reservorios con cubierta plástica. El diseño propuesto consiste en aprovechar el agua de las cubiertas de casas y otra infraestructura, recogiéndola por medio de canales fabricadas a partir de secciones longitudinales de tubos de PVC de 6\", para recolectarla en un tanque plástico (ver Foto) cuyo sobrante puede ser a su vez, recogido en reservorios para ser usada principalmente como fuente de riego en épocas de sequíaPASO A PASO COSECHA AGUAS LLUVIAS Defina la localización del tanque y las canales Mida el largo de las canales, si estas tienen más de 6 metros, hay que pegar dos tubos mediante unión de PVC de 6\" Pegue dos tubos de 6\" por medio de unión, teniendo en cuenta que los letreros de los tubos coincidan. Esto le ayudara a guiar el corte Marque el lado opuesto a los letreros utilizando una siembra, (hilo impregnado de algún colorante) para obtener un corte recto. En caso de así preferirlo, marque los tubos por los dos lados. Recorte los tubos de 6\" a todo lo largo para obtener dos canales. Fabrique varios soportes de canal utilizando varilla de 3/8\". Asegure firmemente el soporte inicial y final de cada cubierta teniendo en cuenta un pequeño desnivel para que el agua fluya hacia donde será recolectada. Pase un hilo indicador entre los dos soportes que le sirva de ayuda para asegurar los demás soportes y evitar desniveles en las canales. Monte las canales sin asegurarlas para poder hacer ajustes.Con ayuda de los codos y uniones de 3\", arme el sistema de recolección del agua de las canales. Este tubo debe llegar hasta el tanque de 1000 litros.Recorte el agujero de entrada y de rebose para el tubo de 3\" en el borde superior del tanque.12 Coloque el tapón de desagüe del tanque. 13Arme el sistema de rebose del tanque definiendo la disposición final del agua.14 Una vez armado el sistema y cuando se encuentre conforme, pegue todas las uniones.Figura 19. Foto de la construcción cosecha de aguas lluvia, como medida de adaptación priorizada en Cauca. Fuente: Ecohábitats /CCAFS Paso 8Lecciones aprendidas y mejora del proceso Paso 8 -Lecciones aprendidas y mejora del procesoPodemos definir a las lecciones aprendidas como el conocimiento que podemos llegar a adquirir mediante el análisis y la reflexión de un proceso o una experiencia que pueda haber tenido un resultado positivo o negativo. Para que estas lecciones puedan ser aprendidas, deben ser registradas en una base de conocimientos al alcance de todos, para que sean revisadas, consultadas y utilizadas en ocasiones futuras.Para que una lección sea aprendida, es imprescindible que se produzca la respectiva acción de cambio de actuación 21 . Solo podemos hablar de aprendizaje cuando somos capaces de tener una actuación diferente de la anterior con la finalidad de obtener un resultado distinto. Por lo que no será suficiente con realizar el análisis, la reflexión, obtener las conclusiones, redactar informes o normas para aprender. Debemos pasar a la acción y cambiar nuestra forma de actuar para que podamos afirmar que hemos aprendido de una lección. Lo anterior, se puede llevar a cabo en una sesión al final del año para considerar con los participantes de la MTA los siguientes cuestionamientos: ¿En qué manera consideran que las capacitaciones y participación en las MTA les ayudó en su trabajo?  ¿Qué partes del proceso de la MTA fueron las más útiles y por qué?  ¿De qué manera se podría mejorar el enfoque de la MTA, p. ej., para el próximo año?Sería útil anotar en un rotafolio los puntos importantes que salgan de la conversación.Para fines de monitoreo y evaluación, la MTA debe asegurarse de evaluar cómo se han promovido los objetivos relacionados con la igualdad de género y la inclusión social a lo largo del proceso. Por ejemplo, puede ser clave considerar y evaluar en qué medida la información generada por la MTA ha sido socialmente inclusivas, es decir, si es útil para la toma de decisiones sobre los medios de vida de las mujeres y los hombres, de los diferentes grupos sociales que existen en el territorio. Otro tema importante para evaluar es hasta qué punto las mujeres y los hombres agricultores, de diferentes grupos sociales, tienen mejor acceso a las alertas agroclimáticas en los territorios influenciados por los actores de la MTA. Así como, quiénes de los agricultores, hombre o mujeres que cuentan con la información climática de las MTA, aplican mejores medidas de adaptación Objetivos de este paso: Realizar encuestas de monitoreo, para evidenciar cambios en conocimiento y adopción de nuevas metodologías o herramientas, así como la difusión y alcance sistemática del boletín agroclimático.  Dar lineamientos para generar una cosecha de alcances 22 y/o evaluación de impacto, que son necesarios si la MTA lleva implementada más de tres años.No participé pero tuve acceso a la información y la compartí ","tokenCount":"14216"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f676ccc47443fb2842643e9bc6ec115e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2638ba83-f752-41ce-a28e-bf4aa6390a05/retrieve","id":"-1321032345"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8c8c12c6-7738-4bf3-a272-68e73328e846","pagecount":"20","content":"Qué se está haciendo para reducir las cifras de desnutrición… Desde su creación en el 2004, Harvestplus junto con múltiples socios a nivel mundial han logrado liberar más de 130 cultivos biofortificados en más de 40 países, mediante la estrategia de la biofortificación: cultivos mejorados de manera convencional (a través de cruces en campo), más nutritivos en vitaminas y minerales.¿Que tienen las pasturas de Urochloa que están potenciando la traslocación de Zn al grano de maíz?OBJETIVO: Evaluar el efecto residual de genotipos de Urochloa con capacidad IBN contrastante sobre el maíz biofortificado como cultivo subsecuente.HIPOTESIS: La capacidad de IBN en pasturas Urochloa suprimen la nitrificación del suelo, lo que resulta en un mejor rendimiento y contenido de Zn en el grano del maíz biofortificado.   Aumento del 36% en el contenido de Zn en los tratamientos de maíz precedidos de pasturas con un promedio de 35.14 ppm versus 25.83 ppm observado en el control sin rotación con Urochloa.Los resultados de la correlación sugieren que a medida que aumenta la materia orgánica, el pH, la radiación y el riego adicional, es probable que también aumente el contenido de Zn.Sin embargo, se necesitan medir otras variables que podrían estar explicando el fenómeno observado (i.e., mayor concentración de Zn) están siendo estudiadas tales como cambios en el pH, Mo, CIC, Zn en suelo, tasas de nitrificación y textura entre los genotipos y ciclos que reportaron mayor contenido de Zn.Se necesita más investigación en el tema para entender este proceso.Los resultados obtenidos revelaron una correlación positiva entre las variables de rendimiento de grano y biomasa, lo cual concuerda con investigaciones anteriores realizadas por Karwat et al. (2017) en los Llanos Orientales de Colombia.En dichos estudios, también se observó un incremento en el rendimiento de ambas variables debido al efecto residual de la Inhibición Biológica de la nitrificación (IBN) en pasturas con U. humidicola. • Hasta el momento existe escasa investigación reportada que nos permita comparar nuestros resultados. Sin embargo, a raíz de este hallazgo surgen múltiples hipótesis que podrían explicar estos resultados:• Un suministro más abundante de nitrógeno, como resultado de la inhibición de la nitrificación, favoreció la salud de las plantas de maíz, mejorando su capacidad de absorción de Zn y, en última instancia, conduciendo a una mayor acumulación de este mineral en los granos de maíz.Posibles hipótesis• Otra explicación posible podría estar relacionada con el aumento de la materia orgánica en el suelo promovido por las pasturas. Esto podría incrementar la mineralización en las parcelas donde se encuentra el pasto, en comparación con el tratamiento de control, lo que a su vez resultaría en una mayor solubilización de Zn.• Variables ambientales, contenido de materia orgánica, pH, CIC, contenido de Zn en suelo, en los genotipos que reportaron mayor acumulación del mineral, podrían estar explicando el fenómeno observado.• La absorción y acumulación de Zn en las plantas es un proceso complejo en el que influyen múl tiples factores que interactúan entre sí. Las condiciones específicas y las interacciones entre est os factores pueden variar en función de la especie vegetal y del entorno en el que se cultivan.• Se requiere de más investigación para profundizar en estas hipótesis y comprender mejor los mecanismos subyacentes a este fenómeno.• Jairo Arcos Jaramillo • Daniel Mauricio Villegas • Miguel Angel Acosta Chinchilla • Programa Biofortificados -Laboratorio de Calidad Nutricional • Alejandro Ruden por ser el portavoz de este trabajo.Madyan Vanessa Prado-Murcia [email protected]","tokenCount":"565"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"acb51629bba7c0e51526286da8543f54","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f1721bf3-ed99-48e9-a7b4-023167dc6d8b/retrieve","id":"-1580104846"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ccf6cb0b-acff-4c8a-addd-96defc5a7918","pagecount":"10","content":"Cassava is the second most important staple food crop for Uganda and is prone to contamination with mycotoxins. This study aimed at understanding the current agricultural practices, their potential influence on mycotoxin occurrence, as well as assessing mycotoxin knowledge among key cassava value chain actors, including farmers, wholesalers, and processors. Data were collected through individual interviews (210), key informant interviews (34), and 4 focus group discussions. The findings revealed that 51% of farmers peeled cassava directly on bare ground, resulting in direct contact with soil that potentially harbors mycotoxin-producing fungi, such as Aspergillus section Flavi. During postharvest handling, 51.6% of farmers dried cassava chips directly on bare ground. Nearly, all (95.2%) of wholesalers packed cassava chips in local gunny bags and placed them on ground instead of pallets. In the processing of cassava chips into flour, only one of the 14 processing machines was certified by the Uganda National Bureau of Standards. Additionally, there was only one processing machine available for every 180 (1:180) consumers bringing their cassava for processing. 50.8% of cassava consumers interviewed admitted to consuming cassava flour regardless of quality, while 73% blended cassava flour with flour from mycotoxin-susceptible crops mainly maize, millet, and sorghum. Most (96.2%) of the people along the cassava value chain did not understand what the term mycotoxins meant. However, 56% of interviewed respondents were familiar with the term aflatoxins. Of the cassava value chain actors aware of mycotoxins, 82.9% knew of methods for reducing aflatoxin contamination, but only 40.9% were putting such methods into practice. More farmers (47.9%) managed aflatoxins compared to wholesalers (33.3%) and processors (21.4%). Knowledge on aflatoxins was significantly associated with value chain actor (P = 0.026), head of household (P = 0.004), region (P = 0.033), age (P = 0.001), and experience (P = 0.001). This study highlights the critical areas of mycotoxin contamination within the cassava value chain in Uganda and underscores the need to improve the knowledge among value chain actors especially farmers.Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a major staple crop in Uganda that is consumed by more than 50% of the population (UBOS, 2019). Due to its cheap source of carbohydrates, resistance to drought, and capacity to produce significant yields even on marginal land where other crops fail, cassava production has spread and is now the second most important crop after bananas (Scott et al., 2021). Production and consumption of cassava is more concentrated in the eastern region (37%), followed by the northern region (34%), the western region (15%), and the central region (14%) (Buyinza & Kitinoja, 2018). Currently, 2.67 million MT of cassava are produced on 878,297 ha outpacing all other root crops in Uganda (FAOSTAT, 2022).Historically, 88% of the cassava produced was consumed locally, and the crop was considered a food security crop for resource-poor farmers (Buyinza & Kitinoja, 2018). However, in 2016, the pharmaceutical, baking, and alcohol sectors transformed cassava into a wonder crop due to its novel attributes. For instance, it has been discovered that cassava is gluten-free and can replace wheat in bread (Garske et al., 2023;Oyeyinka et al., 2022;Rachman et al., 2023). Furthermore, the Nile Breweries Ltd, the largest brewer in Uganda, is utilizing cassava to produce beer that contains 60-68% cassava flour and the pharmaceutical industry is also drawn to the starch content in cassava (Graffham Andrew, 2017). For these reasons, the Ugandangovernment has identified cassava as one of the ten crops that will enable the country to change its status from a subsistence to a middle-income by 2040 (National Planning Authority, 2020).Despite this, the production and marketing of cassava in Uganda face numerous challenges, including low productivity, postharvest losses, and contamination with mycotoxins (Atukwase et al., 2009). Mycotoxins are toxic secondary metabolites produced by fungi, which can grow on crops during preharvest, harvest, and postharvest stages (Bennett & Inamdar, 2015). The presence of mycotoxins in food and feed poses significant risks to human and animal health, including cancer, liver damage, immune suppression, and developmental problems (Zain, 2011;IARC, 2002). In Uganda, mycotoxin contamination in food crops is a significant public health concern (Oyesigye et al., 2024), with aflatoxins being the most prevalent and potent mycotoxins. In particular, aflatoxin B 1 (AFB 1 ) is the most potent naturally formed carcinogen (IARC, 2002).The significance of mycotoxin contamination in cassava cannot be underestimated, especially considering that cassava is the second most widely consumed food crop in Uganda. Several studies have reported high levels of mycotoxin contamination in cassava-based products in Uganda. For example Kaaya and Warren (2005) reported that more than 60% of analyzed cassava flour samples had high levels of aflatoxins exceeding the World Health Organization (WHO) maximum permissible limit of 20 μg/kg. Kitya et al (2010) also found high levels of aflatoxins with an average of 16 μg/kg in Uganda's cassava flour, indicating the need for better postharvest handling practices to reduce contamination. Kaaya and Eboku (2010) reported aflatoxin levels in cassava flour ranging between 0.51 to 0.45 μg/kg. Another study conducted in Uganda by Serck-Hanssen (2013) reported acute poisoning and death of a 15-year-old child who consumed cassava that was contaminated with aflatoxin B 1 (AFB 1 ). The situation is worse given the increasing death cases reported at the national regional referral hospitals (Mulago) attributed to hepatocellular carcinoma-a cancer type highly linked to aflatoxins (Bukirwa et al., 2021). Addressing mycotoxin contamination in cassava is crucial for improving public health and enhancing economic growth. Recent studies have demonstrated that efforts to mitigate mycotoxin contamination are more effective when informed by a comprehensive understanding of the entire crop value chain (Cervini et al., 2022a;Massomo, 2020;Namubiru et al., 2022). By critically assessing activities along the value chain and examining the knowledge and practices of value chain actors, interventions can be better targeted towards addressing the specific factors contributing to mycotoxin contamination. However, there is a paucity of knowledge on cassava handling practices along the value chain (farmers, wholesalers, processors, and final consumers), and how these practices are likely to lead to mycotoxin contamination at each stage of the value chain. Furthermore, it is not clear the extent to which value chain actors know about mycotoxins. This study aimed to (1) understand the current methods used to handle cassava along the value chain and identify key practices that may potentially contribute to mycotoxin contamination, and (2) assess knowledge of mycotoxins within key cassava value chain actors.An explanatory mixed methods design approach was used. Individual interviews, on-site observations, focus group discussions (FDGs), and key informant interviews (KIIs) were used to collect data about cassava production and postharvest handling practices, and mycotoxin knowledge.Data were collected from a purposive sample of cassava farmers, wholesalers, and processors. Sample size was determined using Raosoft online sample calculator (https://www.raosoft.com/samplesize. html). District Production and Marketing Officer (DPMO) data indicated that each district had an average of 35,000 cassava farmers and 506 wholesalers; thus, the sample was drawn from this. The inclusion criteria for farmers, wholesalers, and processors were as follows: Farmers were required to possess a cassava garden and store cassava chips and flour for a minimum of 30 days. Wholesalers needed to have been in business for at least 2 years and to have stocked cassava chips and flour for at least 30 days. Upon applying these criteria, the total number of farmers and wholesalers in the sample was reduced to 205 and 110, respectively. Utilizing the Raosoft sample calculator with this adjusted population, a minimum sample size of 124 farmers and 75 cassava wholesalers was determined for the study. Given the limited number of processors in the cassava value chain (Kleih et al., 2012), a sample size of 15-20 respondents was deemed adequate (Namey et al., 2016) and thus was targeted.According to Graves (2002), Namey et al. (2016), Vasudevan et al. (2020) 4-5 FGDs consisting of at least 15 people, and 15-34 KIIs are deemed enough to provide sufficiently reliable data, thus were targeted. For FGDs, the selection of participants, moderators, and preparing open-ended question was conducted as recommended by Nyumba et al. (2018). Of the four FGDs, two were from farmer groups and two from wholesalers (those owning stores). Despite targeting a FGD from processors, the attempt was unsuccessful since there were relatively few of them in the area, and they were also busy with clients. The FGD was conducted by a moderator and a note-taker, both native language speakers. Each FGD lasted an average of two hours, with the moderator probing participants when it was required to elicit more details. The questionnaire used was divided into 2 main sections firstly, to understand the processes that cassava goes through from the field to harvest, drying, storage, and consumption at the farmer level, and secondly to investigate procedures that wholesalers follow, after receiving cassava from farmers, including how it is stored, dried, processed, and sold.For individual interviews and on-site observations, a total sample of 210 face-to-face in-depth interviews were conducted that included cassava farmers (121), cassava wholesalers (75), and processors (14) (Table S1). Enumerators were selected from the study communities based on their ability to communicate effectively and conduct semistructured interviews in local languages. They underwent a four-day training session, which included the pretesting of the questionnaire. The final pretested and validated questionnaire was uploaded on an open-source KoboCollect app version 2024.1.3. The interview procedure began with a comprehensive explanation of the study's objectives and obtaining consent from the participants. Following preguided questions, the respondents were then interviewed for a duration of 20-30 min. On-site observations were made at each value chain stage following a mini-predetermined checklist (Table S2) about the state in which cassava is dried, stored, and processed. The team leader recorded these observations upon anonymous agreement with the data collection team.For key informant interviews, a total of 32 Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) were carried out to systematically gather information on the handling, consumption, existing policies, and awareness of aflatoxin in cassava value chain. The key informants were dominated by Agriculture Extension Officers (15), the Head of the cassava traders Organization (8), the District Production and Marketing Officer (4), and the District Agricultural Officer (5) (Table S1). The interview guide consisted of 2 major sections. The first section involved questions relating to cassava quality requirements, handling practices at farm, wholesaler, and processing level. The second section involved questions related to knowledge of aflatoxins, perception of communities towards aflatoxin, policies, and existing mitigation strategies being implemented. The same interview process as earlier explained was followed to conduct KIIs.A precalibrated digital dry moisture meter (safeguard Europe Ltd) was used to measure the ambient moisture content (% MC) for respective storage sites. Three different readings were recorded from three different positions (at the two corners and center) of the store.Quantitative data were exported to Microsoft Excel for data cleaning. The latter consisted of omitting questionnaires with responses less than 60%. After cleaning, quantitative data were analyzed with Stata version 17 (Stata 2017). Prior to analysis, the data were tested for normality using the Shapiro-Wilk and heteroskedasticity using the Breusch-Pagan tests. The analysis was parametric because the data passed these two tests without the requirement for transformation. Descriptive statistics mainly frequency tables and graphs were used to summarize data. To determine the factors that may contribute to knowledge about mycotoxins, simple binary dichotomy statements were used with one point (1) accorded to any right statement while no point (0) was awarded for a wrong response (1 = true, 0 = false). A Chi-square (X 2 ) test at a 95% confidence level was run to test associations between the categorical variables against the value chain actors (farmer, wholesaler, and processor). The relationship between knowledge on mycotoxins and demographic variables was determined with the bivariate logistic regression at a 95% confidence level. All other variables for instance gender, region, and head of household were converted into dummy variables with binary responses. To avoid perfect multicollinearity, dummy variables with more than one category, for instance, education level were converted to two categories to fit within the assumptions of the model (1).whereby Y = Knowledge about aflatoxins, X 1 = head of household, X 2 -= education level, X 3 = gender, X 4 = age, X 5 = region, X 6 = experience and e i = error terms. Qualitative data from FGDs were analyzed following the thematic content analysis as recommended by Nyumba et al. (2018). Data were coded into themes, and individual responses to a question were first evaluated for the level of anonymous consensus among participants. The findings were then triangulated into the face-to-face in-depth interviews to provide a more detailed understanding of the subject studied. Data from KIIs that contained 28, predetermined statements were weighed against a Likert scale of 1-5. If a respondent selected 5 for each of the 28 statements, the maximum weight would be 140 (28 × 5), while selecting 1 for each of the 28 statements would result in the minimum weight of 28 (28 × 1). To check factor dimensionality, the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was performed on the 5 constructs Likert scale. The scores were measured by Cronbach alpha (Cronbach, 1951) to check if the Likert statements were internally consistent (if Cronbach value, Ca > 0.7). A screen test with varimax rotation was used to obtain results that can easily be interpreted with statements of factor loading >0.4 retained for further analysis.This study aimed to (1) understand the current methods used to handle cassava along the value chain and identify key practices that may potentially contribute to mycotoxin contamination, and (2) assess knowledge of mycotoxins within key cassava value chain actors. Results are presented as follows:The current cassava handling practices and identify key practices that may potentially contribute to mycotoxin contamination To understand the handling practices, the study first examined the duration cassava chips and flour remain at each stage of the value chain. A systematic review and analysis of results from FGDs and indepth interviews resulted in the flow of dry cassava from the farmer to consumers (Fig. 1). The first step to produce cassava chips is to slice and dry fresh cassava. Three primary routes are used to move cassava chips from the farm. In the first route, farmers take cassava chips to the nearby wholesaler who stores the chips for 30-90 days. More than 72% of farmers use this route. The second route, which is used by 22% of farmers relies on village assemblers to collect the chips from farmers door to door and sell them to the wholesaler, and this is usually accomplished between 3 and 7 days. In the third route, 6% of the farmers directly sell to farmer groups contracted by industries to supply high−quality cassava chips as raw material for the industry sector. The producer organizations also sell the chips to wholesalers especially in the season when the supply supersedes their demand.Between 5 and 90 days of acquiring the cassava chips, the wholesaler sells to retailers, and industries. Depending on the need, the wholesalers process the cassava chips into flour and sell the flour. The major value chain actors that significantly transform cassava chips into flour are the retailers that do this piecemeal; they store chips for a duration of 1-40 days and continue to transform them into flour, depending on the demand from the final consumer. The cassava flour obtained from the processor can be utilized for home consumption by making a cassava meal, animal feeds, small-scale brewing, and in the manufacturing of confectionery, starch, and ethanol. It should be noted that cassava stays the longest period during bulking and storage with the wholesaler and retailers holding it up to 90 days.Majority of (75.6%) cassava farmers greatly rely on traditional indicators to decide whether cassava is ready for harvest. Only 24.6% of the farmers check their planting records to find out the maturity period; the majority (76.4%) perceive that once the soil around the cassava plant crack, the root will have reached the required size to be harvested (FGD-ST02). Since the months of November through February are sunny, most farmers (61.6%) take advantage of this time to maximize natural sunlight for drying their cassava. The harvesting process is carried out by both men and women (68.3%), primarily by digging out the cassava tubers using a hand hoe which cuts, injures, and bruises the cassava tubers allowing soil to intermingle with tubers which predisposes it to mycotoxigenic fungi. In the FGD ST02, farmer admitted that, unless it is to be used for roasting, in which case the customer needs a full root that is not damaged, 82.5% of the cassava harvested is sliced, injured, and encounters soil during harvest. \"We don't have time to worry about whether the tuber is cut or mixed with soil. What we typically care about is to remove as much as we can from the soil, whether they are cut or not. Cutting the tuber while it is still in the field even reduces labour costs for slicing it into manageable sizes during peeling, which ultimately speeds up and simplifies the peeling process, after all, we wash off any soil after peeling\". (FGD-KML1).Peeling and drying cassava. Cassava is normally peeled on bare ground (51.6%). The peeling activity is dominated by women (85.1%) (Fig. 2; 01). Peeling is followed by drying which is majorly on tarpaulin and bareground (Fig. 2; 02). Although it is majorly dried in these two ways, the preferences differ by region. Whereas the Eastern region dries most of their cassava on bare ground (42.2%), the Northern region does so on tarpaulin (48.1%) (Fig. 3). To prevent direct contact of cassava with soil, 16% of farmers first smear the surface with cow dung and when the surface is dry enough, they dry their cassava on this surface 'cow dung smeared surface'. The other drying surfaces were rocks and paved roads (3.9%), and gunny plastic bags (1.95%) (Fig. 3). The drying process takes an average of 6 days, after these days, farmers rely on traditional indicators to decide if the cassava chips are dry enough to be stored or processed. Most of the farmers (88.9%) break to check the brittleness of cassava. It is assumed that when the cassava chips can easily break without brittleness, then it is ready enough for processing or storage (Table S3).Moisture content in stores varied from 12.6% to 26% with an average of 15.6%. Cassava is stored either as chips or flour. The wholesaler prefers storing cassava in the form of chips so that retailers can buy it at any time and convert it into flour for selling to the final consumer. Farmers primarily store cassava for a long period (up to 1 year) as flour. The farmer stores cassava chips for 10-30 days. In this period, the farmer slowly sells the chips to get money for household use, while the rest of the chips are converted into flour for home consumption. When cassava chips/flour are ready for storage, both farmers (46.7%) and wholesaler (95.2%) dominantly use the plastic singlelayered gunny bags for packaging and storage (Fig. 2; 06) (Table S4). The nature of storage is dependent on the value chain actor (Fig. 2; 04-05). Only 5.83% of the farmers owned stores which are built separate from the living room mainly intended for crop storage. The majority (86.7%) of farmers store cassava chips and flour in kitchen and bedrooms because they believe the smoke from kitchen preserves cassava, while storing in bedrooms protects the chips from thieves (Fig. 2; 07). Only 5% store cassava chips and flour in metallic barrels (Table S4).Conversely, almost all the wholesalers (89.2%) store cassava chips in facilities which are normally rented in trading centers. These facilities are referred to as 'stores'. Within the storage facility, the chips are packed tightly in single−layered local gunny bags and placed on the ground (Fig. 2; 06). Only 22.4% of wholesalers place the cassava chips on pallets or raised surfaces. Before buying, wholesalers base on white color and brittleness as indicators for high-quality cassava chips. The responsibility of protecting the storage is sorely left to the farmers because when the chips are of poor quality, wholesalers will reject it. In this regard, whereas most farmers (72.9%) are more concerned with protecting their storage by continuously redrying, turning the chips, and regularly opening windows, only 30.1% of the wholesalers do so (Table S4). Cassava chips are mainly converted into flour which is either used for preparing a cassava meal, manufacturing industries, local brew, and pancakes. In this study, the ratio of processing machines to consumers taking their chips for processing was found to be 1:180 and each machine processes an average amount of 26.43 kg of cassava chips daily (Table S5). Because electricity is not available in most parts of the study sites, the frequently (75%) used processing machines are diesel-powered milling machine (Fig. 2; 09). Despite the call by the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) to register the milling machines so that they can be inspected and ensure they meet quality standards, only 1/14 machines (table S5) were certified and registered with UNBS. The same machines that process cassava are used to process other high mycotoxin contamination-prone crops particularly, maize, sorghum, and millet. When asked whether these machines are cleaned from one crop to another or from one lot to another, all machine operators admitted that they never do so.   Cassava can be consumed either fresh or dried. The consumption characteristics are summarized in Table S5. A significant number of respondents (75%) expressed a preference for consuming cassava in its dry form, specifically as flour. The cassava meal, particularly when blended with flour derived from other crops, is considered a culinary delight by the majority (72.8%). The consumers who blend cassava do so because they believe that blending improves the taste and reduces the starch content thereby making the meal more viscous, and others do it because it is the traditional norm. In FGD K-04, one respondent stated, 'Mixing cassava flour with sorghum is the best for me. My husband loves it so much, if I don't mix it, he will not eat the meal and eventually becomes less productive. Because of this, my children have also started rejecting eating a meal prepared from cassava flour without any mixing. However, blending is sometimes expensive because if you don't have your own sorghum or maize, then you have to buy it and, in some periods, I don't have money'. A few consumers (27.2%) who do not currently blend cassava with other crops expressed a desire to do so but the deterrent was the high cost of flour from other crops. This indicates that the preference for blending is nearly unanimous among consumers, with the limitation being primarily due to economic factors rather than personal choice. The highly preferred crops for blending included sorghum (54.9%), millet (36.6%), maize (7.19%), and sweet potatoes (Table S5).Managing mycotoxins requires the value chain actors to have a basic understanding of mycotoxins, their causes, and mitigation strategies. The study assessed the knowledge of mycotoxins, particularly aflatoxins along the cassava value chain, demographic factors that may be linked to this knowledge, and what key informants perceive to be the knowledge capacity along the cassava value chain.The results in Table 1 indicate that the level of knowledge about mycotoxins varied significantly along the cassava value chain. The word mycotoxin seemed new to value chain actors. Only 3.82% had ever heard of the word mycotoxins. Of these, one was a farmer, seven were wholesalers and no processor had ever heard of mycotoxins. Conversely, aflatoxins were a more familiar terminology as a majority (55.7%) of value chain actors had ever heard of them. In terms of knowledge distribution, farmers had significantly low (48.8%) knowledge of aflatoxins compared to wholesalers (68%) and processors (50%) (Table 1). Additionally, the findings revealed that farmers (56.2) were more knowledgeable about the crops prone to aflatoxins contamination than either wholesaler (53.3%) or processor (21.4%). Similarly, a higher proportion of wholesaler (40%) than farmers (11.6%) or processors (14.3%) were aware of the consequences of consuming mycotoxin-contaminated food implying that wholesalers may be more aware of the dangers posed by aflatoxins.The study also found that while more cassava value chain actors (82.9%) were aware of the methods for reducing mycotoxin build-up especially drying on tarpaulin and storing on pallets, only 40.9% were putting such methods into practice. Farmers were putting significantly more effort (47.9%) to manage aflatoxins than either wholesalers (33.3%) or processors (21.4%). This suggests that, even though people may be aware of the techniques to reduce mycotoxin contamination, there may be barriers to putting these practices into practice.The analysis of results in Table 2 reveals that cassava farmers have significantly less negative knowledge of mycotoxins (P = 0.026), compared to wholesalers and processors. Equally, female-headed households were not aware of mycotoxins (P = 0.004), with femaleheaded households having relatively less knowledge about aflatoxins than male-headed households. Similarly, there were significant differences (P = 0.033) in aflatoxin knowledge between regions, with farmers from the northern region more aware of aflatoxins than the eastern region. Age emerged as a crucial factor influencing aflatoxin knowledge. The analysis indicates a significant negative association between age and knowledge (P = 0.001) suggesting that older actors along the cassava value chain have lower knowledge about aflatoxins. Experience was significantly associated with knowledge (P = 0.001), the more experienced value chain actors had higher levels of knowledge of aflatoxins (P = 0.001). It is important to note that education level and gender did not show significant associations with aflatoxin knowledge.The results presented in Table 3 provide information on the perception of key informant interviews on the knowledge spread and practices of farmers, wholesalers, and processors regarding mycotoxins in a community. The factor loadings reveal the strength and direction of each item's association with the three respondent categories (farmers, store clerks, and processors).The findings show a strong correlation between key informants' perceptions and the community's awareness of aflatoxins. As indicated in the loading factors of 0.63-0.67 for \"The community is aware of mycotoxins\" and 0.648 for \"There are currently in place guidelines on mycotoxins\", key informants acknowledge community's awareness of aflatoxins and the availability of recommendations to manage afla- toxins. However, it was worrying that some value chain actors, especially farmers did not understand the negative effects of mycotoxins. This is seen by the loading factors of 0.77 for \"The community does not know the consequences of mycotoxins\" and 0.86 for \"The community does not know the consequences of mycotoxins.\" These results show that the key informants believe there is a knowledge gap in the community regarding the potential risks associated with mycotoxins. It was also revealed by key informants that the community is frequently consuming aflatoxin-contaminated foods as shown by a high loading factor of 0.74. Consequently, key informants strongly agreed (factor loading 0.63) that cassava meal is normally prepared with other aflatoxin-prone foods mainly millet and maize.In terms of recommended practices, the key informants perceive that value chain actors have received training on the management of aflatoxins (0.6-0.83), but there is a general lack of implementation especially in drying and storage. This is evident from the loading factors of 0.46 for \"Recommended practices are not often implemented. Similarly, processors were pinpointed as strong contributors to aflatoxin contamination as depicted in the factor loading of 0.759 for \"Processors are not certified; machines don't meet standards.\" These findings suggest that the key informants believe that the recommended practices for handling aflatoxins are not consistently followed, and there may be issues related to certification and adherence to standards among processors. Overall, the results indicate a mixed perception among the key informants regarding aflatoxins in the community. While there is a general awareness of aflatoxins and existing guidelines, there is also a need to improve understanding of the consequences and ensure better implementation of recommended practices.The current cassava handling practices and identify key practices that may potentially contribute to mycotoxin contamination This study compared practices along the cassava value chain with existing literature to determine the critical areas potentially contributing to mycotoxin contamination. This discussion is based on key findings from the following stages: preharvest activities (harvesting and peeling), postharvest (drying, storage, and processing), and consumption. At preharvest stage, the study identified two critical areas that are likely to increase the risk of mycotoxin contamination: intercropping and contact of freshly harvested tubers with soil. Results revealed that freshly harvested tubers can get in contact with soil through damage of tubers during harvesting and placing peeled cassava directly on bare ground. In both scenarios, farmers wash off the soil to make the peeled tuber clean. However, rinsing the tubers with water may not effectively detach mycotoxigenic species and will provide a humid environment for fungal growth (Donner et al., 2009;Nyangweso Salano et al., 2016), thus increasing the risk of mycotoxin contamination. The cell wall of Aspergillus section Flavi species are composed primarily of glucan and chitin, which provides them with a strong attachment ability to various materials, including cassava tubers (Ruiz-Herrera, 1967). Therefore, contact between freshly harvested cassava and soil represents a significant predisposing factor for mycotoxigenic-producing fungi that lives in soil to get in contact with fresh cassava, hence encouraging contamination. Moreover, it is crucial to characterize the specific species of Aspergillus section Flavi present in the soils  within cassava fields. This characterization will enable a comprehensive assessment of their toxigenic potential in different geographical contexts, thereby identifying areas with a higher risk of mycotoxin contamination. Understanding the geographical distribution of these species and their toxigenicity levels is essential for implementing informed management practices to effectively mitigate the risk.The cassava postharvest stage encompasses drying, storage, and processing. Three critical areas that potentially expose cassava to mycotoxin contamination were identified. First, farmers dried cassava chips directly on the ground that was prevalent in the eastern region. This practice is sometimes intentionally done because cassava dried on the ground appears to weigh more, leading to higher monetary value (Kaaya & Warren, 2005). However, drying cassava chips on bare ground has been found to significantly contribute to mycotoxin contamination, primarily aflatoxins and fumonisins (Atukwase et al., 2009;Kitya et al., 2010) and should be avoided. The widespread practice of drying cassava on bare ground and rocky surfaces in the eastern region is a prominent factor that is likely to increase mycotoxin contamination and requires urgent intervention. Secondly, farmers admitted that animals, particularly chickens, goats, and pigs, trample over the drying cassava, resulting in fecal contamination of the chips. Fecal matter from such animals is highly contaminated with mycotoxins (Dersjant-Li et al., 2003;Nishimwe et al., 2019;Schrenk et al., 2022). This represents another pathway that can lead to the accumulation of mycotoxins in cassava. Majority of respondents reported drying cassava during the peak months of sunshine, from November to February, and relied on subjective methods like brittleness to determine if the cassava chips were sufficiently dry. There is a need for innovative and economically feasible alternative drying methods, such as solar dryers (Cervini et al., 2022a), that can be used year-round especially in rainy seasons when the prices for cassava chips are high. These dryers would not only prevent animals from trampling over the drying cassava but also reduce the labor involved in removing the chips from drying surfaces when it rains.Thirdly, wholesalers pack cassava chips in high moisture-absorbing gunny bags and place them on the ground for storage. Poor storage conditions, particularly in unhygienic, and poorly ventilated environments have been reported to increase mycotoxin levels (Swai et al., 2019;Uwishema et al., 2022). Although double-layered polythene bags, such as hermetically sealed bags are highly recommended for storage, only 1% of wholesalers are utilizing these bags, hermetic bags may protect the products but may not necessarily reduce mycotoxin contamination of the cassava chips. It is crucial to explore affordable packaging solutions that can effectively reduce the levels of mycotoxin, like recent advancements in sodium metabisulphite sheets for reducing aflatoxin B 1 in chili powder (Al-Jaza et al., 2022) and in peanuts (Cervini et al., 2022b). Additionally, the responsibility of protecting the storage has been mainly left to the farmers, with only a few wholesalers (30.1%) concerned about checking storage quality. Wholesalers play a crucial role in mycotoxin contamination as they dictate prices and buy cassava chips based on their preferences (Essuman et al., 2022). This situation allows them to pay less attention to the quality of stored cassava. Therefore, the implementation of innovative packaging materials, such as sodium metabisulphite sheets and other alternatives, which can reduce mycotoxin levels in chips already contaminated, becomes crucial in addressing the negligence displayed by these actors.Furthermore, it was found that only one processing machine was certified and registered with the national standards regulatory body (UNBS), and these machines were never cleaned between consecutive lots. The same machines are used to process other crops including maize, millet, and sorghum, which are highly prone to mycotoxin contamination. This factor can contribute to the problem, as the levels of mycotoxin in the crops brought for processing may vary among different owners. Consequently, even if one strives to produce uncontaminated cassava chips, there is a likelihood of contamination during the processing stage when utilizing these machines. The impact of processing machines on mycotoxin levels has been investigated on peanut butter in Kenya (Ndung'u et al., 2013), and adherence to registration requirements set by the national standard bureau was identified as a crucial intervention to mitigate contamination levels, the same is recommended in Uganda.At the consumer level, it was evident that individuals are reluctant to discard flour that appears to be contaminated with some opting to mix the new batch of flour with the visibly contaminated portion to reduce the overall level of contamination. To make matters worse, the majority prepare cassava meal by blending it with flour from highly mycotoxin susceptible crops (maize, millet, and sorghum). Mixing cassava flour with other known mycotoxin−prone crops like millet and sorghum (Kitya et al., 2010;Lukwago et al., 2019;Murokore et al., 2023) may increase the risk of mycotoxin contamination among consumers.The study also examined mycotoxin (particularly aflatoxins) knowledge among various actors along the cassava value chain. Aflatoxins were the most recognized mycotoxins, with the majority being aware of them. However, the term \"mycotoxins\" itself was not familiar to many respondents, indicating a lack of awareness about the broader category. The limited knowledge of aflatoxins within farmers has been documented along the value chain (Massomo, 2020;Nakavuma et al., 2020;Namubiru et al., 2022), yet they are at the beginning part of the entire value chain. More efforts should be directed to educate farmers about mycotoxins. The study also found that while some cassava value chain actors (especially wholesalers) were aware of the methods for reducing aflatoxin contamination, the actual implementation of these methods was relatively low. This suggests that although people may be aware of the techniques to reduce aflatoxin contamination, there may be barriers to putting these practices into action.The analysis of social-demographic factors influencing knowledge on mycotoxins along the value chain in Table 2 revealed several interesting findings. The role of being the head of the household exhibited a significant negative correlation with aflatoxin knowledge, with female-headed households having relatively less knowledge about aflatoxins than male-headed households. Region and age were also identified as crucial factors influencing mycotoxin knowledge, with the northern region and younger actors demonstrating higher levels of knowledge. Women are responsible for family nutrition and are better placed to manage mycotoxins than men (Kang'ethe & Lang, 2009), thus should be targeted for trainings on aflatoxins. Additionally, the experience was significantly associated with knowledge, indicating that more experienced value chain actors had higher levels of knowledge on aflatoxins. Contrary to other researchers (Magembe et al., 2016;Namubiru et al., 2022), our study showed that level of education and gender did not influence knowledge of mycotoxins. Findings in this study highlight the need to pay keen attention to household heads, age, and region while designing or revising existing aflatoxin management strategies.Perceptions of KIIs regarding knowledge spread and practices of farmers, wholesalers, and processors regarding aflatoxins were also assessed (Table 3). The results showed a strong correlation between KIIs' perceptions and the community's awareness of mycotoxins. However, there was a concerning knowledge gap among farmers regarding the negative effects of aflatoxins. The KIIs also highlighted the high consumption of mycotoxin-contaminated foods in the community. In terms of recommended practices, they perceived a lack of consistent implementation, particularly in drying and storage, and identified processors as contributors to aflatoxin contamination. KIIs provide an overview on the level of implementation and are at the forefront for most trainings and enforcing policies in relation to mycotoxin contam-ination highlighting the need for their involvement during designing or revising existing aflatoxin management strategies.Limitations of the study: This study faced several limitations. Firstly, the number of processors in the cassava value chain was relatively small, which constrained the sample size for this group to 14 participants. This small sample size may limit the depth of insights gained from processors. Additionally, wholesalers were often unable to allocate sufficient time for more in-depth questioning due to their busy schedules, which might have restricted the comprehensiveness of their responses. While the study aimed to conduct multiple focus group discussions (FGDs), logistical challenges prevented the inclusion of additional FGDs. This limitation potentially affected the breadth of qualitative data collected. Despite these challenges, the study made considerable efforts to capture a broad range of perspectives through the available individual interviews, FGDs, and key informant interviews.This study delved into two main objectives: the current cassava handling practices along the value chain, and their potential to increase mycotoxin contamination as well as the level of knowledge regarding mycotoxins among key actors within the cassava value chain in Uganda. Critical areas were identified as potential contributors to mycotoxin contamination, including contact between freshly harvested tubers and soil, poor postharvest practices such as direct ground drying and inadequate storage conditions, as well as improper processing. Interventions such as innovative drying methods, improved storage facilities, monitoring and regulating milling machines used in the processing of cassava chips into flour, and alternative packaging materials were recommended to mitigate these risks. While awareness of aflatoxins was relatively high among value chain actors, there was limited understanding of mycotoxins as a broader category. This highlights the need for targeted educational efforts to improve awareness and implementation of practices to reduce mycotoxin contamination. Furthermore, the findings indicate that while most value chain actors are aware of recommended practices for managing aflatoxins, they are not implementing them. This suggests a need for either a revision of existing practices or stronger enforcement measures. Factors such as household headship, age, region, and experience were found to influence mycotoxin knowledge, suggesting the need for tailored educational interventions. Addressing these identified gaps in cassava handling practices and mycotoxin knowledge among value chain actors is crucial for improving food safety and public health in Uganda. Collaborative efforts involving policymakers, researchers, extension officers, and community members are essential to implement effective interventions and ensure the adoption of best practices along the cassava value chain. ","tokenCount":"6482"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e0103641061ef2934601d55bcd9b48bd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/a8f74615-71c1-4fc0-ab0d-f24d2766a72e/content","id":"172792379"},"keywords":["Migration","Climate-smart agriculture","Food and nutrition security","Knowledge index"],"sieverID":"c4a3eda5-da48-4446-8f99-43b8795c6ccc","pagecount":"19","content":"Purpose -Increasing trends of climatic risk pose challenges to the food security and livelihoods of smallholders in vulnerable regions, where farmers often face loss of the entire crop, pushing farmers (mostly men) out of agriculture in destitution, creating a situation of agricultural making agriculture highly feminization and compelling male farmers to out-migrate. Climate-smart agricultural practices (CSAPs) are promoted to cope with climatic risks. This study aims to assess how knowledge related to CSAPs, male outmigration, education and income contribute to the determinants of male out-migration and CSAPs adoption and how they respond to household food security.Design/methodology/approach -Sex-disaggregated primary data were collected from adopter and non-adopter farm families. STATA 13.1 was used to perform principle component analysis to construct knowledge, yield and income indices.Findings -Yield and income index of adopters was higher for men than women. The probability of outmigration reduced by 21% with adoption of CSAPs. An increase in female literacy by 1 unit reduces log of odds to migrate by 0.37. With every unit increase in knowledge index, increase in log-odds of CSAPs adoption was 1.57. Male:female knowledge gap was less among adopters. Non-adopters tended to reduce food consumption when faced with climatic risks significantly, and the probability of migration increased by 50% with a one-unit fall in the nutrition level, thus compelling women to work more in agriculture. Genderequitable enhancement of CSAP knowledge is, therefore, key to safeguarding sustainable farming systems and improving livelihoods.Social implications -The enhancement of gender equitable knowledge on CSAPs is key to safeguard sustainable farming systems and improved livelihoods.Climatic risk because of extreme weather events variability is one of the most critical factors affecting agricultural production. Indian agriculture is largely weatherdependent; over 60% of crops are rainfed, making them highly vulnerable to climateinduced changes in precipitation patterns. Weather-related risks in India such as heat waves, cold snaps, droughts and floods have become the norm because of their increasing occurrence during the recent past. This is evident from the extreme weather data; the number of extreme temperatures (minimum and maximum) and rainfall events have increased significantly from 30 in 1930 to about 358 in 2010 (Mahdi et al., 2015). It is estimated that by the 2050s, with a temperature increase of 2-2.5°C compared to pre-industrial levels, water for agricultural production will reduce further, and this may impact food adequacy for some 63 million people (The World Bank, 2013).In India, the state of Bihar is highly vulnerable to hydro-meteorological natural disasters, with North Bihar, in general, being flood-prone and South Bihar being drought-prone. In the (relative) absence of state-level climate models and or vulnerability studies, and with low community awareness, the state is potentially more sensitive to climate change (Bihar state action plan on climate change, 2015). A unique paradox is witnessed in Bihar wherein flood and drought events occur in the same year and sometimes in the same district. Out of 38 districts, 28 are flood-prone, with major flood events occurring in 2004,2007,2011,2013 and breach-induced flooding in 2008. Both North and South Bihar have experienced drought, as evidenced by drought being declared in 26 districts in 2009, all 38 districts in 2010 and 33 districts in 2013. Further, the years 2012, 2014 and 2015 were no better than the drought years because Bihar experienced irregular and erratic rainfall. In March 2015, there was extensive crop damage because of unseasonal rainfall and hailstorms (Roadmap for Disaster Reduction, 2016).Because of these unpredicted and extreme climatic stresses, farmers often face the loss of their crops, livelihoods and food security are threatened and already-stressed areas are pushed further into poverty and destitution. To cope with this vulnerability and marginalization, farmers look for alternatives, and labor out-migration is an important and often-adopted strategy to diversify household livelihood portfolios (Choithani, 2017;Kim et al., 2019). Although the extreme weather conditions may hit the male and female farmers somewhat equally, the implications for coping and recovering from the shock may differ because of social and gender inequalities prevalent in the society. The Indian sociocultural contexts offer more freedom to men than to women to migrate out of their home area and explore opportunities for additional income. A survey from the Institute for Human Development, New Delhi, says that 70% of households where women are engaged in cultivation to have witnessed male labor out-migration. This leaves the women left behind obliged to IJCCSM 14,1 perform agricultural activities on top of the household responsibilities that already overburden them (Times of India, 2014). This may already limit their performance, but even worse, their limited access to knowledge and resources may lead to deteriorating agricultural production and also impact the overall well-being of the women involved, as is highlighted by many prior studies (Gartaula et al., 2012;Tamang et al., 2014;Patel et al., 2015).With the extent of these human and economic concerns of increased extreme climatic situations, and to safeguard farmers' well-being, there is a need to manage climate risks better and find a way forward. In an attempt to address the problem, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center and consultative group for international agricultural research (CGIAR) Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CIMMYT-CCAFS), in collaboration with stakeholders at national and international levels, are working on the concept of climate-smart villages (CSVs). The CSV program addresses climatic risks from both technological and social perspectives. It provides gender-inclusive training to farming communities to scale climate-smart agricultural practices (CSAPs) up for sustainable agriculture and better mitigating the risks of climate change. Interventions ensuring economic access to resources need to be targeted and scaled to safeguard climate change mitigation and minimize productivity loss. In CSVs, farmers practice climate-smart agriculture (CSA), which is an approach that integrates the three dimensions of sustainable development (environmental, economic and social) by jointly addressing food security and climatic challenges through CSAPs (Sriram et al., 2019).The mitigation strategies such as food crops choice mix (or crop diversification), offfarm work, better farming practices, etc. ensure household income and food security and thereby reduces male out-migration. However, adopting the proven beneficial CSAPs requires adequate knowledge for their use, economic viability and broader scalability. Practical training and the provision of services are strategies that can make adoption easier. Given the immense role played by women in agriculture, it is vital to build women's capacities and ensure that they have sufficient knowledge and training to achieve gender equality in agriculture. It is also crucial to overcome the exclusion of women from decision-making processes and labor markets so that they can better cope with and adapt to the impacts of climate change (Sriram et al., 2019). However, there remains a gap in knowing to what extent and how the capacity enhancement of women in climate risk mitigation strategies can curtail migration and improve household food security and overall farm livelihoods.In this context, this paper investigates how CSAPs affect food security and, consequently, male labor out-migration in the state of Bihar, India. Our analysis shows that the adoption of CSAPs can reduce the probability of migrating by 21%, whereas women's literacy also reduces migration. Moreover, a narrowing of the gendered knowledge gap increases the adoption of CSAPs, thus improving food security and decreasing male out-migration. This paper concludes with insights into how the enhancement of gender-equitable knowledge relating to CSAPs is key to safeguarding sustainable farming systems and improving livelihoods.Gender and social differences are dynamic and nuanced within communities. Thus, an understanding of how these differences could affect implementation strategies and the need for climate information is critical in reaching the most vulnerable (Bernier, 2013). The primary form of gendered vulnerability in the context of agrarian distress emerges Household food security and labor migration from male out-migration, which affects the distribution of labor and resources. Sugden et al. (2014) observe that poverty, gender inequality, insecure land rights, heavy reliance on agriculture and less access to education and information are among the principal reasons for climate change vulnerabilities. At the same time, women are not only the passive victims of climate change but are also agents of hope for adapting to and mitigating abrupt climate change shocks. Women are also concerned about environmental issues and are highly supportive of policies aimed at restoring the environment. There are plenty of suggestions for gender-differentiated agricultural strategies aimed at adapting to climate change. Many studies claim that differences in men's and women's responsibilities, priorities and access to resources, training and services at the community and household levels are responsible for the gender gap in agriculture in many developing countries (Khatri-Chhetri et al., 2020). Although hotspots of women in agriculture are discussed to assess CSA interventions relevant for women, their potential to help women mitigate climatic risks in production and consumption is not well addressed. A recent study points out that some CSAPs have the potential to reduce women's labor drudgery, but their adoption depends on several social, economic and political factors. Notably, the prospect of negative implications for a specific group of women should not be ignored but addressed and mitigate challenges accordingly (Gartaula et al., 2020). India's agricultural labor force is reducing. In 1981, over 66% men and 83% women worked in agriculture, which in 2011 were reduced to about 50% for men and 65% for women (Pattnaik et al., 2018). This shows that although overall labor force engaged in agriculture is declining in India, women's involvement is still more than of men's, indicating women's paramount role in Indian agriculture. Their contributions to household livelihoods vary according to the region and the type of farming and cropping system but broadly include providing labor for crop and livestock production and household management. Of the 98 million women who live in rural areas and practice agriculture in India, about 37% are farmers, whereas 63% are agricultural wage-laborers (Chanana-Nag and Aggarwal, 2018). Statistics show that 48% of India's self-employed farmers are women. About 75 million Indian women are engaged in the dairy industry compared to 15 million men. Likewise, 20 million women practice animal husbandry compared to 1.5 million men (Ghosh and Ghosh, 2014). Women are generally involved in various cultivation and post-harvest operations like storage; these activities are essential for the well-being of farm households but are often not included in the definition of economically beneficial activities. A substantial proportion of rural women who are active in farming are counted merely as unpaid family labor.Despite their crucial role, women's contributions to agriculture in India tend not to be valued in the same way as men's, and often women are not involved in agricultural decision-making. Men's departure from agriculture to non-agricultural jobs is increasing across South Asia, including Bihar, India. This process of agricultural feminization, sometimes, linked with women's better space in the agricultural decisionmaking. However, men's exit from this sector does not necessarily leverage the decision-making capacity of the women left-behind in agriculture (Pattnaik et al., 2018). Moreover, women's increased participation to some extent increased their role in the agricultural decision-making, but the \"final\" decisions should still be approved by men, even if they stay outside, as evident in Karnataka, India (Goudappa et al., 2012) and in Jhapa, Nepal (Gartaula, 2012).Like in other areas in the region, Bihar's agricultural sector is also feminized, with over 50% of the total farming workforce consisting of women, according to a report on women in the informal economy of Bihar, Asian Development Research Institute. Additionally, women make up 79.5% of the workforce engaged in animal husbandry in the state (The Times of India, 2014). This underscores the significant role of women in contributing to household income and food and nutrition security.There is a clear understanding of the positive correlation between income and food security. By food security, we refer to not only having enough meals but also meeting the nutritional needs of the men, women and children of the household. The ratio of perconsumer unit calorie intake to the measure of per capita calorie intake may vary widely between individual households because of inter-household differences in agesex composition. Thus, for a household with no children, the two measures will be much closer than for a household with a large proportion of children and babies. Hence, the per-consumer unit calorie intake analyzed in the study gives a much better idea of the adequacy of calorie intake at the individual household level. For India as a whole, the share taken by cereals in household consumer expenditure is 10.7% for the rural sector. In rural Bihar, total spending on food is calculated as 59.3% of total household expenditure, 15% of which is spent on cereals, contributing 61.6% of calories. Cereals are followed by milk products, oils, pulses, and so on. Thus, any effect of climate change on cereal production or consumption will have a significant impact on the food and nutrition security of the consumer units. In our paper, we emphasize how farmers are practicing CSAPs to safeguard production, ensuring higher yields and income and thereby securing consumer consumption.With limited access to resources and decision-making, women play a vital role in forming mitigation strategies while adopting CSAPs for improved household food security. To the best of our knowledge, none of the previous studies have investigated the impact of climatic risk in terms of male out-migration, causing feminization of agriculture. The results substantiate how CSAPs can be promoted among women farmers to support them in mitigating climatic risks in agriculture, combating the effects of these on yield and securing household food security. Integrating the structural intersections between climatic risks, gendered knowledge, migration and food security is necessary to make informed policy decisions that will impact at scale (Sugden et al., 2014).This study was carried out in Samastipur and Vaishali districts of Bihar, India. The study area map (Supplementary Figure 1) presents the geographic location of the villages surveyed. Both districts are located in central Bihar and have similar geographic conditions and similar literacy averages, thus negating the scope of disparity in CSAPs adoption.To assess the impact of climatic risk on farmers' mitigation strategies, defined by the awareness and adoption of CSAPs by both men and women, we used a mixed research design that combined qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and analysis. The qualitative data were collected using focus group discussions (FGDs) conducted separately for men and women. The FGDs were crucial to identify the domains to be included in the survey questionnaire as part of the quantitative data Household food security and labor migration collection. The survey was performed by a team of men and women enumerators to ensure capturing the responses of women respondents appropriately. In the survey, we captured the farmers' understanding of how they had experienced climate change and the benefits of project interventions aimed at CSA adoption over time. We also collected comparison data on the impact of climatic risks on household food security among adopters and non-adopters.The survey was conducted in 100 households where both men and women from the same household were interviewed, making a total sample size of 200. In total, 10 CSVs were selected in Samastipur and Vaishali districts for data collection. From each CSV, 10 households comprising five adopter and five non-adopter households were randomly selected and interviewed. Interviewing both male and female respondents of the same household helped us to capture perspectives of both genders and to map out the gender gap about issues like crop yields, income, migration, food consumption, technology adoption and other demographic variables. We aimed to assess the determinants defining CSAPs adoption among men and women and resulting behavioral changes.We observed the impact of the CSAP interventions for over 10 years. Before 2007, the farmers carried out their usual agricultural practices, and from then onwards, training in building knowledge about CSA was initiated in the districts as mentioned above of Bihar. Hence, the year 2007 was taken as the base year from which data were collected based on recall, and 2016 was taken as the current year. However, spillovers because of improper record-keeping by farmers and insufficient knowledge of females remained a constraint to the analysis.The average yield and income indices of CSAP adopters were analyzed to estimate the effects of adoption on yield and income and to capture post-adoption percentage changes. The indices generated were derived only from the adopters. Yield and income were not calculated separately for men and women as both reported the household data; however, because of inefficient farm budgeting and differences in farm information and decisionmaking, the indices reported by men and women did differ.A knowledge index (KI) was generated to capture the current knowledge level, which mapped out the farmers' understanding of CSAPs. In our study, the CSAPs included nine technologies: laser land leveler, green seeker, multi-crop planter, harvester and thresher, zero tillage, leaf color chart, nutrient expert tool, relay planter and bed planter. This index ranked different individuals based on their knowledge about the practical usage and adoption of the technologies. The index was developed for men and women separately to assess the difference in technical knowledge about CSAPs; this is discussed in the following subsection.The indices were generated based on the principal component analysis (PCA) of the variables related to CSAPs knowledge, yield and income. PCA is used to exploit variation in variables to generate weights and corresponding ranks for households and individuals in the large dimensionality of the data (Jolliffe and Cadima, 2016). PCA provides a weighted rank based on the variation across a large dimension of variables as compared to some other measures that are based on means making it less susceptible to biasedness owing to extreme values. Various other studies have used PCA to construct indices with discrete data (Kurbanoglu et al., 2006;Filmer and Pritchett, 2001).The male and female respondents were asked to respond to a given statement on a fivepoint Likert scale 1 = very low, 2 = low, 3 =average, 4 =high, 5 = very high. The five-point scales were reconfigured to three-point scales to show a pattern of reduced (for very low and low), unchanged (for average) and improved (for high and very high), and a tabular analysis was performed.The PCA technique and the derivation of indices is discussed briefly below; we normalize the N indicators as follows:where X is the responses for i indicators, 1 to N for kth individual.The above adjustment transforms all the selected variables on the 0-1 scale. The value of 0 is assigned to the individual with the lowest value of the selected knowledge indicator, and a value of 1 is assigned to the individual with the highest value of the selected knowledge indicator.The results for the eigenvalues (l 1 . . . :l n Þ are presented in Supplementary tables 7, 9 and 11, respectively, for knowledge, income and yield.Eigenvectors as in Supplementary Tables 8, 10 and 12 are obtained for knowledge, income and yield.Finally, the index is computed as a weighted sum of N principal components and l 1 . . . . . . :l n eigenvalues, where weights are the variances of successive principle components as follows:The index is monotonous, with higher index values indicating higher knowledge levels related to better farming techniques. The index is generated for males and females separately, providing an opportunity to assess the gender gap in technical expertise in farming. A separate analysis at the village level provides important information on Household food security and labor migration differences across villages in farm knowledge and indicates the direction to follow in policy design. The efficacy of CSA options in terms of their benefits to both men and women stands to lose out if the gender gap in agriculture is not considered (Nelson and Huyer, 2016), and hence, the KI is used to measure the gap and form corrective measures. The KI not only helps compare the information levels on various climate-smart practices across villages and gender gap in information but also enables to study the association and impact of these variations on socio-economic outcomes such as CSAP adoption, migration and consumption. Impact analysis -To understand the effect of the KI, female literacy, training on CSAPs, household size and alternative livelihood activities on the adoption of CSAPs, migration and nutritional security, we used impact analysis using the following formula. The adoption of CSAPs also depends on landholding, other livelihood options, and the availability of required resources. Quisumbing and Pandolfelli (2010) highlight that other socioeconomic parameters such as age, marital status, education level and landholding size can affect agricultural technology adoption. These are therefore included as controls in the impact analysis for CSAPs adoption to circumvent omitted variable bias as follows:where, k is the individual, s is the state and X ks comprises the other control variables. The model is estimated using logistic regression that estimates the probability of CSAPs adoption as a function of KI and training. The binary values \"1\" and \"0\" represent adoption and non-adoption, and if we assume that, this probability follows the logistic curve as denoted by the following logistic function:The probability of adoption can be modeled as follows:where P M ¼ 1jX 1 ; X 2 ; . . . :; X K ð Þ is the probability that the value of the dependent variable, CSAP adoption, takes the value 1 (Hu and Lo, 2007). X i represents the vector of independent variables, KI, training and other controls.Another key was to study the effect of CSAPs adoption, female literacy and age of the migrant men. We hypothesize that CSAPs adoption would raise the productive capacity of farmers and minimize risks and that similarly, a higher degree of female literacy would correspond to better decision-making and farm budgeting, resulting in increased income. Such factors are imperative to higher productivity and improved standards of living, further negating the need for migration. Poor nutrition standards, on the other hand, could be a result of low productivity and income levels, increasing the probability of migrating to find an alternate source of earnings. The analysis also controls for factors that may affect migration and lead to omitted variable bias if excluded from the estimation. The current estimates are derived through logistic regression models similar to those explained in the previous section, with the variable of interestthe dependent variable, migrationbeing a response variable with the response as either a \"yes\" or a \"no.\" Equation (2) below represents the logistic regression model for estimation. IJCCSM 14,1The control variables include household size, land size, KI, OBC and SC/ST. Model 1 contains only CSAP adoption as the independent variable.The literature suggests that the risk of food security increases with increased volatility in climatic conditions (Campbell et al., 2016). We hypothesize that when faced with climatic risk, it is more likely that non-adopters will reduce their consumption compared to CSAPs adopters. A farmer who has a large land size would also be less affected by climate risk, as he is able to practice a diversified cropping system giving higher yields and income.Ordinary least square estimates are derived from studying the impact of CSAPs adoption on nutrition intake as per the equation below. The control variables include female literacy, migration, age, household size, land size, OBC and SC/ST.The design of this study was not a systematic observation of transformative changes in terms of gender roles and relations. This snapshot data collected from the areas where some climate risks mitigation strategies are applied, and we wanted to know how male and female farmers respond to that. Therefore, the analysis of this paper should not be viewed as a full scale gender studies that have systematic observation of changes and gendered responses to the interventions. Moreover, it is important to note that this paper is not an independent impact evaluation of the CSV program that is being implemented in Bihar, India, but our attempt is to showcase how the men and women farmers experience the CSAPs in the research areas.Yield and income indices were 0.799 and 0.671 for men, which are slightly higher values, than 0.686 and 0.571 for women, respectively. Results from more than 15 CSA interventions in Nepal show that women's participation in different agricultural activities were found to potentially reduce women's drudgery in agriculture and improve productivity and farm income (Khatri-Chhetri et al., 2019). Another study conducted in India also observes the potential of CSAPs to reduce women's labor drudgery (Gartaula et al., 2020), indicating that adopters of CSAPs tend to be less affected by climatic risks.Climate-smart agricultural practices adoption, migration and literacy Supplementary Figure 2 presents the trend of CSAPs adoption with respect to male outmigration in the period between 2007 and 2016. (innovators and early adopters), 83.6% of male farmers did not migrate; of those, 78% adopted CSAPs during that specific period. There has been a considerable change in the nature and causes of migration. Recent years have witnessed greater migration rates among the labor force in search of a livelihood, mainly for a more extended period of time (De Haan, 1999;Rodgers and Rodgers, 2001;Sharma et al., 2000). One of the more significant impacts of labor out-migration is the supply of remittances to the migrants' households, a significant non-farm source of income, depicting the severity of migration in the area. The remitted money increases the small household income of about Rs 6,426 per month; approximately, 60% of this derives from crop and livestock production, and the rest seems to be supplied by wages from local off-farm labor and remittances from migrant workers (The Hindu, 2017). The migrants' income at their destination largely depends on the type of occupations they are involved in, the duration of the work and the personal endowments of the migrant workers, such as level of education, skill, years of experience, etc. Because most of the migrant workers possess low private endowments, they are generally absorbed by the informal sector in irregular or casual employment that have abysmally low earnings. However, declining employment opportunities in their home area and the expectation of finding remunerative employment at their destination keep migrant workers tied there. Because the nature and patterns of migration in the research areas do not necessarily yield a large supply of remittances, interventions such as CSAPs do have an impact on curtailing migration by providing high-income and low-cost technologies. Our data highlight the fact that adopters are less likely to migrate compared to non-adopters. Among the 94 adopters, 17% were migrants, whereas, among the 92 non-adopters, 52% were migrants. In a situation where there has been an alarming rate of out-migration (from rural Bihar in the recent past), CSAPs can play an important role in curtailing this phenomenon by transferring the monetary paybacks together with delivering environmental benefits.Supplementary Figure 3 shows that the adoption of CSAPs also differs from farmers' levels of education. We have categorized education as illiterate (no schools), primary, secondary, senior secondary and graduate levels or above. Individuals possessing primary, secondary or higher levels of education tend to adopt CSAPs. We observe that illiterate farmers are more resistant to adopting new technologies, which is the main bottleneck for scaling. This validates the notion that knowledge of and training in CSAPs increase adoption because a literate and well-educated farmer is obviously better able to understand the technologies and related benefits. The resources, knowledge and capacity required to adopt a new CSA practice can be significant.Data reveal a stronger relationship between education and migration. Illiterate people are not able to perform advanced agricultural operations efficiently, are usually involved in lowpaid labor activities and tend to migrate in search of jobs. Highly educated people are seen to migrate more, as they have better earning opportunities in cities. Education is seen as strongly linked to migration (Rajan, 2013).Supplementary Figure 4 suggests that irrespective of the level of education, adopters are less likely to migrate. Over 85% of adopters with primary education do not migrate, whereas, with the same level of education, 56.8% of non-adopters migrate. This could be attributed to the higher profits realized from CSAPs that encourage adoption. Farmers with higher education are more likely to adopt and not migrate, as they are in a better position to understand the benefits of conservative agriculture. In our study, we observed that 85.2% of farmers with secondary education, and 84.6% of those with a bachelor's degree or above, were adopters and did not migrate.Irrespective of adoption, approximately, half of the farmers were non-migrants. From the policy perspective, there is a scope and a need for interventions to curtail migration aimed at IJCCSM 14,1 a better education, capacity building and scaling of CSAPs with a focus on women. Observing the role of female education on migration, we observed that if women were highly educated, men were less likely to migrate, as shown in Supplementary Figure 5. If a woman in the same household has a bachelor's degree, only 20% of men migrate, whereas 42.1% of men migrate if a woman is illiterate. We also observed that men did not migrate if a woman in the same household had primary or secondary education in 65.1% and 84.2% of cases, respectively. These quantitative estimates are also supported by the qualitative response of one of the male adopters who had migrated and whose wife had secondary education, who stated, \"My wife plays a very important role in farm decision-making. As we are aware of the benefits of CSAPs, her education, and my exposure to training help us achieve good profits. Not only her education supports in farming but also to take care of livestock, providing us additional income for children's education.\" These qualitative and quantitative findings justify the interventions targeting women's capacity building by providing training and knowledge.From the above statement and other field observations, the role of educated women in reducing low-paid out-migration and concentrating the household labor force on agriculture and allied activities becomes clearer. Although education plays an important role, literacy rates in India are low and witness significant gaps. As per the 2011 census, male and female literacy rates were 73. 4% and 53.3%,respectively,in Bihar [1]. In this context, increased women's education may help households in several ways as follows:Women may be better off in terms of managing households and agricultural (through extension education they receive).It may reduce men's out-migration, as men also see more opportunities locally and be with the family. It may eventually increase adoption of CSAPs.Figure 2 shows that a higher KI is indicative of better knowledge. Among adopters, the KIs for men and women were 0.717 and 0.527, whereas for non-adopters, they were 0.614 and 0.388, respectively. Data suggest that the male adopters are 1.36 times more knowledgeable than their female counterparts. Among non-adopters, men are 1.58 times better informed than women about CSAPs. This reflects a knowledge gap between men and women farmers in terms of adopting CSAPs. This corresponds with the results found in other studies that reflect on women's (as opposed to men's) vulnerability to the adverse impacts of climate change because of greater poverty, less education and training and less access to institutional support (Yadav and Lal, 2018;Goh, 2012). Women, however, play a strategic role in economic activities. Rather than merely supplying labor, they possess detailed knowledge of agriculture and plants and plant products for food, medicine, fish farming and animal feed. Women today are central to the selection, breeding, cultivation, preparation and harvesting of food crops (Weerakoon and Motebennur, 2017). Apart from their pivotal role in the cultivation of staple crops, they are primarily responsible for producing secondary crops, such as pulses and vegetables, which are often the only source of nutrition available to their families. Thus, we require plans for strategic integrated farming interventions to enhance women's participation by increasing their knowledge and endowment of resources.To gain a better understanding of the gendered nature of KIs across the region, a villagewise analysis was performed as presented in Supplementary Figure 6. Detailed analysis from the set of 10 CSVs suggests a critical piece of information, highlighting the differences Household food security and labor migration between men' and women's KI and the factors behind them presented and described in Supplementary Table 1. Besides, we also analyzed CSA technology-specific gendered KI to help design technology-specific interventions, as shown in Supplementary Table 2. The World Bank considers the KI as an economic indicator to measure a country's ability to generate, adopt and diffuse knowledge. The report shows that India ranks 109th out of 145 countries with a score of 3.1. Of the three pillars of the knowledge economyeducation and human resources; innovation systems; and information and communication technology, India ranks highest in the area of innovation with several examples of low-cost innovative techniques that have emerged in rural India (Livemint, 2014). Innovative and cost-effective techniques lead the discussion for the adoption and scaling of CSAPs. They combine both high-and low-cost machinery, but when it comes to the benefit-cost analysis, they lead to significant profit-making technologies. The challenge, therefore, is the widespread diffusion of knowledge about these technologies in rural communities. There have been several initiatives made by CIMMYT and its partners to make farmers climate-smart and to increase yields, income, food security, adaptation and climate-risk mitigation sustainably.We analyzed the food and nutrition security scenario, where farmers' coping strategy was to alter their consumption pattern for different food groups if they fell short of supplies because of climatic stress. The mean reduction in consumption was calculated as a weighted average of the responses to the percentage reduction in each food category that was experienced with weights and compared between adopting and non-adopting respondents and among males, females and children (Supplementary Table 3). The average consumption of pulses, eggs, meat, vegetables, cereals, legumes and fruits was reduced less by adopters than non-adopters across all social categoriesmales, females and children. In other words, the impact of climatic risk on nutrition intake is more severe for non-adopters, thus making it necessary for farmers to adopt CSAPs to mitigate risks. Food category-wise, the highest impact on the mean reduction in consumption under climatic risks for both adopters and non-adopters was on the consumption of eggs and meat. Cereals contribute approximately 62% of total calories consumed, equivalent to 1,748 calories/day. The consumption of cereals, which are a major source of energy, was less affected among adopters than among non-adopters. Legumes were majorly affected by climatic risks among non-adopters, despite being a major source of calories. Pulses, vegetables, legumes and fruits were comparatively less affected among adopters; on average, adopters reduced their consumption by 10.53%, whereas non-adopters reduced it by 21.76%. With such a significant reduction in consumption, non-adopters tended to fall below the recommended calorie intake levels. The difference highlights the fact that food security for adopters is ensured as they experience higher yields and income, which allows them to mitigate risk in the case of climatic adversities.Based on the data obtained from NSSO (REPORT 560, 2014), we estimated the average daily calorie intake in rural Bihar as 2,731 kcal, obtained from different food groups (Supplementary Table 4). The report illustrates that the number of meals consumed by men for 30 days (71.2) is almost the same as the number consumed by women (70.9). It was also observed that children were not discriminated against in any age group and were provided equally well with food at home or school (Supplementary Table 5). Neither did we observe any discrimination in food consumption between men and women across age groups. Thus, under normal conditions, we should assume that nutritional requirements are equally addressed as long as sufficient energy-rich foods are consumed.Table 1 shows that the KI has a positive impact on the adoption of CSAPs. Model 1 shows an expected increase of 1.57 in the log odds of adoption with every unit increase in the KI. Adoption may be impacted by several other factors such as farmer literacy; availability of training; farmers' characteristics, such as gender, caste, education, social and economic capital; farmland characteristics; access to market and extension services; and climatic risks experienced by the farmers (Aryal et al., 2018). It is imperative to partial out the effects of such variables to obtain consistent estimates for KI. Model 2 includes other impacting variables such as circumventing omitted variable bias. The results are significant and remain robust to the inclusion of other variables. The estimate suggests that adoption of CSAPs increases the log of odds to adoption to 2.36. The inclusion of other variables leads to an increase in the probability of CSAPs adoption with an increase in the KI, indicating a possible underestimation of the estimate in the absence of the control variables [2]. Other similar studies conducted in India (Aryal et al., 2018) and elsewhere (Tran et al., 2019) also observed that farmers' knowledge about CSAPs is vital to address climatic risks and increase adoption of such technologies. It is thus essential to improve farmers' knowledge of CSAPS to increase their adoption. Female literacy is also shown to have a negative and significant effect on male outmigration. The results are again robust across the models. Model 3 suggests that an increase in female literacy by one unit reduces the log of odds to migrate by 0.37. Put differently, the probability of migration reduces by 40% upon adoption of CSA technologies and practices.A rise in the age of an individual is also seen to be negatively associated with migration.Rural youths leave their residence searching for better employment opportunities elsewhere within and outside the country; the main push factors are less agricultural production, local unemployment and other socioeconomic drivers (Patel et al., 2015;Choithani, 2017;Deshinkar and Start, 2003). Labor out-migration could be a climate-change adaptation strategy, as the supply of remittances contributes to household income and food security (Jha et al., 2018). Our study complements these studies but also demonstrates that adoption of CSAPs could be a strategy to reduce labor out-migration and promote the local economy.Model 1 results in Table 3 suggest that CSAPs adoption leads to a rise in nutrition intake by 5.92 units. The estimate is found to be significant and robust to the inclusion of other controls such as age, household size, etc. Men's migration tends to increase nutrition intake deficiency by almost five units. In the previous results, it is shown that in the case of food deficiency, men migrate. This highlights the vicious cycle of food deficiency among migrating households. To break this cycle, proper emphasis should be placed on addressing climatic risks and harnessing women's potential. An increase in land size also tends to reduce the decline in consumption and is robust at a 5% level of significance. Thus, well-endowed farmers are less impacted by climatic risks. To address the situation of smallholders, CSAPs offer the best interventions to secure household food security. CSAPs adopters can sustain a higher standard of food consumption. These results contradict other studies that look at migration as a household strategy to cope with poverty and food insecurity (Sunam, 2017;Patel et al., 2015;Kim et al., 2019) and as an adaption strategy to cope with climate change (Mcleman and Smit, 2006); this may be because of differences in the causes and consequences of migration in Bihar and elsewhere.In this paper, we focused on how the adoption of CSAPs influences farmers' decisions on rural-urban migration and how it impacts the overall household food security in two relatively food insecure Bihar districts. The overall low economic development and gender and social inequalities, especially in rural villages, are the most important reasons for the high incidence of rural out-migration in South Asia. The solution lies in the rapid economic development of rural areas. We observed low, average knowledge indices of the farming community and that women are in a disadvantaged position in the two study areas of Bihar, India. Thus, informed policy decisions are urgently needed. Business models for creating gender-equitable employment opportunities, improved education levels and training packages should be priority targets for investment and benefit from strategic short-, medium-and long-term interventions. A socio economic-environmental benefits portfolio should include focused, improved access and control for women over resources, ensuring enhancement of their decisionmaking and reducing low-paid workers' migration.This paper has highlighted the knowledge gaps that exist between men and women farmers in terms of CSAPs. Therefore, a policy intervention for an equitable genderresponsive development action plan is needed. The results suggest that a reduced knowledge gap would increase CSAPs adoption and consequently reduce the likelihood of migration. This is especially important in the research area as the labor migration is mostly a destitute migration, and if it could be reduced by improved social and economic conditions locally, it would benefit the rural youths in the research areas. The subsequent benefits, such as improved household income, proper farm budgeting and enhanced household food and nutrition security, would help improve the productive capacity of the society. Although the role of women in curtailing migration and ensuring household food and nutrition security (through production and consumption) is significant, there persists discrimination in wages and working status for the female workforce in agriculture. This wage inequality needs important consideration in policy so that both male and female farmers would be encouraged. This paper has demonstrated the need to implement policies and initiatives taken by the government to promote CSAPs for mitigating climatic risks; these policies and initiatives should aim to empower women and make women's labor as agricultural workers visible. One strategic intervention could be to enhance the adoption of CSAPs with a gender lens, endowing women with better decision-making. The direction should be toward gender Household food security and labor migration equity, aiming toward gender equality, targeting improved societal productive capacity and ensuring a sustainable integrated farming system. Although the adoption of CSAPs helps minimize the impacts of climatic risks significantly and promotes gender equality while relieving the pressure on government expenditure in massive amounts of compensation paid to farmers as relief at times of climatic risks. Its success, after all, relies on political will and commitment to the public. Her work focuses on generating knowledge, building capacity and learning on climate smart agriculture practices that can lead to equitable outcomes for women and other marginalized social groups in agriculture. Her particular interest is in finding innovative ways how sustainable shifts toward empowerment, equality, poverty reduction and nutrition security and sustainability can be achieved that leads to income and food security under progressive climate change and variability.Deepak Bijarniya is Research Scientist at International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). He associates in the sustainable intensification research, specially related to gender and social inclusion research portfolio in India. His research covers the issues of gender and social inclusion, youth and agriculture, climate change, food security, labor migration and human wellbeing. Deepak holds a PhD in Plant Sciences with interdisciplinary focus on integrated management of plant diseases from University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, India.Dil Bahadur Rahut is Senior Research Fellow at Asian Development Bank Institute, Tokyo, Japan. Before joining ADBI, Dil was global program manager for the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre's (CIMMYT) socioeconomics and sustainable intensification programs. He previously worked for the Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan's Research and Statistics Department. He also served as a research fellow at the WorldFish Centre; senior fellow and Japan chair at the Indian Council for Research in International Economic Relations; chief of research, planning, and monitoring and Visa/Mastercard director at the Bank of Bhutan Ltd; and assistant professor of development economics at South Asian University. He has a PhD in development economics from the University of Bonn's Center for Development Research, a master's degree in economic policy management from the University of Tsukuba, and an MBA specializing in finance and Bachelor of Science degree from India. He has over 100 publications in Scopus indexed journals focusing on development issues across Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.M.L. Jat is Principal Scientist/Systems Agronomist at International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT. He has devoted over two decades to intensively work on basic and applied science in agronomy, soils and environment and promote conservation agriculture-based sustainable intensification in smallholder farming systems of Asia. His research on CA has provided scientifically sound basis and directions for promoting sustainable intensification through policy changes and led to impact at scale in smallholder systems of south Asia. Research results of his group have been well documented in over 300 peer reviewed high impact journal articles, book chapters, books, manuals, monographs and proceedings. He has served several reputed international and national scientific bodies and fora. A fellow of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Dr Jat has several awards and recognitions to his credit. M.L. Jat is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: [email protected] For instructions on how to order reprints of this article, please visit our website: www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/licensing/reprints.htm Or contact us for further details: [email protected] Household food security and labor migration","tokenCount":"7401"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"bceb47e78082264e80851d5a319c8349","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/934bcea4-78ca-4af2-b57e-645dd14515c1/retrieve","id":"425340380"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"10d2d832-6671-477e-9333-1db11d7ea2cc","pagecount":"4","content":"If 10% of auto rice mills operate at approximately 50% lower capacity a fortnight due to weather related supply disruption, it costs around BDT 11.17 million⁷ If 1% of the approximately 7 million⁶ agricultural borrowers default due to weather-related impact, it is estimated to be worth BDT 2.83 billion. An anticipated offset of 10% is estimated to be worth BDT 283 million. Impact-Harvesting and Machinery Opportunities-Harvesting and Machinery Market size-Seed Production Opportunities-Seed Production DCAS Innovation-processing Drought-increases need for irrigation, which significantly increases cost of seed production.Heavy rainfall events force mills to run at approximately 50% of their milling capacity. These events can also reduce grain quality supplied to 2,847 auto rice mills.In Bangladesh, the number of registered combined harvesters (CH) in 2023 is 6,000 with an average of 30 operation days per year per CH. The average harvested area per CH per day is 4.86 hectares, and the cost of harvesting by CH per hectare is BDT16,367. Loss of one operation day for 20% CH cause a revenue loss of BDT 95 million. (BBS, 2019;DAE, 2023;Kabir et al., 2020) 2 BDT35.20 million (Additional paddy transport cost) Boro rice area in Bangladesh is 4.75 million hectares and average transport cost of harvested paddy from farmer's field to farmer's home is BDT 3,705 per hectare. If 1% of the Boro rice area is affected by an untimely rainfall, the total additional cost of transportation is BDT 35.20 million taking 20% increase in transportation cost. (BBS, 2019; T.S Amjath-Babu, 2022) 3 BDT70 million (Aman seed production cost) The average cost of rice seed production per ton is BDT 50,000 and the total Aman season seed supply from formal sector is 69,870 tones. So, 20% increase in cost of seed production due to drought event, impacting 10% of total supply, the increase cost is BDT 70 million. (BSA, 2023) 4 BDT 558 million loss due to unsold seeds Total long-duration rice seeds sold in Bangladesh is 93,035 tons (Covering 40% of total area) A 20% decrease in demand for long-duration seeds due to delay transplanting means 18,607 tons will probably be sold as grain at BDT30,000 per ton instead of seed selling price of BDT 60,000 per ton, leading to a revenue loss of BDT 558 million. If a climate service can offset 1% of this cost, it could be worth BDT 5.58 million. (BSA, 2023;T.S Amjath-Babu et al., 2023) 5 BDT176 million additional logistic cost for unsold rice seeds The logistic cost required to return the unsold rice seeds from dealers to the company for storage is BDT 6,000 per ton. So, the total additional logistic cost when farmers switch to short-duration from long-duration rice seeds will be BDT 112 million.(BSA, 2023) 6 7 million agricultural borrowers Total agricultural loans disbursed in the country is BDT 283 billion including BDT 248 billion from micro finance institutions (MFIs) (45% of total loan) and BDT 35 billion from Banks. Estimated number of agricultural borrowers is 7 million, assuming an average agricultural loan size of BDT 40,000 per farmer). If 1% of agricultural borrowers default due to weather-related impacts, it is worth BDT 2.83 billion. (BB, 2023;PKSF, 2022) ⁷BDT11.17 million (Revenue loss of millers per fortnight) Milling capacity of 2,847 auto rice mills is 74,511 ton per fortnight. If 10% of the mills operate at 50% lower capacity for a fortnight, revenue loss will be BDT 11.17 million . (Assuming profit margin of BDT3,000 per ton in processing). (MoF, 2023) Exchange rate 1 USD= BDT 110.25 as of December 10, 2023(BB, 2023).","tokenCount":"586"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cde7903cecacf522c099ab9fa84c3837","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c13f85fe-f07b-480f-ab1a-57f9a6fccd69/retrieve","id":"868908259"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1267396c-90c9-47b5-96c0-299ec12f22d4","pagecount":"4","content":"Conservation agriculture is a promising technology for supporting sustainable increases in productivity. It helps farmers achieve more reliable and often higher yields while reducing production costs, increases dietary diversity, improves soil structure and fertility, maximizes nutrient and water-use efficiency, and controls some pests and diseases.While the biophysical benefits in terms of improved soil and fertility will be achieved over several cropping seasons, farmers are likely to improve their food security and incomes as a result of higher yields after only two seasons, with reduced labor demand for land preparation and weed control.Agro-ecological conditions: Conservation agriculture systems are used currently by farmers cultivating a wide range of crops under many different types of soils and environments. The greatest improvements over conventional tillage occur in water-scarce environments. Conservation agriculture is also most beneficial where farming is subjected to labor or power constraints (animal or tractor), and where environmental degradation has resulted in accelerated soil erosion and low soil fertility. Heavy soils requiring a laborious tillage process are also suited to minimum or no tillage.Livestock: Conservation agriculture systems are highly successful where there is little livestock pressure, since crop residues can be left to cover the soil surface rather than used as fodder. However, where livestock is more common and crop residues are required as fodder, there may be trade-offs between feeding the residues to livestock or retaining them on the soil surface. Mixed crop-livestock farmers can start conservation agriculture by using no tillage on a small portion of the farm where they can add sufficient crop residues. Once the plots under conservation agriculture are established and yields have increased, farmers can use part of the crop residues for feed and part as ground cover, starting another small no-tillage plot and eventually expanding to other areas of the farm. Conservation agriculture stops the practice of burning, thereby reducing carbon emissions.The requirement for crop rotation to increase soil fertility, and reduce pest and diseases creates diversity by introducing leguminous crops, but also means that farmers need access to legume seed and markets for their produce. A lack of access to input/output markets can therefore hamper uptake of the crop rotation component by farmers living in remote areas with poor road infrastructure.Conservation agriculture systems can be applied equally by small-scale farmers with a limited land area and larger-scale farmers that have access to draft or tractor power. Producing large amounts of biomass requires application of sufficient nutrients through compost, manure, or inorganic fertilizer. Farmers who are unable to purchase fertilizer (due to lack of access, subsidies, or cash) may therefore not achieve the maximum potential benefits.Labor: Manual conservation agriculture systems require only a pointed stick to plant maize under the prevailing conditions without having to till the soil. Where animal traction is common, the dibble stick can be replaced by an animal-drawn ripper.A key ingredient is the availability of plant biomass to cover the soil surface and retain soil moisture. This is easily obtainable in agro-ecologies where farmers neither burn crop residues nor feed them to livestock.Crop management: Conservation agriculture requires crop diversification by rotating or intercropping maize with legumes or other cash crops. This is essential to reduce the spread of pests and diseases. Maize-legume intercropping is particularly beneficial; the legumes not only add nitrogen to the soil, they also provide nutritious food and are an additional source of biomass to use as mulch. Farmers with a rather small land area available should practice intercropping instead of crop rotation. The most suitable legumes for intercropping are pigeonpea and cowpea. In cooler climates they can also intercrop beans with maize. New research shows that farmers can grow two legume crops at the same time using the 'doubled-up' legume system (https://hdl.handle.net/10568/108796), without suffering from maize yield loss.Weed control: This is critical when farmers convert from conventional to conservation agriculture. Without weed control through tillage, farmers need to apply a comprehensive weed control strategy to avoid yield penalties. This could entail rotations with competitive legume species, judicious use of herbicides, and/or more intensive manual weed control, at least in the first years of conversion until the weed pressure drops.New mindset: Conservation agriculture requires a new way of planting crops without previous ploughing. This can be challenging for smallholders, extension agents, and researchers, at least in the beginning, and may require long-term testing and demonstration to convince users of its merits.Farmer Grace Malaitcha, from Zidyana, near Nkhotakota, Malawi at her maize plot which she cultivates using conservation agriculture (CA) practices. Photo credit: Patrick Wall/CIMMYT.Most staple crops can be grown successfully under manual conservation agriculture. In Malawi and Zambia, the technology was tested successfully with maize, sorghum, cowpea, soybean, bean, cotton, sunflower, and tobacco. Even crops such as groundnut and cassava can be produced under conservation agriculture, although harvesting such crops causes considerable soil movement. Green manure cover crops, shrubs, and leguminous trees are also suitable for cultivation under conservation agriculture and have proven effective in improving degraded landscapes, producing high-quality animal fodder, and supporting the sustainable productivity of multicrop systems. The maize-pigeonpea intercropping system, for example, has been adopted widely in southern Malawi and has proven successful as a source of food security and income. Farmers are continually balancing risks against opportunities. Moving to conservation agriculture requires careful evaluation and encouragement over several seasons, since the benefits are not immediate.Livestock: There may be a trade-off between feeding crop residues to livestock and leaving the biomass on the soil surface to improve soil fertility.Price fluctuations: Diversification to legume rotations or intercropping as cash crops can be risky due to fluctuating market prices.Weeds: These can be troublesome in the early stages of conservation agriculture and may require additional labor and/or use of herbicides. However, if prevented from seeding, weeds will diminish after two or three seasons.Soil organic matter: Breakdown of organic amendments in soils of low fertility may limit nitrogen availability to the plants due to proliferation of soil organisms (known as 'nitrogen lock-up'). This may affect initial plant growth. Careful nutrient management and rotation with leguminous crops can overcome this issue.Food security and incomes: Conservation agriculture leads to improved soil fertility and therefore to higher productivity. Yield benefits can be significant after two to five cropping seasons, with yield increases of up to 140% measured in drought years.The technology helps farming families to diversify their diets, since farmers usually plant leguminous crops in rotation or as intercrops with their cereals. In long-term on-farm trials this led to an increase in Crop Diversification Index on average from 0.4 to 0.5 (+25%) and a higher Food Consumption Score.No-tillage systems permit three to five times higher rates of water infiltration, raising soil moisture content by 25-50% compared with conventional tillage. This explains why the technology performs best in conditions of water scarcity.Soil structure and fertility: Soils managed under conservation agriculture have higher biological activity, with an increased concentration of earthworms, beetles, ants, and spiders. This provides superior biological control of insect pests, such as the recently introduced Fall Armyworm. Soil erosion can be 64% less in no-tillage systems, leading to decreased siltation of dams and rivers, and halting soil degradation.Soil carbon: Over time, there is a gradual increase in soil carbon (a 45% increase was measured in five years at the Chitedze Research Station, Malawi), although this depends on the residue management practice and the agro-ecological environment.Labor: There is a reduced labor demand for land preparation (15-25 labor hours per hectare less) and weeding (15 labor days per hectare less when herbicides are used). This gives farmers a higher gross margin by up to 260%. If controlled effectively and seeding is prevented, weed populations decrease after the first two or three seasons. Achieving the same harvest with less labor preferentially benefits women, who may use their time to perform more profitable tasks. ","tokenCount":"1290"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5f96068b40c7906808f1d75821cb2f08","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b97c03b2-8116-496d-b2ad-3509aa27e74c/retrieve","id":"1784935190"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"80a00e13-c973-4a88-8501-5267bfbfa4c9","pagecount":"10","content":"During the first phase, the farmers received certified rice and maize seeds and some herbicides to aid their 2022 wet season farming. For the second phase, each farmer received 4bags of fertilizers, 4 liters of post-emergence herbicide, fungicide, and insecticide suited for their rice and maize plants. The farmers are expected to remit 4 bags of grains after harvest.Input financing is one of the ways through which the Activity supports over 60,000 smallholder farmers trained in Climate Smart and Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) in both Adamawa and Borno States.In continuation of input financing for 259 maize and rice farmers in Gombi and Song Local Government Areas of Adamawa State, USAID-funded Feed the Future Nigeria Integrated Agriculture Activity and Capital Agricultural Development Limited (CADL) commenced the second phase of the exercise in the month of July.Local Government, Adamawa State.Women beneficiaries in Gombi, Adamawa State.  On a daily basis, Aishatu makes N400 to N500 profit. On market days, she makes between N700 and N800; approximately, N3.500 a week.\"Before now, I couldn't feed my children twice a day but now, I cook two to three quality meals for my children. I can also take care of some medical bills. I really appreciate IAA for bringing such an opportunity my way\", Aisha said. \"They helped change my orientation about seeds. I thought it was okay to purchase just any kind of seeds at the market. I didn't know buying just any kind of seeds would impact on the quality of crops produced\", admitted John.John received some improved rice and soybean seeds from his extension agent courtesy of the Activity and planted them during the last rainy season. For the rice, he didn't make much harvest due to the heavy rains and attacks by insurgents.He expected about 60 bags from 2 hectares but got 16 bags. However, the soybeans yielded much. He harvested 8 bags which he sold at N37,000 each.\"The money came at the right time. I needed to pay my children's fees. One of my children had just gained admission into Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria to study Chemistry. I didn't need to borrow money from anywhere for her to settle down in school. It was like a miracle. Thanks to IAA\", recounted John.John and some of his children Tomapepo:the Activity facilitated the provision of a grinding machine for each group. This is in conformity with the objectives of the USAID/USG Women Entrepreneurship and Economic Empowerment (WEEE) Act, 2018 which \"strengthens USAID's programming to promote gender equality and women's empowerment; builds upon the success of our work in financing microenterprises; and expands the universe of our potential partners\".Most of these recipients have indeed put to good use the machines they received with amazing results to show. \"We have been using the machine for the production of Tomapepo. One of our members, Mariya Mahmad, recently sold 146 bottles here in Kwaya and also in Abuja.Each bottle costs N1,500. Others are not doing badly in their sales well. When we are not producing Tomapepo, we are grinding pepper, beans, maize, and millet for peoplein the community\", Fatima explained.On a weekly basis, the group remits N2000 from grinding. They deduct maintenance and repair fees from this amount.\"One of our members was in dire need of money to buy her ward's JAMB form, we were able to loan her the money from what is generated from the machine. Other members also come to borrow from time to time and we lend them\".In January 2022, from the proceeds of the grinding machine, the group first purchased three 100kg bags of maize at N13,000. Then, they bought two more at N13,500. By June, they sold the stored grains at N20,000 per bag and made a profit of N34,000. To aid their farming, the group decided to buy 2 cartons of herbicide. This, they sold to members at subsidized rates.\"We, Progressive Women, have benefitted so much from Integrated Agriculture Activity. There is no doubt about it\", affirmed Fatima.The 16 members of Murna Group all received training on the production of Tomapepo in 2020 and received a grinding machine to support production. However, to ensure continuity and accountability, the group decided to empower a young woman with the skills and machinery needed for production.\"We couldn't find a more dedicated person to handle our group's Tomapepo production. Vashti Aliyu is just 22 years old. With two children to cater to, she lost her husband about a year ago. Moreso, she was unemployed at that time\", said Anna Sabe, a prominent member of the group.In February 2022, Vashti made and sold 60 bottles of Tomapepo at N1,200 each. When tomatoes are abundant, she makes for customers on demand.During the harvest of tomatoes last December, Vashti made the product and sold them around April/May this year. On a weekly basis, Vashti remits between N2000 and N2,500 grinding cereals and legumes for customers. During a certain festive period, Vashti remitted N15,000 to the group to our surprise. She transports the machine to wedding ceremonies to offer grinding services as well.\"God has really used these elderly women to bless me. Apart from the machine and skills I got from them. In the first year of learning Tomapepo, they sold to customers but halted the commercial sales of the product due to poor sales in the community. But rather than give up on production, they decided that they wanted the product for themselves.Once tomatoes, pepper, and onions are abundant, they buy the commodities with the money realized from daily commercial grinding (they make between N500 and N700 daily; N5,000 and above during festive seasons). They produce bottles of Tomapepo and distribute them among themselves.\"Producing Tomapepo together helps unite us. In fact, that is not the only thing uniting us. The ability to loan ourselves profit from the grinding machine is a plus for us. Also, our decision to buy two bags of maize (N15,000 each) has brought so much satisfaction to the members. We intend to sell these grains during the peak sales period….We are seriously considering resuming the commercial production of Tomapepo, now that we are more united\", Lydia said. To achieve these objectives, the Activity works with a coalition of public and private sector partners to facilitate improved agro-input and extension advisory services to serve vulnerable populations; strengthen the institutions that form the market system and the networks that serve smallholder farmers disenfranchised by conflict, and facilitate the engagement of youth and women in economic and entrepreneurial activities M o b i l e : + 2 3 4 9 0 6 2 9 2 7 8 3 9 E m a i l : P . S i l w a l @ c g i a r . o r g","tokenCount":"1117"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"faee691243560eaeeed1193bf7416e10","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/50f55e19-18c7-44d5-80ac-caafdee10b7d/retrieve","id":"-2104901198"},"keywords":["Consumer preferences","Indigenous sheep","Linear body measurements","Production system"],"sieverID":"e4656e8d-942b-4a9d-b5c2-b82016cf2f3c","pagecount":"133","content":"By my signature below, I declare and affirm that this Thesis is my own research work. I have followed all ethical and technical principles of scholarship in the preparation, data collection, data analysis and compilation of this Thesis. Any scholarly matter that is included in the Thesis has been given recognition through citation. This Thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for MSc degree at the Haramaya University. The Thesis is deposited in the Haramaya University Library and is made available to borrowers under the rules of the Library. I solemnly declare that this Thesis has not been submitted to any other institution anywhere for the award of any academic degree, diploma, or certificate.Brief quotations from this Thesis may be made without requiring special permission provided that accurate and complete acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotations from or reproduction of this Thesis in whole or in part may be granted by the Head of the School or Department when in his or her judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interest of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author of the Thesis.mid-altitude. The primary reason of keeping sheep was for cash income and saving across the two agro ecologies. The major feed resources for sheep during the wet and dry seasons were natural pasture and crop residues across the two agro-ecologies. Rivers and spring water were the main water source for sheep in the study area. Castration was not common practice by the keepers in the study area. Docking the fat fail of ewe lambs is a common practice in the highland. Farmers in the study area mainly practice natural and uncontrolled mating systems. Selection was practiced both for male and female. Growth rate, appearance and color were the most frequently reported traits in selecting breeding rams across the two agro ecologies. Twining ability, appearance, color and lamb growth were reported as traits given due emphasis in choosing future breeding ewes across the two agro ecologies. Feed shortages, disease, parasite prevalence and market were the major sheep production constraints in Bensa district. There are four towns where sheep was marketed in addition to many villages that were used as primary market outlets for sheep. Farmers, collectors, traders, brokers, restaurant/hotel owners and individual consumers were the major actors in xviii the sheep market. There are five main market channels and three market outflow route of sheep in the study area. The most preferred traits by consumer in the study area were younger age, uncastrated, large frame size, good body condition and non-black color. The demand of sheep was high during the time of crop harvesting and Christian holidays. The main frequently observed coat color pattern of sampled male and female populations of indignous sheep were patchy (51.9%) and while the most observed coat colour type was red followed by mixture of red and brown. Majority of female and male sheep in the study areas had medium and smooth coat cover, and most of female had no horn. In the study area overall mean of ear length, body weight, body length, chest depth, chest girth, height at withers, pelvic width, tail length, tail circumference and scrotumcircumference were 10. 3±0.07cm, 27.6±0.5kg, 60.2 ±0.34cm,23.2±0.08cm,68.5±0.6cm,60.2±0.5cm,17.23±0.54cm,32.73±0.54cm,20.17±0.3cm and 24.93±1.06cm,respectively. Sex of the sheep had significant (P>0.05) effect on the body weight and linear body measurements except ear length, pelvic width and tail length and rump length. Dentition classes of sheep contributed significant differences to body weight and the linear body measurements except ear length. The correlation coefficient between body weight and other linear body measurements were positive and significant both for male and female sheep. The result of the multiple regression analysis showed that chest girth alone could accurately predict body weight both in female and male of sampled population of indigenous sheep with the equation y =-20 + 0.67x for females and y = -29+ 0.8x for males, where y and x are body weight and chest girth, respectively. It was concluded that understanding the production system, consumer preferences and breeding practices of indigenous sheep can be used as first step in designing a sustainable breeding programme in the study area.Ethiopia is home for most populous and diversified indigenous sheep breeds/populations in Africa. There are about 14 traditionally recognized sheep populations in Ethiopia, which are classified into nine genetically distinct breeds and 6 breed groups (Solomon, 2008). The country has about 26 million heads of sheep, of which about 75% is found in the highlands where mixed crop-livestock production systems dominate, while the remaining 25% is found in the lowlands (DAGRIS, 2006;CSA, 2013). In Ethiopia sheep are widely distributed across the diverse agro-climate prevalent in the country. Sheep production in Ethiopia is based on indigenous breeds which account for about 99.78% of the total national sheep population (CSA, 2014).Sheep production is a major component of livestock farming in Ethiopia. It contributes close to 30% of the total ruminant livestock meat output and 14% of the total domestic meat production (Workneh et al., 2004). The sheep enterprise in the Ethiopian highland, where crop and livestock production are integrated, it is the most important form of investment and cash income and provides social security in bad crop years. The livestock sector contributes 30 to 35% of the Ethiopian agriculture GDP, 19% of the total GDP and more than 85% of farm cash income (Benin et al., 2002). Small ruminants account for about 40% of the cash income earned by farm households, 19% of the total value of subsistence food derived from all livestock production, and 25% of total domestic meat consumption (Adane and Girma, 2008).The level of production and productivity of sheep in the country is generally extremely low, due to several technical (genotype, feeding and animal health), institutional, environmental and infrastructural constraints (Markos, 2006). For instance, the average annual off-take rate and carcass weight per slaughtered animal for the years 2000 to 2007 were about 32.5% and 10kg, respectively, the lowest even among Sub-Saharan African countries (FAO,2009). But indigenous sheep breed has a great potential to contribute more to the livelihood of people in low input, smallholder and pastoral production system.The dominant sheep production system in Ethiopia is traditional and subsistence. So far, only very limited efforts have been exerted to promote market-oriented sheep production in the country and hence the current income generating capacity of the sector is not at all justifiable.Production system approach, which involves designing an effective and informed breeding programme, is a necessity to bring about improvements sheep production system of the sector. This approach entails proper valuation of both traded and non-traded products and services generated from the system. Information on the economic value of populations, traits and processes would ease the management of animal genetic resources that requires many decisions (Scarpa et al., 2003). Proper identification and valuation of the different characteristics of the production systems and animals would make resource allocation decisions among the different livestock improvement interventions for commercialization of the system quite fast and smooth (Kassie, 2007). This will also enable identification of sheep market opportunities by identifying preferred traits of sheep by the market in general and local consumers in particular.Sheep genetic improvement programs in developing countries have not been very successful may be due to failure to perceive the multidirectional aspect of the problem such as implementing genetic improvement programs without taking into consideration other vital needs of the farmers (Sölkner et al., 1998;Kosgey et al., 2006). In addition, poor performance of imported breeds from the temperate regions to tropical region with sub optimal management conditions has created a negative image for genetic improvement programs (Workneh et al., 2003). Further, crossbreeds such as Blue du Maine X Menz, Rambouillet X Menz, Romney X Menz, Corriedale X Menzand Hampshire X Menz produced at different research stations and ranches in Ethiopia were rejected by smallholders upon distribution because of phenotypic unlikeness and other characters to the indigenous ones (Markos, 2006).Other authors (Workneh et al., 2003;Kosgey et al., 2006) explained the failure of crossbreeding in the tropics due to incompatibility of the genotypes with the breeding objectives and management approaches in low-input and low-output production systems.Community-based breeding programs that adopt to take into account the farmers' needs, views, decisions, and active participation, from inception through implementation, and their success is based upon proper consideration of farmers' breeding objectives, infrastructure and ownership (Sölkner et al., 1998).Characterization of animal genetic resources encompasses all activities associated with the identification, quantitative, and qualitative description, and documentation of breed populations and the natural habitats and production systems to which they are adapted on. The aim is to obtain better knowledge of Animal Genetic Resources (AnGR), to their present and potential future uses for food and agriculture in defined environments, and their current state as distinct breed populations (FAO, 2007). Genetic and phenotypic characterization of locally available farm animal populations provides essential information to make rational decisions for the improvement and the development of effective breeding programmes. In developing regions, there exist types of farm animal species which owe their distinct identity to a combination of traditional 'breeding objectives' and geographical and/or cultural separation by communities which own them (Mwachero and Rege, 2002). But extensive characterization activity was not undertaken in some part of the country. The importance of small ruminants to the socioeconomic well being of people in developing countries in the tropics in terms of nutrition, income and intangible benefits (i.e., savings, an insurance against emergencies, cultural and ceremonial purposes) cannot be overemphasized.Small ruminants also play a complementary role to other livestock in the utilization of available feed resources and provide one of the practical means of using vast areas of natural grassland in regions where crop production is impractical (Markos et al., 2006). Small ruminants are not only advantageous for human being during periods of cyclical and unpredictable food shortages but they are also useful for balancing the energy and protein supply during normal variations occurring over the years as well as between different seasons.Indigenous sheep in Ethiopia have a multipurpose role for smallholder farmers as sources of income, meat, skin, manure and coarse wool or long hairy fleece. They are also a means of risk avoidance during crop failure. Thus, increasing the current level of productivity of sheep is essential to meet the demands of the ever-increasing human population. On the other hand, by improving the productivity of sheep, export earnings as well as the income of the household will be improved. There are however, a number of constraints that affect the productivity of sheep such as mortality, feed scarcity and inadequate indigenous breed utilizations to production. Various scholars from different corners of the world have been advising that the performance of indigenous sheep could be improved through management and there is also potential for genetic improvement through selection.In all regions, small ruminant contribute significantly to food production and economic output. About 31-38% and 21-33% of the Ethiopian smallholder farmers own sheep and goat (Asfaw and Jabbar, 2008), The livestock sector contributes 30% to 35% of the Ethiopian agriculture GDP, 19% of the total GDP and more than 85% of farm cash income (Benin et al.,2002). Small ruminants account for about 40% of the cash income earned by farm households, 19% of the total value of subsistence food derived from all livestock production, and 25% of total domestic meat consumption (Adane and Girma, 2008). The demand and prices for sheep are also increasing locally due to increased urbanization and increased income in the cities. The demand is especially pressing given that the current population of the country is expected to rise to about 129 million by the year 2030 (IBC, 2004).The domestic sheep is one member of the genus Ovis, and is thought to be descended from the wild mouflon of South-West Asia. Sheep (Ovis aries) are quadruped ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Like all ruminants, sheep are members of the order Artiodactyla, the even-toed ungulates. Although the name \"sheep\" applies to many species in the genus Ovis, in everyday usage it almost always refers to Ovis aries. Sheep, Ovis aries, (Mammalia, Artiodactyla, Bovidae, Caprinae) are a highly versatile and adaptable species. From their domestication in the Fertile Crescent, approximately 11,000 years ago, sheep now span the diverse terrains of each inhabited continent where they are exploited for a variety of uses including the production of food (milk, fat, meat) and clothing (skin, wool) (Dwyer,2008).African sheep are thought to be of Near-Eastern origin (Epstein 1954(Epstein , 1971;;Ryder, 1984).The earliest sheep in Africa were thin-tailed and hairy and introduced to East Africa through North Africa. The second wave of sheep introduction to Africa included fat-tailed sheep entering North Africa via the Isthmus of Suez straits and East Africa via straits of Bab-el-Mandeb (Ryder 1984). Fat-rumped sheep entered East Africa much later (Epstein 1954(Epstein , 1971;;Ryder, 1984).Accordingly, African sheep have been traditionally described and classified based on their tail type (Epstein, 1971;Ryder, 1984). However, the relationship between the traditional classification and genetic variation across currently recognized breeds are unknown. Recently, the study by Solomon (2008) indicated that Ethiopian sheep are classified in to 6 major breed groups and breeds.Ethiopia is believed to be one of the major gateways for domestic sheep migration from Asia to Africa (Devendra and McLeroy, 1982). Ethiopia is a home of most populous and diversified indigenous sheep breeds. Ethiopian sheep breeds have been traditionally classified into four broad categories based on tail type and fiber type: the hairy thin tailed, woolen thin tailed, fat tailed and fat rumped (MoA, 1975). Accordingly, attempts have been made to group some of the indigenous sheep types in to these different categories. Previous studies on Ethiopian sheep limited only on few specific sheep types in the country such as such as Horro, Menz, Afar and Bonga and/or are based on few animals (Galal,1983;Kassahun, 2000;Solomon,2002;Sisay,2002;Zewdu et al., 2010;Getachew et al.,2010;). Morphologically characterized sheep types in Gamogofa, Sidama-Gedeo, Gurage -Silte, Kembata Tembaro -Hadya and Wolaita zones and very few woredas of SNNPR were undertaken (Abera et al., 2013). Molecular characterization of 14 sheep types was also studied by Solomon (2008).However, information on sheep types in some pocket areas of Southern Nation Nationalities and Peoples Region is lacking. The choice of farmers/pastoralists of agricultural enterprises in Ethiopia depends on the production environment (availability of resources, particularly land, water and climate), longstanding tradition of agricultural production in the community, socio-economic circumstances (awareness and skill, access to inputs and markets), and government support (inputs and services) which stems from agricultural policies. In subsistence-oriented traditional production system, goats and sheep are important because they require low initial capital and maintenance costs, are able to use marginal land and crop residues, produce milk and meat in readily usable quantities, and are easily cared for by most family members. Furthermore, they are important in feeding the rapidly expanding population of the developing world under typical harsh environmental conditions (Markos et al., 2006).Ethiopia is one of the countries that have predominantly traditional sheep production system.The major sheep production systems in Ethiopia include the traditional sheep production system, which consists mixed crop-livestock systems, and pastoral and agro-pastoral system and the government ranches for breeding and multiplication centers, characterized by different production goals and priorities, management strategies and practices, and constraints (Markos, 2006).The sheep production systems of Ethiopia are classified into five based on degree of integration with crop production and contribution to livelihood, level of input and intensity of production, agro-ecology, length of growing period and relation to land and type of commodity to be produced (Solomon et al., 2008).This production system prevails in the high altitude areas (above 3000 m.a.s.l.) where the major crops grown are barley and pulses such as faba beans, lentils, etc. Sheep are the dominant livestock species. The main feed resource-base includes wasteland grazing, stubble and sometimes straw. Sheep flock sizes range from 30 to several hundred head. Although sheep are reared mainly for meat but skins and coarse wool production for the cottage industry of the central highlands are subsidiary products (Solomon et al., 2008).This system is predominantly found in highland agro-ecological zones where the climatic factors are conducive for farming of crops and raising livestock. This system is generally found in areas where the altitude ranges between 1500 and 3000 m.a.s.l. The area has adequate rainfall and moderate temperature and is thus suitable for grain production. In this production system, livestock and crops are maintained as complementary enterprises. The average land size per household is often less than two hectares (Solomon et al., 2008). Within the mixed crop-livestock system, small ruminant production systems are found associated with the different agricultural production systems which vary in potentials, intensity of the mixed farming operation, natural resources base including grazing and livestock resources.Furthermore, in highland agro-ecology, as in central Ethiopia, increased human population has led to decreased farm size and a gradual shift from keeping large to small ruminants, mainly goat and sheep (Peacock, 2005).Pastoral and agro-pastoral systems are found in the lowlands are characterized by extensive production based largely on the rangeland (Tembely, 1998;EARO, 2000). Small ruminant production is associated with the purely livestock based nomadic and transhumance pastoral production systems based largely on range, primarily using natural vegetation. In the lowlands of Ethiopia, livestock is comprised of large flocks and herds of sheep and goats, cattle and camels mainly transhumant's, where only surplus are sold at local markets or trekked to major consumption centers. Extensive livestock keeping is the backbone of the economies of the lowlands (Tembely, 1998;EARO, 2000).Ranching system is a range-based system of livestock production similar to the pastoral systems but with different production parameters, livestock functions and management. The system can be considered as a modern land use system. The main function of this system is to generate cash income. Both highland and arid/semi-arid ranching can be undertaken in Ethiopia (Solomon et al., 2008).Urban and peri-urban production systems involve the production of sheep and goats within and at the periphery of cities. In this system the feed resource of livestock are usually household wastes, market area wastes, mill leftovers, by-products and roadside grazing.Currently, small-scale sheep and goat fattening is emerging as an economic activity in many growing cities (Solomon et al., 2008).Flock structure or flock composition is the proportion of the flock which is formed by different age and sex classes. This is determined by flock owner on the basis of economic and management considerations. The composition is also influenced by reproductive and mortality rates. Determination of the best flock structure is strongly influenced by the owner's management objectives, whether the main interest is in the production of milk or meat, the prevailing constraints in the system and it can further provide the basis for calculating or for casting flock productivity (ILCA, 1990). For example, in Konta special Woreda of SNNPR sheep flock consisted of breeding ewes, castrates, ram lambs, rams, ewe lambs, ewes, breeding rams account for about 20.2, 18.6, 16 13.1, 12.1,10.4 and 9.3% respectively (Amelmal, 2011) of the flock while On the other hand, average flock sizes of 24 animals were reported in the central highlands of Ethiopia (Abebe, 1999). Lower flock sizes of 6.3 for Horro sheep (Solomon et al., 2005)  and 6.97 for sheep breed found around Dire Dawa (Aden, 2003) were reported.Under farmers management condition both breeding ram and ewe graze together throughout the year with all age class of sheep and in most cases with other species of livestock (Abebe, 1999;Aden, 2003). Report on male to female ratio of different studies range from 1:5.21 to 1:29 (Niftalem, 1990;Abebe, 1999;Aden, 2003;Solomon, 2007;Tesfaye, 2008;Dejen, 2010).Animal genetic resources for food and agriculture are an essential component of the biological basis for world food security. Characterization of animal genetic resources refers to the process by which populations or ecotypes are identified or differentiated. Characterization means the distillation of all available knowledge, both published and unpublished, which contributes to the reliable prediction of genetic performance in a defined environment. It does not imply mere accumulation of existing reports or individual findings on genetic performance (Rege and Lipner, 1992). The exercise includes a clear definition of the genetic attributes of an animal species or breed, which has a unique genetic identity, and the environments to which species or breed populations are adapted or known to be partially or not adapted.Characterization activities should contribute to objective and reliable prediction of animal performance in defined environments, so as to allow a comparison of potential performance within the various major production systems found in a country or region. It is, therefore, more than the mere accumulation of existing reports. The information provided through the characterization process enables a range of interest groups, including farmers, national governments and regional as well as global bodies to make informed decisions on priorities for the management of AnGR Characterization of a livestock breed or population should be done both at the phenotypic (phenotypic characterization) as well as molecular level (genetic characterization). Both are complementary to each other. Phenotypic and molecular genetic characterizations of AnGR are used to measure and describe genetic diversity in these resources as a basis for understanding them and utilizing them sustainably.The term \"phenotypic characterization of AnGR\" generally refers to the process of identifying distinct breed/ population and describing their external and production characteristics within agiven production environment. The information generated by characterization studies is essential for planning the management of AnGR at local, national, regional and global levels (FAO, 2012). The Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources (FAO, 2007) recognizes that \"a good understanding of breed characteristics is necessary to guide decisionmaking in livestock development and breeding programs\".Reproduction is the process by which animals produce offspring for the purpose of continuing the species. It is a series of events comprising of gamete production, fertilization, and increase with age of ewe up to six years, and is greater for seasonally breeding ewes in the first half of the breeding season (Hafez, 1974) It is also affected by age (parity), season and to a large extent ewe body weight at mating which itself modulated by nutrition. Parity had a significant effect on litter size. Litter size increases with increase age of the dam up to about five years or fourth parity, and decreases slightly thereafter (Wilson and Durkin, 1984). The growth performance of sheep is also influenced by age of the dam/parity, pre-mating weight of the dam, type of birth, sex, the season and month of birth. Birth weight is an indicator of the size and vigor of the lamb at the beginning of postnatal development and an important factor influencing later growth. Birth weight which itself is affected by dam size, dam body condition and litter size influences the survival rate and pre-weaning growth performance of the off springs. Birth type and sex are sources of variation in lamb preweaning growth rate .Lambs which are heavier at birth are usually singles or are those produced by ewes with larger body sizes and good feeding conditions. The indication is that lambs heavier at birth have larger adult weight and higher growth capacity (Kassahun, 2000).Weaning weight is a trait of great economic importance in meat sheep production since it has influence on growth rate and survival. Weaning weight and post-weaning growth rate of lambs is as important as the pre-weaning growth performances, mainly when the objective is producing meat through lamb production. Weaning weight influenced by season of birth, sex of lamb and type of birth (Kassahun, 2000;Gbangboche et al., 2006); ram lambs and singleborn ones were heavier than their counterparts. Parity and postpartum ewe body weight had significantly influenced weaning weight; dams with higher parity and heavier postpartum weight produced heavier lambs at weaning (Gbangboche et al., 2006).Communities are defined as groups of people bound together by social, cultural and economic relations based on shared interests and living in a well defined area. Communities are not homogeneous; there may be differences between sub-groups (e.g. families) and individuals in a community. However, shared interests in cooperation outweigh competing interests that serve as the glue linking members together. A community-based breeding program refers to village-based breeding activities planned, designed, and implemented by smallholder farmers, individually or cooperatively, to effect genetic improvement in their flocks and conserve indigenous genetic resources. The community-based breeding strategies also consider the production system holistically and involve the local community at every stage, from planning to operation of the breeding program ( Sölkner-Rollefson, 2003).Community-based breeding programs are most appropriate to implement in situations where livestock keepers already run their animals together, such as in communal grazing areas (Solomon et al., 2010;Solomon et al., 2011). These situations also have potential for other community-level collective actions, such as joint procurement of services (veterinary, feeding and marketing). Programs that adopt community-based strategies need to take into account farmers' needs, views, decisions, and active participation, from inception through to implementation, and their success is based upon proper consideration of farmers' breeding objectives, infrastructure, participation, and ownership (Sölkner et al., 1998). Thus, a full understanding of local knowledge and practices of communities in animal management is of paramount importance for the design and implementation of such programs. Indigenous knowledge is closely related to survival and subsistence and provides a basis for local-level decision making in natural resource management, food security, human and animal health, education, and various other community-based activities.In the Ethiopia past failures in sheep genetic improvement have led to research on design of breeding programs. Small flock sizes, communal grazing/herding and uncontrolled mating did not favour the implementation of selective breeding/recurrent selection programs within village flocks. The approach adopted initially and implemented for Afar, BHS, Horro and Menz sheep was to generate improved rams in closed, nucleus flocks and to disseminate them to village flocks. The projects generally ended in failure, as most lacked long-term vision and did not involve farmers in the planning (Solomon et al., 2011). These failures led to the argument that such breeding schemes may not be appropriate for smallholder systems in developing sheep industries. A new village-or community-based breeding scheme, which does not involve central nucleus flocks, has thus been adopted recently to improve village flocks through recurrent selection (Solomon et al., 2009;Gemeda, 2011;Tadele, 2011). Indigenous knowledge is the body of knowledge acquired by a community in any given area and relating to agriculture, livestock rearing, food preparation, education, institutional management, natural resource management, health care and other pertinent subjects. It is regarded as a valuable resource for development activities that may be equal or even superior to the knowledge introduced by outsiders and should therefore be considered and applied in development projects wherever suitable\" (Mathias, 1995). It is variously referred to as \"traditional knowledge\" or \"local knowledge\". Much indigenous knowledge is based on practical experience and is not easily expressed verbally -it represents \"tacit knowledge\", to distinguish it from \"explicit knowledge\". This knowledge is not evenly distributed. One culture or community has different knowledge from another.Indigenous knowledge of animal breeding is made up of various concepts and practices used by livestock breeders to influence the genetic composition of their herds. It includes:➢ Cultural concepts on the uses of animals (general breeding objectives)➢ Local preferences for certain characteristics, such as colour, size, behavioral patterns and disease or drought resistance (specific breeding objectives)➢ Selection practices for certain qualities (castration, culling, offspring testing)➢ Pedigree-keeping ➢ Social restrictions on the sale of genetically valuable breeding animals that lead to closed gene-pools.Nowadays, small ruminant improvement programmes are being promoted under the smallholder farmers to enhance meat supply. However, there is difficulty in animal marketing in relation to price setting. The market price is usually set by subjective measurements (i.e.visual judgment and loin-eye-area palpation). Estimating the market price based on live weight is quite important in reducing the bargaining practices. Due to lack of weighing scale in the remote rural areas of the region, it is almost impossible to obtain any accurate measurement of this very important trait. Estimating the live weight of small ruminants is quite important for good animal management, including understanding medication doses, adjusting feed supply, monitoring growth and choosing replacement males and females (Mathieu et al., 2011).Body measurements are considered as qualitative growth indicators which reflect the conformational changes occurring during the life span of animals. Studies indicated that variation exists indigenous sheep breeds for body weight traits (Kassahun, 2000;Sisay;2002;Markos, 2006;Solomon;2007). According to Attach and Elkhidir (2004)  Sheep marketing operations are generally small-scale family businesses. The sheep producers supply to the market is not based on market demand, rather buyers must choose from whatever is available in the market. The live animals are either transported in trucks or herded over long distances to feedlot operators, export abattoirs, or major markets. These final market destinations are far away from supply sources, and the transportation costs associated with getting live animals to markets can result in significant weight loss and even death; stock routes are characterized by lack of adequate feed, water, and resting places. Price is determined through bargaining at the market; sheep producers are usually less informed about price, supply, and demand situations. Producers are highly fragmented, while there is a concentration of major sheep buyers, a situation which might lead to noncompetitive pricing and marketing behavior (CSA, 2005).There is a need for a well performing marketing system which satisfies consumer demands with the minimum margin between consumer and producer prices. Higher prices for producers can encourage farmers to adopt new technologies which, though potentially more profitable, may pose greater risk than traditional production system (Belay, 2013).The marketing channels flow to final consumers in both the domestic and export markets are lengthy, without significant value-added activities. The sheep marketing channels, which start with the smallholder livestock producers from the mixed crop-livestock farming system, mainly cater to the domestic market. The marketing channel starting with the pastoralists is for both domestic and export markets. The market actors may be involved in cattle only, sheep and goats only, or cattle, sheep, and goat transactions (Fekadu, 2006).Economic valuation of phenotypic traits starts from elicitation of the preferences of consumers of the livestock raised or bought from the market. Reorientation of livestock production systems towards consumer preferences and demands through timely and comprehensive transformation is currently the main agenda among the stakeholders of livestock improvement. Market orientation of livestock production system requires proper valuation of both traded and non-traded products and services generated from the system. This is why eliciting farmers' preferences of the phenotypic characteristics of livestock and estimating the economic values of these characteristics become crucially important. Proper identification and valuation of the different characteristics would make resource allocation decisions among the different livestock improvement interventions for commercialization of the system quite fast and easy. The research was justified for the basic reason that prices of animals are determined mainly based on phenotypic and qualitative traits than quantitative traits such as live weight or carcass weight as commonly practiced in developed markets (Girma et al., 2007).However, information on the different types of criteria used for marketing sheep, and whether these market criteria have significant association with the buying price and purpose for which they are assessed is lacking. Such information provides first hand idea for sheep breeders so as to improve production according to market demand.This study was conducted in Bensa district of Sidama Zone in Southern Nations Nationalities  The agricultural production system of Bensa district is mainly characterized by mixed crop livestock system. The most important staple food crops grown by the farmers in the area are enset (Enset ventricosum), maize and haricot bean. Enset is the major stable food source for human and its by products serve as an important source of animal feed in the study area. The main crops grown during the long rainy season are barely, wheat, vegetables and pulses which are grown exclusively in highland and mid-altitude areas. Perennials crops are cash crops which include coffee and fruit trees (Avocado). Among cash crops coffee is the most important source of income. Livestock production is one of the major economic bases of the study area. Sheep production has always been an integral part of the traditional subsistence mixed crop-livestock production system in this area. For consumer preference study, discussion was held with district marketing and cooperative promotion office of study area. Accordingly, all possible markets and primary, secondary and tertiary market of the study district were identified. Accordingly, Gonjobe, Bura, Chebe and Daye markets were identified as the major markets in the study area. After identification of potential markets, producers and traders (small and large) and consumers (butchers, hotels, and restaurants) were selected and discussion was held on consumer's preference of indigenous sheep of the study area.For morphological characterization study both qualitative and quantitative traits of indigenous sheep were measured. Measurements were made on individual animals from 446 randomly selected females and 128 randomly selected males in the study area. Every Animal to be measured was identified by sex and dentition. Morphological measurements were taken from each individual animal (0PPI to 3PPI) that were available in sampled sheep population in study area. All sampled sheep were individually handled and dentition characters were used to determine the age correlated in each case by owner's information.Data were collected by administrating a semi-structured questionnaire, individual interview employing field measurement and observations, through organized group discussion and from secondary sources. Rapid market appraisal (RMA) as outlined by Holtzman (2002) was employed to study the consumer preferences and marketing systems of sheep in the district. Local traders, terminal traders, hotel/ restaurant owners and consumers were interviewed using respective checklists.The checklists included meat consumption level and pattern of consumers, phenotypic trait they prefer to buy sheep from market, limitation of meat consumption trends of consumers, factors influencing consumers' choice of meat. All possible to and from sheep market chains in Bensa district were identified.Quantitative (body measurements) and qualitative (morphological characters) data were collected based on age groups and recorded on the format adopted from the standard description list developed by FAO (2012)   Wilson and Durkin (1984) for African sheep breed. Body condition score (BCS) was assessed subjectively and scored using the 5 point scale (1= very thin, 2 = thin, 3= average, 4 = fat and 5 = Very fat/ obese) for both of the sexes according to Hassamo et al. (1986). Linear body measurements were taken by restraining and holding the animals in a stable condition.The data collected was checked for any inconsistency and corrected, and then coded and entered into computer. The collected data that is morphological and qualitative data were entered into Microsoft EXCEL software's. Survey data was described and analyzed using SPSS (2009). Indices were calculated to provide ranking of the reasons of keeping sheep, importance of major farming activities to the family food source and income, selection criteria, and major constraints of sheep production according to the following formula: Index = Σ of [3 for rank 1 + 2 for rank 2 + 1 for rank 3] given for particular qualitative variables divided by Σ of [3 for rank 1 + 2 for rank 2 + 1 for rank 3] for all qualitative variables considered.Effective population size for randomly mated population was calculated according to Falconer and Mackay (1996) as: Ne = (4Nm Nf) / (Nm + Nf) Where, Ne = effective population size, Nm = number of breeding males and Nf =number of breeding females. The rate of inbreeding coefficient (ΔF) was calculated from Ne as ΔF = 1/2Ne. The mean of these parameters was also computed.Qualitative data from individual observation was analyzed following the frequency procedures of SAS version 9. 1.3(2008). The General Linear Model (GLM) procedure of SAS was employed to analyze quantitative variables to determine effects of class variables (sex and dentition). Sex and age group were fitted as fixed independent variables and body weight and a linear body measurement except scrotum circumference was fitted as dependent variables. Tukey's test was used to separate means when significant difference was detected.The models for analyzing quantitative data except scrotal circumference were: yijk =  + Ai+ Sj+(AS)ij+ eijkWhere: Yijk = the observed k (body weight or linear body measurements except scrotum circumference) in the i th age group and j th sex = overall mean Ai = the effect of i th age group (0-3 pair permanent incisor) Sj= the effect of j th sex (j= male or female) (AS)ij = the effect of interaction of i of age group with j of sex eijk = random residual error Model to analyze the scrotum circumference was:Where: Yij = the observed j (scrotum circumference) in the i th age group = overall mean Ai = the effect of i th age group (0-3pair permanent incisor) eij = random residual error Multiple linear regressions were used to estimate the body weights of sheep from various body measurements. The association between body weight and linear measurements were assessed using Pearson's correlation coefficient in SAS version 9. 1.3 (2008). The following models were used for estimation of body weight from linear measurements:-For male:Where: Yj = the response variable; body weight  = the intercept X1, X2, X3, X4, X5, X6 and X7 are the explanatory variables chest girth, body length, height at withers, pelvic width tail length, tail circumference and scrotal circumference, respectively.are partial regression coefficients of the variables 7 X X1,X2,..., ej= the residual random error For female:Where:Yj= the dependent variable body weight Household characteristics of the sampled households are presented in Table 4. The majority (92.95%) of the interviewed households in the study area were male headed. The age of the majority (84.3%) of the respondents fall under 50 year, which is the active age group and are the main source of farm labor. Moreover, about 94.5% of the interviewed households were married.The educational status of the respondents in the present study was 33. 6, 25.75, and 22.7, and 18.2% for primary attendants, illiterate, read and write and secondary attendants, respectively.In contrast to this report, higher proportions of illiterate and primary attendants (33.55% and 54.75%) lower level of read and write and secondary attendants (8.35% and 3.35) were reported in southern Ethiopia (Dejene, 2010). This survey result indicates that the higher proportion of farmers having primary educational background would be an opportunity to utilize them in keeping simple records which are of paramount importance in decision making and easy to implement community based breeding program in the study area .The average family size of the households was 7.8±0.39 (ranging from 2-14), which is closer to 8.5 reported for the same district previously (Yoseph et al., 2015). However, the present family size was higher than Benchi Maji and Keffa Zone of southern Ethiopia (6.7±3) (Dejen, 2010). The higher family size in the current study indicates the existence of polygamous marriages and lack of awareness on family planning in the area. The average land holding per household in the study area was 2.13 ha. The result was consistent with 2.15 ha reported for the same district previously (Yoseph et al., 2015). The average land holding per household showed a significant difference (p<0.05) between the two agro-ecologies of the study area. Accordingly, landholding was significantly higher (P<0.05)for highland (2.38 ha±0.06) compared to mid-altitude (1.88±0.05) agro-ecology. The reason for small land size in mid-altitude agro ecology was mainly due to conduciveness of the area for cash crop production especially for coffee production. Land holdings range from 1.01 to 2.00 ha for about 30.8% of farmers in the SNNPR and for 33.3% of farmers at the national level (CACC, 2003).  2005). However, it is smaller than the average land holding reported for Metama (6.17ha) (Sisay, 2006) and Bale high lands of Oromia region (Teshome, 2006). The size of land holding is an important factor that determines availability of feed for livestock. Thus, feed resources are more available in highland compared to mid-altitude agro-ecology in the study area. The major farming activities and their contribution as food and income source to the family in the study area are presented in Table 6. Thus, the major source of food as ranked by the sampled households was cattle production followed by crop and sheep farming, while the major source of cash income was both crop and cattle production followed by sheep. Among the crop type enset, maize, coffee, wheat, barley, teff, haricot bean, pea and beans are the major crops used as a source of cash income and household consumption. Among these crops, enset is used as the main source of food for household consumption, source of income and for livestock feed across both agro ecology of the study area. On the other hand, maize and haricot bean were the major crops used for income and household consumption in midaltitude agro ecology while barley and wheat were the major crops used for income and household consumption in highland agro ecology. Coffee is an important source of cash particularly in the mid-altitude agro ecology while bean, peas, cabbage and onion were used as additional source of income in highland agro ecology. Index= sum of (3 X number of household ranked first + 2 X number of household ranked second + 1 X number of household ranked third) given for each variable divided by sum of (3 X number of household ranked first + 2 X number of household ranked second + 1 X number of household ranked third) for all variables.The average livestock holding/household of the study district is presented in Table 7.Respondents in highland had significantly higher number of cattle, sheep and horse holding (p<0.05) than respondents in the mid-altitude. However, they had significantly lower (p<0.05) number of chicken, goat and donkey compared to mid-altitude agro ecology. All the households considered had sheep across the entire study district. This is due to the fact that this study considered only those farmers who had sheep.Sheep was the largest livestock species possessed by the two agro ecology of the study area.The possible reasons that sheep is easy to manage and conducive environment for sheep production in the study area. The population trends of major livestock species for the last ten years in the study area is summarized in Table 8. According to the respondents, the decline in the number of livestock species was the highest for chicken (50%) followed by cattle (39.85%) and sheep (20.7%).The possible reasons reported by the respondents for this trend were frequent occurrence of disease, presence of predators, shortage of feed both in quality and quantity, cultivation of grazing land. According to the information generated during group discussions in the study area, feed shortage and disease are the major causes for the decline in the number of livestock.Similar reasons were reported by Solomon (2007). The possible reasons for an increasing trend of sheep population comparing to other livestock species in the study area might be due to the use of sheep as immediate source of cash income. The present finding was similar to Wossenie (2012) who indicated that the population of livestock was increasing in westHararghe zone of Oromia region. It was related to the availability of grazing land, high demand (increased human population) and attractive price for livestock. The ratio of breeding ram to ewe in the study area was 1:6.24 and 1:7.1 for highland and midaltitude sheep flocks, respectively. This ratio is closer to 1:7.5 reported for for Menz sheep (Abebe, 1999) while it is lower than 1:1.98 reported for Dawuro and Konta sheep (Amelmal, 2011) and 1:5.21 reported for Kaffa and Benchmaji sheep (Dejene, 2010). The male to female ratio of the two agro ecologies of the study area is higher than 1:8.  The purposes of sheep keeping in the study area are presented in Table 10. Knowledge of reasons for keeping animals is a prerequisite for deriving operational breeding objectives (Jaitner et al., 2001). The results of this survey revealed that sheep play multi-functional roles in both agro ecologies with similar production goals. The results indicated the relative importance of tangible benefits of sheep keeping (such as regular source of income, saving, and meat). Most farmers in both agro ecologies keep sheep primarily as source of income. In the study area both male and female involved in sheep management interchangeably, except milking which is dominantly undertaken by the female in highland agro ecology (Table11). All activities of sheep management across the study area were done by family labor. The responsibility of purchasing (85.9%), selling (84.4%) and breeding (80.5%) of sheep was dominantly undertaken by head of the household. However, children and women were heavily involved in caring and herding of sheep. The same members of the household feed and protect sheep from bad weathers, predators and theft and assisted during lambing.Therefore, in designing breeding strategies, the role of women and children in sheep production should not be undermined. Similar result was reported from north western lowlands of Amhara region (Solomon, 2007). The quality and quantity of feed resources available for animals primarily depends upon the climatic and seasonal factors (Zewdu, 2008). who reported for Metema district of Amhara region, around Dire Dawa, Dawuro Zone and Konta Special Woreda of SNNPR, respectively. However, the major feed resources during the dry season across the two agro-ecologies were crop residues followed by natural pasture.Enset leaf and stem, and bamboo leaf are also important feed resources used to complement feed supply particularly during the dry season when the availability of forage is low. In study area, during wet season the important feed recourses were natural pasture, crop residues and fallow land.The major crop residues in highland agro ecology include barely, wheat, bean and peas straws while in mid-altitude it includes maize stover, wheat, haricot bean, and teff straws. The difference in type of crop residues availability between the two agro-climates is due to difference in agro-climatic requirements of the different crops. There are different methods of grazing practiced by sheep producers in the study area (Table 13). In fact, the different types of grazing methods depend on season. Thus, during the wet season, majority (about 71.9%) of the respondents use tethering grazing in order to prevent sheep from grazing cultivated annual food crops. According to focus group discussants, the main reasons for tethering apart from preventing crop damage, was for optimal usage of family labor, protect from predators and unwanted breeding. During the dry season, majority of the respondents (59.5%) practice free grazing, followed by rotational grazing (23.4%) and tethered grazing (10.9%) and herded (6.2%) in highland agro-climate. The majority of farmers in highland (71.9%) and mid-altitude (78.1%) do not fatten sheep (Table 15). The finding of the current study is less than 89.5% reported for Adiya kaka but higher than 53.3% reported for Horro sheep (Zewdu, 2008). The difference might be due to lack of awareness on value addition through fattening and seasonality of markets for fattened sheep. Although fattening is less common, the major classes of sheep used for fattening by those who practice fattening in study area were castrate followed by young males and older females. Crop residues, enset leaves, salt, grain and home left over were commonly supplemented for fattening sheep in the study area. According to the respondents, most of the producers didn't consider consumer preferences while fattening sheep in the study area. Table 16 showed that river water was the major water source of sheep in wet and dry seasons in both agro ecologies. The proportion of sheep watered by river water were 78.12 % and 75 % during the dry and wet seasons, respectively, in highland agro-climate while it was 65.62%, and 60.9 % during the wet and dry seasons, respectively, in mid-altitude agro-climate. The distances to watering points varied during the dry and wet seasons. The majority (76.5% for dry and 79.6% for wet seasons) of the respondents water their animals within less than one km distance in highland agro-climate. Similarly majority of the households (62.5% for dry and 59.4% for wet seasons) water their animals at less than 1 km in mid-altitude agro-climate. Similar to this study Workneh and Rownalds (2004) reported that the majority of households (three-fourth) water their animals with less than 1 km in wet season Oromia region. The majority of the respondents water their animals once a day during both the dry and wet seasons both in highland and mid-altitude agro ecologies. In general, water was not a limiting factor for sheep production in the study area.House protects animals from extreme temperature, rain, wind, predators and theft. In the study area different types of houses, housing materials and the common housing systems were identified (Table 17). The majority of the respondent in both agro ecologies house their sheep in the main house together with the family. Separate sheep house with roof was also reported by some farmers across two agro ecologies. The majority of the farmers across the study district house their sheep during the night. About 26.6% and 21.88% of the respondents house their sheep in separate house constructed purposively for sheep in highland and mid-altitude agro ecologies, respectively. The results indicated that 85.9 and 90.6 % of the households used grasses or bushes for construction of roof while the remaining 14.1% and 9.4% used corrugated iron sheet. Similar to this study, Workneh and Rownalds ( 2004) indicated that 60% of the households used family house for housing their sheep in crop livestock system of Oromia region. The majority of respondents house their sheep together with cattle while 3.1% of house separately.Table 17. Reported housing of sheep in the study areaDiseases have numerous negative impacts on productivity of herds i.e. death of animals, loss of weight, slow down growth, poor fertility performance, decrease in physical power etc.(CSA, 2012). Gatenby (1986) also stated that maximum productivity in a given system of production is obtained when disease control is optimal. Healthy sheep with normal physiological function and structure that enable the sheep to attain highest production is vital.Farmers in the study area do not exactly know the type of disease which causes mortality but they were able to describe the symptoms. According to the livestock and fishery office of Bensa district, the major types of diseases and parasites of sheep which frequently occurred in the study area are presented in Sheep milk consumption was common in highland agro ecology of the study area. Producers in the study area milk their sheep for different purposes where priority was given to the lambs.Lambs were allowed to suck their ewes freely for about a week to ensure survival of the lamb after birth. When the Lambs were in a good growth (after about a month) and supplemented with feed, farmers start to take out some amount of milk for consumption, mainly for coffee whitening, children and old people (mixed with coffee). According to FG discussants some farmers prefer sheep milk for butter making due to the perceived higher fat content. Sheep milk contains higher fat (6.8 to 8.5%) compared to goat (3.4 to 4.5), cattle (3.4 to 5.5) and camel (5.0 to 5.5) (Degen, 2007). According to the FG discussants sheep milk was not marketed in the area mainly because of cultural reasons. Thus the producers were reluctant to disclose that they milk sheep though they consume the milk at home. Frequency of milking and milk yield per day per ewe were different in the rainy and dry seasons due to feed scarcity in the dry season (Tesfaye, 2008). Sheep milking was not practiced in mid-altitude agro ecology of the study area. Note: Though the lactation continues up to the period of suckling by the lamb but the lactation length was recorded as the number of days up to which sheep were hand milked.Weaning is a crucial period which influence both dam and lamb productivity. In the study area, lambs wean naturally without shepherd intervention. The overall reported average weaning ages for both sexes was 4.4 months. It was a little bit longer than 3-4 months reported for indigenous sheep breeds of Ethiopia (Tembely et al., 1994). Moreover, the present finding was higher than what had been reported for the thin tailed Gumuz sheep (3.95± 0.9 months) (Solomon, 2007).Good reproductive performance is a prerequisite for any successful sheep production program. Reproductive performances of sheep in the study area are presented in Table 21.There was significant (P<0.05) difference was observed between the agro ecologies with respect to reproductive performance of indigenous sheep because of better sheep management practices in the highland than the mid-altitude. The average age at sexual maturity of male sheep in highland was 7+0.12 months while it was 7.15 ±0.2 months in mid-altitude agroclimate. Similarly, an average age of 7.1 months was reported for Afar sheep earlier (Tesfaye, 2008). The average age at sexual maturity of females in highland was 7.68±0.23 months while it was 7.8 ± 0.12 months in mid-altitude.The breeding practices of sheep in the study area presented in Appendix Table 3. The dominant sheep breeding practices in the study area was uncontrolled mating system.Similarly, Workneh and Rownalds ( 2004) reported that 77.3% of the farmers in Oromia region practice uncontrolled mating system. With regard to ram possession of the study area, about 39.1% of the respondents have no breeding ram to breed their breeding ewes. They use rams from neighborhood or borrow males from other areas for mating. Most of the respondent had one ram running with the flock throughout the year. Majorities of the respondents do not give additional feeds for breeding rams. The purpose of keeping rams was for mating purpose (64.1%), for socio cultural (7.7%) and for saving purpose (28.21%). The majority of the males used for breeding purpose were born or originated within the flock (82.05%) and the remaining was purchased and managed privately. This implies that the animals within the flock are very closely related and have narrow relationship which leads to inbreeding (Jaitner et al., 2001). Similar scenario was observed among Menz and Afar sheep breeders (Tesfaye 2008). The majority of the respondents (65.62%) could identify the sire of the new born lamb by relating the color of the lamb with the color of its sire and knowing the sire of a lamb.Although the disadvantage of inbreeding was not clear for farmers in the study area, some of them reported that they heard the negative effect of inbreeding.According to the respondents castration of sheep was not a common practice in the study areas. Some farmers with better wealth status, however, castrate and fatten one to two rams for one year period for home consumption as well as for market. The method of castration is traditional through repeatedly crushing the spermatic cord using a smooth river-stone and wood. Although the age of the animals at time of castration is not fixed, farmers suggested that it should be after eruption of one pair of permanent teeth. This is because farmers believe that the rams will mature and finishes growth at this age. The scheme should introduce and emphasize on awareness creation of castration of the inferior rams/unselected/ for fattening purpose and select superior rams with better management to be parents/sires of the next generation.Docking of female sheep was a common practice undertaken by sheep producers in highland agro ecology of the study area. Accordingly, about 60.94% of the respondents practice docking in the highland while in mid-altitude docking was not common (Appendix Table 3).The major reason for docking female sheep was that it facilitates mating easily. Moreover, the focus group discussants reported that docking females improves body weight and condition, appearance, ease hygiene during delivery and widening the tail. Unlike females, males were not docked since docked males are not preferred at the market. Even though there is no standardized specific age and site of tail cutting in female sheep, most producers during the focus group discussion estimated that it is about 5cm from the tip of the tail based on the body condition of the ewe lambs.The effective population size (Ne) and the rate of inbreeding (ΔF) calculated for sheep flocks in the study area are presented in Table 22. High level of inbreeding and decreased genetic diversity may be the result of the utilization of breeding rams born with in the flock, uncontrolled mating, and lack of awareness about inbreeding and small flock's size (Falconer and Mackay, 1996;Kosgey, 2004). Effective population size is a measure of genetic variability within a population with large values of Ne indicates more variability and small values indicate less genetic variability (Maiwashe et al., 2006). In this study, the estimate of Ne was 97.68 when a household flock is herded alone. Under random mating when the sheep flock of a household was not mixing, the rate of inbreeding was 0.005. This value is lower than the report of Amelmal (2011) for Tocha (0.17), Mareka (0.2) and Konta sheep (0.18).Tesfaye ( 2008) also reported 0.079 and 0.2 for Menz and Afar sheep respectively, when sheep flocks were not mixed, which is higher than the present study. Rate of inbreeding in the study area is maximum acceptable level (0.063) (Armstrong , 2006) which is due to small effective population size, lower proportion of breeding ram and uncontrolled mating practiced in the study area. The small effective population size and lower proportion of breeding ram in the study area is due to absence of mixing various flocks from different households. Study (Tesfaye, 2008) indicated that mixing of flocks was reported to reduce ΔF by a range of 86% to 78%. Knowing the potential of local sheep population and trait preferences are useful to make better informed decisions in developing interventions to improve the contribution of sheep to livelihoods of their keepers (Tassaw, 2010). In the study area appearance/size, coat color, character, meat quality, growth rate, fertility, disease tolerance and tail type were among the reported preferred traits in both agro ecologies. In highland appearance/size (index= 0.29), coat color (index= 0.19), fast growth rate (index= 0.18) and meat quality (index=0.12) were among the reported preferred traits in their order of importance by the respondents (Table 23) while in mid-altitude fast growth rate (index= 0.25), appearance/size (index= 0.21), coat color (index= 0.17) ,tail type (index= 0.12) and fertility (index= 0.12) were among the traits considered for improvement intervention. The most preferred color was red, light red and white with white patch and white respectively, while unwanted color was black because of lower market value. Similarly Zewdu (2008) indicted that traits like body appearance and coat color were the most considered characters in Adiyo Kaka and Horro rams. Index= sum of (3 X number of household ranked first + 2 X number of household ranked second + 1 X number of household ranked third) given for each variable divided by sum of (3 X number of household ranked first + 2 X number of household ranked second + 1 X number of household ranked third) for all variables.In both agro ecologies, FG discussants and key informants reported that the tendencies of farmers to rear their local sheep has become high. According to them, they liked these local sheep type for their large body size, attractive coat color, fast growths, and nice posture. They also mentioned that such type of sheep can fetch high premium price when it has been sold.Due to this reason, it was observed that some farmers practice selective breeding of ram and ewe. The proportions of red /light red and white sheep are increasing and that of black sheep is decreasing over time. This is strongly supported by the preference of farmers to white and red/light red colors against the black color for which the farmers are exercising some kind of selection for the preferred ones. The results indicated that, any sheep breed improvement interventions should take into account the need of the producer trait preferences and the demand markets in the study area.Selection criteria are the characteristics that allow the farmers to achieve the breeding objectives and select replacement animals (Holst, 1999). It is expected that farmers select replacement stocks by considering its own morphological and production characteristics. In general as stated by Tabbaa and Al-Atiyat (2009) livestock producers place more weight on morphological selection criteria (subjective selection) than production selection criteria (objective selection). In the study area selection of breeding rams and ewes were practiced by the farmers, although they don't have specific age of selection. Farmers in the study area select rams/ewes when they need to cull some for market and save the others. Ranking of selection criteria of breeding ram and ewe are presented in Tables 24 and 25. In selecting a breeding ram, fast growth was ranked first in highland while appearance/size conformation was ranked first in mid-altitude agro-climate with an index of 0.32 and 0.35, respectively. In highland, appearance/size and coat color were ranked second, and third high with indices of 0.32 and 0.24 respectively. In mid-altitude fast growth rate, color and tail length were ranked second, third and fourth high with indices 0.25, 0.19 and 0.14 respectively. Index= sum of (3 X number of household ranked first + 2 X number of household ranked second + 1 X number of household ranked third) given for each variable divided by sum of (3 X number of household ranked first + 2 X number of household ranked second + 1 X number of household ranked third) for all variables.In selecting a breeding ewe, twining ability was ranked first both in the highland and midaltitude agro-climate with indexes of 0.35 and 0.37, respectively. In highland, appearance/size, coat color and lamb growth were ranked as second, third and fourth with indices of 0.27,0.23 and 0.11, respectively/ while in mid-altitude appearance/size, coat color and lamb growth were ranked second, third and fourth with indices of 0.25,0.16 and 0.13, respectively. Mothering ability of ewes embraces maternal behavior that allows proper bonding to take place between mother and offspring, as well as nursing behavior, responsiveness and attentiveness towards the lambs, and protection of the lambs from predators (Gemeda, 2011). Index= sum of (3 X number of household ranked first + 2 X number of household ranked second + 1 X number of household ranked third) given for each variable divided by sum of (3 X number of household ranked first + 2 X number of household ranked second + 1 X number of household ranked third) for all variables.Knowledge about ways of acquisition of breeding stock and mode of disposal is important in assessing the breeding practices of sheep owners (Helen et al., 2015). Major modes of flock entry and exit are summarized in Table 26. In the study area, sheep were added on farm through birth, purchase and exchange, of which the contribution of the former (87.55%) was the highest followed by purchase (8.55%). The contribution of exchange as source of animals was very minimal (3.9%). Similarly, birth was reported as the main mode of indigenous sheep flock entry in Horro, Adiya Kaka, and Alaba districts (Tsedeke, 2007;Zewdu, 2008). The highest share of the total exit (70.85%) was accounted for sale, followed by mortality (11.9%) and exchange (10%) while only 7.25 % was reportedly slaughtered. Participatory identification and prioritization of the major constraints of livestock production is the first step to design and implement need based interventions development options.Constraints impending sheep productivity in the study area are presented in Table 27.Although the major constraints limiting sheep breeding were mostly similar, their importance, however, varied across the study areas. This study observed that feed shortage, disease, genotype and market were the major constraints challenging sheep production across both agro ecologies. Feed shortage have been reported by the majority of respondents as common constraint and ranked first. Similar results were reported for Menz and Afar areas (Tesfaye, 2008). The major causes of feed scarcity were shortage of grazing land and expansion of arable farming at the expense of grazing land.  Bura sheep market is located at the north eastern tip of the district some 28 km far from Daye.The market is operational on Monday and Thursday. Although this market was fenced, it has poor access for road and transportation. Chebe sheep market is located at about 25km east of the Daye town. The market days are Monday and Thursdays. Similar to Gonjebe, this market place was not fenced and there was no other facility. Generally, the district has poor market infrastructure, which hinders the movement of livestock inputs and outputs.The major reasons of selling sheep as reported by the respondents in the study area are shown in Table 28. Most of the sampled households sell their sheep to purchase farm inputs for crop production (28%) and cover school fee for children (20%). Sheep is often at immediate disposal for several income requirements in the rural households. Producers do not sale large animals and other farm resources for urgent needs because acquiring back them is not easy.Among the household members, husbands are usually responsible for selling sheep.Consistent with other parts of the country, the sheep to be sold were usually trekked from home to the markets. The most important months in which farmers sell their sheep included June (for farm input purchase), July and August (to purchase grain), September (for festival and covering children school fee), December (for Christmas holiday) and April (for Easter holiday). The major actors involved in sheep marketing in the study area included traders, sheep producers, brokers, hotels/restaurants and individual consumers. The number and type of sheep buyers and sellers vary according to the level/stage of markets. Thus, the major buyers at primary market (Bura, Gonjobe and Chebe) were small traders and sheep producers, while at secondary and terminal markets(Daye,Hawassa) the major buyers were trader's, butcheries, restaurants/hotels, individual consumers and institutional users. The major suppliers/sellers of sheep in the primary, secondary and tertiary market were producers, small traders and large traders, respectively. Producers buy sheep mainly for rearing and to a less extent for slaughtering. Thus, they buy young ewes for rearing. The type of sheep purchased for slaughtering depends on the economic status of farmers.The major parameters considered by traders during buying sheep are presented in Table 29.Body conditions and age were ranked as the most important parameters considered by traders for buying sheep. Accordingly, traders opt for sheep with better body condition, intact male and young. On the other hand, restaurants prefer to buy old ewes due to their lower price.Castrated male sheep were required during festivals such as New Year, Easter (Fasika) and Christmas (Gena). Index= sum of (3 X number of household ranked first + 2 X number of household ranked second + 1 X number of household ranked third) given for each variable divided by sum of (3 X number of household ranked first + 2 X number of household ranked second + 1 X number of household ranked third) for all variables.Producers raise sheep and sale any time when cash is needed. According to buyers they purchase sheep for breeding, slaughtering and fattening purposes. They sell the animals after value addition (breeding/fattening) during the holidays or during the period of coffee harvesting times. In addition, collectors buy sheep at primary markets (Gonjobe, Bura, Chebe)and trek to Daye (secondary) and other surrounding markets to sell in a better price.Collectors are found in rural areas and they purchase sheep from primary markets. They were market actors in the study area who buy sheep from the rural markets and supply them to small traders and large traders. There are more collectors than traders (large and small) in the study area. Collectors use either their own capital or large-scale and small-scale trader's money to buy sheep. They may also sell to farmers and individual consumers. Collectors who use traders' money deliver the animals to the same traders on commission basis.Small traders who buy sheep from producers and collectors. They are those who buy sheep from primary markets like Gonjobe, Bura and Chebe and sell them in district town such as Daye or to bigger traders who transport the animals to central markets. Usually they buy and sell small number of animals, not more than 20 in the study area. These traders also use other non-regular market days (gulit) in district town (Daye) to sell their animals.In the context of this study area, big trades are those market agents that can supply about 40 sheep to tertiary and terminal markets which are located in major cities such as Hawassa, Shashemene and Dilla. Big traders also supply sheep to individual consumers, hotels/restaurants and butchers. They share the premium obtained as a result of collecting large numbers of animals with their suppliers. In addition, they provide working capital to their agents (small traders) in order to ensure the supply of adequate number of animals that fetch them premium prices. Traders have quality parameters to be considered when buying sheep. They consider the age of animals, so mostly look for yearlings. Similar market participation was also reported from pastoral areas of Borena (Solomon, 2004).Brokers, locally called Delalas, are also major participants in marketing of sheep in the study area. According to key informants, without the involvement of broker's, they don't sell the animals. The role of brokers in marketing sheep in the area was perceived in different ways.Some people describe them favorably as they facilitate transaction between buyers and sellers while others see them as problem in marketing as they are the ones who mainly decide on the price. The fee they collect is also described by some as exorbitaul and unnecessary as they negotiate the price his/her animal with the buyers/sellers. In agreement with this report, the role of brokers was also described previously ( Endeshaw, 2007;Tsedeke, 2007;Daniel, 2008)There are two groups of consumers in the study area. These are hotels/restaurants and individual consumers. Hotels/restaurant buy sheep either directly from the producers, small traders and/or larger traders, and make local delicacies like Misto, Tibis, Dullet, , Key wot and Kikil. Public servants, traders and farmers are also an important part of actors in the sheep value chain in the study area. They buy sheep directly from traders and from farmers.Preferences for size and type of animals are influenced by individuals' purchasing power and the type of festivity/holiday to be celebrated.In the study area, season was the most important factor influencing the price, supply and demand of sheep. The variability in sales is associated with holiday markets, crop planting and harvesting seasons and drought seasons and years. During major crop harvesting time, cultural and religious holidays the demand for sheep increases and so does the supply by the producers as well as the price of sheep. According to the traders, most of the households in the study area prefer to sale their sheep during the major holiday season. There was also a time where sheep price was high, which was mainly associated with coffee and other crops harvesting time (October to December). Money is available at hands for most people during the coffee producing season in the study area. During this period, producers purchase sheep using the money obtained from the sale of coffee and keep the animals (breed/fatten) to be used at the time of deficit, and for harvesting farm inputs in mid-altitude and highland areas.The supply of sheep increases during the time when farmers need additional farm and household inputs and religious festivals. Such as during the months of June, July and August (Figure 3). During this time, most farmers forced to sell their sheep to fulfill different household needs such as fertilizer, improved seeds, clothing and stationery for schoolchildren, household consumable items etc. Therefore, in most cases sheep are sold for lower prices during this period.According to the producers', traders' and consumer response, demand for sheep varies depending on the season. The demand of sheep was high during times of crop harvesting time, religious and other holidays as well as those times when there is a priority to buy household and consumer goods. Compared to other months, farmers sell their sheep at higher price during the months of April, September, and December and November farmers sold their sheep) at higher prices.  In the study area the price of sheep marketing is set by eye ball estimation. It is also accompanied by traditional methods of body condition scoring. There was no weighing or grading of animals for sale in the market. Consequently, it is difficult to estimate the quantity of carcass produced from the animal. This is expected to influence the production and productivity of the animals negatively. The finding was similar with previous works (Ayele et al., 2003;Endeshaw, 2007;Tsedeke, 2007).This study demonstrated that sheep meat is consumed without any taboo in the study area.However, majority (83%) of the sampled households consume sheep meat during the major holidays. Sheep meat is also consumed during occasions such as wedding, birth of child, funerals and during the time of coffee harvest (Figure 6). In the study area sheep is slaughtered in group and divided among group members or slaughtered individually depending upon wealth status and type of occasion. It is not common to purchase sheep meat from butcheries by the households in the study area. According to group discussants, slaughtering sheep at the time of crop harvest, particularly for coffee grown areas, is a common practice in the study area. According to Beneberu (2003) young sheep fetch higher prices. This is true not only for economic purpose but also for its tenderness, softness and the like. This study demonstrated that, respondents preferred meat from male than female animals. The difference could be attributed to variation in mass and sensory test of meat produced from different sexes of livestock (Tsegay, 2012). According to this study, about 35% of the respondents prefer meat from young animals, while 20% preferred from middle aged animals, 14% from old animals and 31% consume meat irrespective of the age of the animal. The high number of people associated with the consumption of meats from young animal probably could be as a result of preference for lean meat which characterizes younger animals.The major constraints related to sheep marketing in the study area are shown on Table 30.Seasonality of market price, lack of market information, and over exploitation by brokers were the major constraints identified by the households.  (Solomon, 2008). The higher proportion of animals with red coat colour could be a reflection of strong selection for animals manifesting red colour to meet the preference of market demand. The majorities (81.96%) of sampled population of study area had medium and smooth hair type followed by short and smooth (14.63 %) and long and smooth (3.41%). The observed hair type was similar with Dawuro and Konta sheep types reported previously (Amelmal, 2011).The face profile of most of the sample population was flat (73.4%) followed by convex (13.57%) and concave (13.03%). Moreover, majority of the sheep population do not have wattle (94.4%), and all of them had no ruff. The majority of the sampled sheep population had straight tip (95.58%) tail sheep while the others (4.42%) had tail shape twisted end curved at tip. Almost 99.89% of the sampled population had long fat tail. Similarly, Solomon (2008) reported that Arsi-Bale sheep had long fat tailed with some of them having tail shape which is twisted at the end and all had hair fiber type.The most dominant ear orientation or form of sampled sheep population of female was carried horizontal (73.54%) followed by semi pendulous(21.30%) and erect(5.15%) whereas the male was carried horizontal (46%) followed by semi pendulous(38.30%) and erect(15.62%) . The majority (74.89%) of the females' sheep were polled whereas 87.5% of the male sheep were horned. Out of the horned male sheep, 56.25% had spiral horn shape followed by straight (31.25%) and (12.6%) rudimentary horn shape. These findings are contrary to the results of Solomon. (2008), who reported that above 50% Arsi Bale female sheep were horned (52%). , respectively(Table 32). The change in body weight was higher in both sexes between the age class 0 PPI and 1PPI, which was approximately 8.68kg. This might be due to the wide age range of the sample populations. From this study, it can be shown that the sample sheep populations attain their mature weight when they had ≥1PPI. Similar trend was reported for Black head Somali (Fikrte, 2008), Bonga (Zewdu, 2008), and Horro, sheep breeds (Sisay, 2009).   Sheep is the most important livestock species which have been adapted to a range of environments extending from the cool alpine climate of the mountains to the hot and arid pastoral areas of the lowlands. It play an important economic role and make a significant contribution to both domestic and export markets through provision of food (meat and milk)and non-food (manure, skin and wool) products. However, sheep production is constrained by various factors in Ethiopia that needs to be addressed by systematically describing and characterizing the production and marketing system, consumer preferences, and phenotypic attributes and thereby prioritize and implement appropriate interventions (research and development) through the involvement of stakeholders to address the challenges.The existing knowledge on characterization of sheep genetic resources and production and marketing system in various region of the country shows that the information on breed level characterization is inadequate. The present study was, therefore, conducted in Bensa district of Sidama zone of southern Ethiopia to characterize the physical, their environment, consumer preferences, and to identify the sheep population category in the study area. Data were collected from 128 sheep producers who were selected using stratified random sampling technique. For consumer preferences and marketing system, rapid market appraisal was employed in the study area. For assessment of qualitative and quantitative traits, a total of 574 sheep (0PPI to 3PPI) of both sexes were randomly sampled in the study area. Focus group discussions and key informants interview were held to strengthen the findings the survey. From this study it could be concluded that the sheep production system in the study area was more of extensive production system. The major production constraints in the study area were feed shortage, prevalence of diseases and parasites and lack of market information. The natural uncontrolled mating with small flock size is predominant in the study area. The study revealed that, there is no selection of fast growing animals with desirable traits. Moreover, sheep fattening is not common in the study area. On the other hand, due to the presence of suitable traits there is high demand for the indigenous sheep from domestic markets.However, since farmers in the area follow traditional husbandry practices, without any extension support, they are unable to make use of the existing market opportunity. Based on the current study the following recommendations have been made:❖ The present study showed that sheep producers dispose fast growing animals at younger age through sale at the market. Therefore, community based selective breeding program needed to control negative selection and improve the performance and productivity of sheep particularly males.❖ Since feed shortage in-terms of quantity and quality is among the leading constraints limiting sheep value chain development in the study area, efforts should be made to improve grazing land through top dressing with urea and controlled grazing, introduction of improved fodder grasses and legumes consistent with the respective farming system, and enhancement of the nutritive value of crop residues through urea treatment.❖ Prevalence of disease and parasites, and poor health management negatively influenced productivity of sheep flock in the study area. Hence, the type, seasonal occurrence and economic losses due to the diseases and parasites should be documented and pertinent control measure should be introduced.❖ The predominant production system of the area is traditional low-input-low-output with little market orientation (producers do not target the market or lack of focus on consumer preference). Thus, effort should be geared to transform the system into market oriented system using value chain framework (involvement of stakeholders).❖ The study showed that producers have no access for market information. Therefore, it is important to disseminate livestock market information on time to actors and service providers through electronic and printed media, extension staff, and through breeders cooperative.❖ The study demonstrated that producers have poor capacity to adopt improved sheep production techniques. Thus, effort should be made to create awareness and develop capacity of producers on the subject.❖ The prevalent sheep commodity development approach focuses on improving the production of the animals and ignores its contribution to income and livelihood of the household. Thus, in order to make sheep development strategies sustainable effort should also be made on improving income and livelihood of the producers, input/service providers and processors/traders. This should be done by government, research and developmental organizations. ","tokenCount":"13376"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"212467ec6cab6b76c8b61834635810b0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5884e3ec-f3b7-4de7-a8c6-2b3990776a1c/retrieve","id":"-566501068"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7f09c82d-9d14-4228-adfa-f98830380365","pagecount":"2","content":"TechFit is a tool to prioritize and select animal feed interventions. It was developed by ILRI under the leadership of Alan Duncan. It has been further refined and developed with inputs from many individuals in and beyond CGIAR. This is one of a series of feed intervention 'TechSheets' developed alongside the TechFit tool to provide summarized information on different interventions included in the tool. Werner Stür led the development of the TechSheets. This sheet was prepared by Werner Stür. TechFit is supported by the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish. ilri.org/techfit Feed intervention >> Fodder production, grassland development and utilization> Improved planted forages  Enables year-round livestock production.  Farmers can produce milk and beef at times when prices are high and, for beef production, animals for fattening are relatively cheap. Can be highly profitable.Intensive fodder production for sale as fresh feed, grown with irrigation and high fertilizer inputs in northeast Thailand Pumping water for forage production from a pond Irrigated forages by smallholder, Thailand Small plot for forage grasses, watered by hand, Cambodia Description  Irrigating small areas of intensively managed forages needed for year-round dairy and beef production is common in Southeast Asia. It is one of the simplest ways of overcoming food scarcity in the dry season. Smallholder farmers mostly use small on-farm ponds or wells as the water source to irrigate small areas; often 500-1,000m 2 . For small areas farmers use hand watering but mostly farmers use a small pump and hand-held hose for watering small areas. For larger areas, farmers use a pump for furrow or flood irrigation. Very occasionally farmers use sprinkler irrigations, particularly if these are also used for irrigating other high-value crops. Irrigation of fodder maize and other annual fodder crops is also common in parts of the tropics. Produces very high yields of green forage at times when availability of green feed is severely limited. Can be used as a sole feed for high productivity or as supplement to lower quality basal feed such as rice straw.","tokenCount":"338"}

data/part_2/0679033152.json

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"586d46fc94e8f2019972c3f858cc8cae","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d01ecd84-ed1e-4caa-8562-9d2a981d50c1/retrieve","id":"280973802"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b74642d0-3513-4bd4-b7a4-969d84f3c365","pagecount":"32","content":"The results of an analysis of the spatial distribution of disease risk and its visual presentation through risk maps allow for the design of targeted and therefore more cost-effective animal disease surveillance strategies. There are various methods by which disease risk maps can be generated. One of these is multicriteria decision modelling (MCDM) which is a knowledgedriven approach to the production of risk maps.As with all modelling work, it is important for the user of these outputs to be aware of the assumptions made in relation to the models and any potential sources of selection and information bias when interpreting the results of such analyses.The objective of this study was to describe the spatial variation in the likelihood of (i) introduction and (ii) spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) subtype H5N1 on a continental scale in Africa.This report describes the methods used to produce likelihood maps illustrating the likelihood of introduction and subsequent spread of HPAIV H5N1 at both the continental and country level (Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Ghana; targeted countries of the DfID project), and highlights limitations associated with the maps.MCDM is an example of static knowledge-driven modelling that can be used to produce qualitative or quantitative estimates of risk 'based on existing or hypothesized understanding of the causal relationships leading to disease occurrence' (Pfeiffer et al., 2008). Knowledge of the risk factors associated with the occurrence of a disease and their interrelationships is used to drive the model.In contrast to data-driven modelling, MCDM cannot generate estimates of absolute risk, but rather describes variation in absolute risk. This means a map produced using MCDM will allow for the identification of areas with relatively higher and lower risk of event occurrence without quantifying what the risk is, and but it will thereby still inform targeting of risk management activities. To reduce the chances of the map outputs being misinterpreted, the term 'likelihood maps' was used in this report instead of 'risk maps'. However, it is acknowledged that both terms have a similar meaning.MCDM involves the following sequence of analytical steps which were also used to structure this report:1. Defining the objective(s) 2. Defining the factors 3. Defining the relationship between each factor and the risk 4. Sourcing digital maps of the factors and constraints 5. Standardising the maps so that they can be compared 6. Defining the relative importance of each factor in relation to the objective 7. Combining all factors and constraints to produce a final weighted estimate of risk for each location in the study area 8. Sensitivity analysis Geographic data were visualised and manipulated using ArcGIS 9.2 (ESRI, Redlands, CA, USA) and IDRISI Andes (Clark Labs, Worcester, MA, USA). The multicriteria decision model was developed in IDRISI Andes.The objectives of the likelihood mapping exercise were to identify factors associated separately with the (i) introduction or (ii) spread of HPAIV H5N1 in Africa, and to combine them using MCDM to produce maps separately showing the likelihood of introduction or spread HPAIV H5N1 in Africa. Note that no attempt was made to combine likelihood of introduction and spread, as it was felt that both processes will require different measures of risk mitigation. Furthermore, both results are subject to significant uncertainty which cannot be quantified when using MCDM, and combining the results may lead to propagation of bias that it would be difficult to consider when interpreting the results.'Introduction' was defined as: 'The introduction of single or multiple instances of HPAIV H5N1 into an area through migratory birds or the legal or illegal movement of infected domestic poultry or poultry products'.'Spread' was defined as: 'The dissemination of HPAIV H5N1 within an area through the legal or illegal movement of infected domestic poultry or poultry products conditional on successful introduction'.A systematic review of the published literature on the epidemiology of HPAIV H5N1 was used to identify risk factors associated with the introduction and subsequent spread of HPAIV H5N1, within an African context, and to define the relationship between each risk factor and the likelihood of introduction or spread. Searches for relevant literature were performed on two scientific databases assumed to represent the majority of the veterinary and medical journals; PubMed/Medline (a standard general medical database) and ISI Web of Knowledge (veterinary medicine and public health). A detailed description of the search algorithms and the complete list of risk factors identified can be found on pages 1-6 to 1-9 of the Initial Bird Flu Risk Maps Report (EDRS-AIA, 2009).Risk factors were categorised according to their relevance for introduction or spread of the disease (Table 1 and 2). Two selection criteria were used to identify risk factors for inclusion in the MCDM: Relevance and importance of a risk factor to the epidemiology of HPAIV H5N1 in Africa  Ability of the risk factor to be mapped (e.g. \"owner lives off farm\" [Kung, Morris et al. 2007] is a risk factor for spread that cannot be represented on a map whereas \"water area\" (Ducatez 2006) is a risk factor that can be spatially represented.Tables 1 and 2 list the risk factors which meet both selection criteria for either introduction or spread of HPAI H5N1 in Africa, and were therefore incorporated into the model. Hypothesized relationship between potential risk factor and the introduction of HPAIV H5N1 in AfricaFor the MCDM likelihood mapping, it was assumed that migratory birds constitute a risk for the introduction of HPAIV H5N1 into Africa. The migratory flyways covering areas in Africa represent areas expected to be at higher likelihood of introduction of bird flu.The role of migratory birds in long distance transmission of HPAI H5N1 has been considered in several studies, but still remains controversial due to many knowledge gaps. Wild birds (especially wild ducks) were identified as potential long distance vectors for the virus in various studies (Kilpatrick et al., 2006;Stallknecht, 2007;Gaidet et al., 2008b;Keawcharoen et al., 2008), while other authors considered it unlikely (Feare, 2007;Saad, 2007;Weber and Stilianakis, 2007). Different risk assessments of the introduction of HPAI H5N1 into different regions have concluded that the role of migratory birds was low but not negligible, with high uncertainty (Pfeiffer et al., 2006;Goutard et al., 2007;Sabirovic et al., 2007).Increasing distance from surface water is expected to be associated with decreasing likelihood of introduction of the disease in Africa.Wetlands are considered to be aggregation sites for migratory and resident wild birds and therefore constitute potentially higher risk areas for introduction and transmission of HPAIV (Hlinak et al., 2006;Jourdain et al., 2007), as was suggested for Nigeria (Ducatez, 2006). Surveillance studies conducted in several major wetlands of Africa isolated AI viruses in Eurasian and Afro-tropical species of wild birds (Gaidet et al., 2007;Gaidet et al., 2008a). Distance to wetland areas containing migratory waterfowl species has also been hypothesised as a risk factor for the introduction of disease in Spain (Martinez et al., 2009).For the MCDM likelihood mapping, it was hypothesized that international poultry trade occurs via roads, ports and airports, and that increasing density of ports, airports and roads is associated with a higher risk of introduction of HPAIV H5N1.Poultry trade has been identified as a risk factor for introduction of HPAIV (Ducatez, 2006;Kilpatrick et al., 2006). A study published in 2007 stressed the importance of formal and informal trade for the introduction of the disease in previously unaffected areas, as it seems was the case in Nigeria (Vannier, 2007). In addition, proximity to highways was found to be associated with the risk of HPAIV outbreak in China (Fang et al., 2008), and this is likely to be due to increased movements of poultry and poultry products for trade.DfID Africa -Likelihood maps April 2009 -Page 7 of 32Increasing density of roads is expected to be associated with increasing movements of poultry and poultry products for trade, and thus higher risk of disease spread.Outbreak risk was associated with proximity to major roads in Romania (Ward et al., 2008) and China (Fang et al., 2008). This is likely to be due to transport of poultry for trade via road.Increasing distance from navigable rivers is expected to be associated with decreasing risk of spread of the disease.There is no published evidence for the direct role of navigable rivers in the spread of HPAIV.,However, given the identification of roads as a risk factor (Fang et al., 2008;Ward et al., 2008) such a role can be hypothesized for important rivers in Africa known to be used for transport of consumption goods and livestock.Increasing density of poultry is expected to be associated with a higher contact rate between susceptible and infected birds and therefore greater risk of spread.It was found that H5N1 persistence in Nigeria was correlated with backyard chicken and duck numbers (Cecchi et al., 2008). Proximity to an infected farm has been shown to be an important factor in the spread of low pathogenicity influenza viruses (Mannelli et al., 2006) as well as distance to the nearest case farm (Nishiguchi et al., 2007). Conversely, Fang et al., 2008 found no association between poultry density and the risk of HPAIV infection in China, arguing that this unexpected finding was due to a greater proportion of industrialised chicken production at higher poultry densities, with associated higher biosecurity standards and vaccination protocols. Henning et al. (2009) found that poultry density was a risk factor for HPAIV outbreaks in Vietnam, but only at medium population densities. High poultry density was postulated as a risk factor for HPAIV occurrence in Thailand (Tiensin et al., 2005) and in Hong Kong (Kung et al., 2007), although this has been shown to be associated more with duck density alone than total poultry density (Gilbert et al., 2006).Increasing density of cities is expected to be associated with increasing risk of spread of HPAI H5N1. Cities are associated with higher demand for poultry products and therefore the presence of trading areas providing live or freshly slaughtered birds. Low pathogenicity viruses have been isolated from poultry in live bird markets in the USA (Bulaga, 2003), China (Cheung et al., 2007) and Korea (Choi et al., 2005), and HPAI has been isolated from a live bird market in Vietnam (Nguyen et al., 2005). Sale of chicken at retail markets was also identified as a risk factor for HPAI infection of farms in Hong Kong (Kung et al., 2007). The risk of HPAI outbreak was found to be negatively associated with increasing distance from higher density human population areas (Pfeiffer et al., 2007), and this is likely to be due to increased intensity of production and trade of poultry in highly populated areas.Increasing distance from wetlands and waterbodies is expected to be associated with decreasing risk of spread of the disease. Proximity to wetlands has been shown to be a risk factor for the occurrence of HPAI in poultry in South-East Asia (Gilbert et al., 2006;Fang et al., 2008), as has proximity to rivers and wetlands in Romania (Ward et al., 2008;Ward et al., 2009). Distance to wetland areas containing migratory waterfowl species has been hypothesised as a risk factor for disease in Nigeria (Cecchi et al., 2008).Proximity to irrigated areas is expected to be associated with increased risk of spread of HPAI H5N1. Rice crop production has been found to be associated with HPAI in Vietnam and Thailand (Gilbert, 2007;Pfeiffer et al., 2007), as has aquaculture (Pfeiffer et al., 2007).DfID Africa -Likelihood maps April 2009 -Page 8 of 32Geographic inputs for the model need to be in the form of raster maps. However, it seldom happens that the exact raster maps needed for the MCDM are readily available in the required format; they usually need to be derived from existing map layers of the risk factors. Sometimes all that is necessary is a simple conversion from vector to raster format, but at other times the first generation of risk factor maps require extensive manipulation to produce the raster maps that will be included in the modelling process.Risk factor maps were manipulated as presented in Tables 3 and 4 to produce the raster maps needed for the multicriteria decision modelling. Where required the raster maps were then reclassified so that their scale was positively correlated with the outcome (likelihood of disease introduction or spread) and map scales were standardized by converting each one to a byte binary scale ranging from 0 to 255.A more detailed description of the risk factor maps is available in the Initial Bird Flu Risk Map Report (EDRS-AIA, 2009).DfID Africa -Likelihood maps April 2009 -Page 9 of 32 Five members of the project team with experience in either avian influenza epidemiology or knowledge about the field situation in Africa weighted pairs of risk factors specifying firstly whether Factor A (for example) was more or less important than Factor B (for example) regarding the introduction or spread of HPAIV H5N1 in Africa and secondly, the degree of importance. Factor A could be (i) Equally, (ii) Moderately, (iii) Strongly or (iv) Very Strongly, more or less important than Factor B. These weightings were based on each team member's expert opinion, and were performed for each pairwise combination of factors. The five sets of weightings were then compared and where three of the five team members had the same weighting, it was taken to be the agreed weighting. Where there were discrepancies between team members' weightings for any pair of factors, the weighting was discussed and a final weighting agreed upon. The agreed weightings for each pairwise comparison of the risk factors for the introduction and spread of HPAIV H5N1 in Africa are presented in Tables 5 and 6. For the pairwise comparison risk factors in the rows are weighted relative to the risk factors in the columns. For example, reading from Table 5, the risk factor density of airports is considered to be moderately more important than distance from waterbodies for the introduction of HPAIV H5N1 into Africa. The agreed pairwise weightings were used to derive a weight for each risk factor by taking the principal eigenvector of the pairwise comparisons, and these weights were incorporated into the multicriteria decision model (Tables 7 and 8).DfID Africa -Likelihood maps April 2009 -Page 12 of 32   The data presented in Table 7 indicates that the experts felt that the likelihood of introduction is most strongly influenced by trade networks (total weight = 0.84) and much less by exposure to migrating wild birds (total weight = 0.16), and this assumption therefore strongly influences the likelihood scores generated by the MCDM for likelihood of introduction. The data presented in Table 8 indicates that the experts felt that the likelihood of spread given introduction is most strongly influenced by road networks (total weight = 0.46), urbanisation (weight = 0.15) and poultry density (weight = 0.15) and much less by access to surface water (total weight = 0.08), and this assumption will therefore strongly influence the likelihood scores for spread generated by the MCDM.The risk factor maps and weights were combined using a method known as weighted linear combination (WLC) (Pfeiffer, Robinson et al 2008;Malczewski 1999) in which factors with a higher weight exert a greater influence on the final likelihood estimate. An explanation of the combination method can be found on pages 3-4 of the Initial Bird Flu Risk Map Report (EDRS-AIA, 2009). The combination method generated a numeric likelihood score on a scale of 0 (lower likelihood) to 255 (higher likelihood) for each pixel of the map. This score has a range from 0-255 to allow taking advantage of the colour range used by the Idrisi Andes software. The numerical value has no absolute likelihood interpretation but rather one of relative likelihood, i.e. allowing characterisation of locations with relatively lower or higher likelihood.The resulting maps identify: Area(s) of the continent where HPAIV H5N1 is most likely to be introduced -based on the risk factors considered (Figure 1);  Area(s) of the continent where an outbreak of HPAIV H5N1 has the greatest likelihood to spread given that it has been introduced -based on the risk factors considered (Figure 2).Areas identified as having the highest likelihood of introduction of HPAIV H5N1 include the Nile Delta, the coastline of Northern Africa, Western Africa, and parts of South Africa (Figure 1). Areas identified as having the lowest likelihood of introduction include Northern Africa, Somalia, Ethiopia and Botswana (Figure 1).Most of sub-Saharan Africa was identified as having the highest likelihood for the spread of HPAIV H5N1 (Figure 2). In other words, most areas of the continent are more vulnerable to spread once introduction has occurred, than to the initial introduction of HPAIV H5N1.Regions with the lowest likelihood of spread include Northern Africa, Somalia, Angola, Namibia and the south-west parts of South Africa (Figure 2). For each risk factor two new weights were calculated by (i) adding and (ii) subtracting 25% from the original weight. Each of the newly calculated weights was then individually incorporated into the multicriteria decision model, while holding all other factor weights constant, thereby generating 16 new likelihood maps. The likelihood estimate was measured at 10 000 randomly selected locations on each of the maps, and the average change in the likelihood estimate as a result of altering the different factor weights was calculated (Tables 7 and 8). The highest average change in the likelihood score was 3.91 + 2.29 as a result of decreasing the weight assigned to tertiary road density in the spread of disease. In other words, changing the weight assigned to tertiary road density by 25% would be expected to change the final overall risk score for the spread of avian flu by only 2 to 6 points on a scale of 255.Likelihood estimates for both disease introduction and spread were highly robust, showing little change as a result of the altered weights. But it needs to be noted that this does not provide information about the validity of the likelihood scores, but rather their stability given variation in the relative weighting of the risk factors used to generated the scores. From the continental likelihood maps for introduction and spread (Figures 1 and 2), maps for four countries were extracted; Ethiopia, Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana. These country-level likelihood maps (Figures 3 to 10) are presented on the following pages. Note that the range of the colour scale used to present the variation in likelihood was based on the map for the whole continent. The map presented in Figure 3 shows that the likelihood of introduction of HPAIV H5N1 is fairly homogeneous across Ethiopia. But there are some pockets of increased likelihood of introduction. The map presented in Figure 4 shows that the likelihood of spread of HPAIV H5N1 assuming that the virus has been successfully introduced into Ethiopia. It is apparent that the likelihood is higher towards the western half of the country, and lower in the eastern parts.DfID Africa -Likelihood maps April 2009 -Page 21 of 32 The map presented in Figure 5 shows that the likelihood of introduction of HPAIV H5N1 is fairly homogeneous across Kenya. But there are some pockets of increased likelihood of introduction. The map presented in Figure 6 shows that the likelihood of spread of HPAIV H5N1 assuming that the virus has been successfully introduced into Kenya. It is apparent that the likelihood is higher towards the southern half of the country, and lower in the northern parts. The map presented in Figure 7 shows that the likelihood of introduction of HPAIV H5N1 varies across Ghana. But no clear pattern can be defined, apart from there being a small number of high likelihood locations. The map presented in Figure 8 shows that the likelihood of spread of HPAIV H5N1 assuming that the virus has been successfully introduced into Ghana. It is apparent that the likelihood is increases towards the eastern part of the country, and is lowest in the south-west. The map presented in Figure 9 shows that the likelihood of introduction of HPAIV H5N1 varies across Nigeria. There a pockets of increased risk spread across the country, and the risk appears to be highest in the south. The map presented in Figure 10 shows that the likelihood of spread of HPAIV H5N1 assuming that the virus has been successfully introduced into Nigeria. It is apparent that the likelihood is relatively homogenous, but high across the country.One of the key findings of the continental analysis is that the likelihood of introduction is relatively homogenous across Africa with small pockets of increased likelihood spread out across Africa. This finding is most likely the result of giving ports and airports a relatively high weighting in the MCDM for likelihood of introduction. A high likelihood for spread assuming successful introduction of HPAIV H5N1 is geographically more widespread, mainly influenced by the assumption that continental transport networks (roads, navigable rivers and internal airports) have a key influence on spread once the virus has been introduced. However, these results should be interpreted with care, taking into account that they are based on assumptions made by the experts in relation to the selection of risk factors and their relative importance, the quality of the data used as well as the method used to weight the different risk factors.Data quality: The quality of the data used as geographical inputs for the model varies. For example, we suspect that data pertaining to the number of ports and airports might be an underestimate of the current situation. In addition, the road map displayed only primary, secondary and tertiary roads; data on minor roads, which could play an important role in the illegal trade of poultry, were unavailable.Proxies: When data for specific risk factors was unavailable, proxy data was used. For example, as there is no available data on the location of markets in Africa, cities with human populations of more than 50 000 were used as proxies for the location of markets. This may bias the results as even if the main markets would be located in the main cities, marketing activities in rural areas might play an important role in legal or illegal trade.Influence: Weighting of the different risk factors was performed by only five people who have, of necessity, been involved in all aspects of the development of these risk maps from the outset. The participants may have therefore have influenced each other's opinion regarding weighting of the risk factors.There is a general lack of knowledge and uncertainty regarding the introduction and spread of HPAI H5N1, not only in Africa, but worldwide. However, our access to the most up-to-date scientific knowledge on the subject hopefully translates into a better assessment of the risk factors involved and their relative importance in the introduction and spread of HPAI H5N1 in Africa.With data-driven models, outcome data and a set of risk factors are used to generate weights for the different risk factors so that the error in the outcome is minimised. With these methods, we are given an idea about lack of information through the amount of residual variance in the outcome. These models are affected by selection and information bias (misclassification of outcome and incorrect risk factor data) and by external validity issues. With a knowledge-driven model, we have no outcome data and therefore need to make subjective judgements to generate the weights for risk factors thereby creating a potentially substantial source of apparently unquantifiable bias, even with sensitivity analysis. This can be explored to some extent by using Dempster-Shafer theory (Dempster 1966;1967). We also have no mechanism for knowing whether important information is missing, and although MCDA models will not be affected by misclassification bias of the outcome, they can still be affected by data errors in the risk factors. These considerations should be taken into account when interpreting and using the risk maps.","tokenCount":"3925"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"50d9d6397929ae9aed4cdcd968900237","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c766bade-d443-4d81-aea3-57f3cf5a042a/retrieve","id":"-1370454314"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"119258c9-ff23-4278-8c89-390be9c6dd87","pagecount":"40","content":"El fríjol común (I'haseolusvulgaris L ies un componente importante de la dieta humana en América Latina , donde se produce el 35 por cien to de la producción mundial. El fríjol es un a fuente especialmente importante de proteinas en la dieta de las familias de ingresos medios y bajos, que no puede n comprar o producir proteina an im al. El centro de orige n del fríjol se encuentra en América Lat ina (Miranda , 1967 Y Hend ri ch, 1969).Los rendimientos de las le gum inosas de gran o cosme tible, especialmente Jos de fríjol . varían considerablemente. En algunos ex perimentos se han registrado rendimientos de fríjol hasta de 5.000 kg/ha*. En ensayos varietales replicados, establecidos en la Estación Ex perimental del Centro Intemací onal de Agricultura Tropical (CIAr) , ce rc a a Pal mira, Colombia, es usual obtener rendimientos de aproximadamen te 3.000 kg/ha. Los rendimientos de las fin cas son ge neralmente más bajos y flu ctúan desde 200 hasta 2.800 kg/ ha. El nivel de produc tividad es más al to en los paises de sarrollados y en 1<.1 5 ,¡ Te as en las que se pueden utilil,ar in sumas tecn()lógicos y tiende a disminuir en las laderas de las cordilleras . El rendimiento promedio de América Latina fue del orde n de 580 a 620 kg/ha duran te el período 1952-197 1 (Cuadro 1). En té rminos ge nerales, los rendimientos y el indice de mejo ramiento Cuadro l . Diferencias en la producción de Phaseolus vulgaris de acuerdo con las zonas y las épocas de siembra . /971 ., de los rendimientos de frijol son mucho más bajos que los de Jos cereales. Por ejemplo, los rendimientos mundiales de arroz han aumentado en un 40 por ciento hasta 2.280 kg/ha . durante los últimos 20 años (Manual de Producción de la FAD, 1973). Roberts (1967), al revisar los rendimient os de las leguminosas de grano en el mundo, citó la falta de investigación pertinente como uno de Jos principales factores limitantcs de los rendimi entos. Después de es tudiar el potencial de los programas nacionale s y regionaJes de cereales. Roberts concluyó que con este tipo de progra• ma s no se púdia obtener mayores rendimient os . por lo que sugiri ó diseñar programas integrados de investigación sobre legu minosas de gran o que les se rvirian de respaldo a taj es programas nacionaJes y se reaJizarian a través de los centros intenlacionales de investigac ión. Se propuso que el erAT fuera el centro internacional que se ocupara de la in vestigación sobre el cultiv o de ffl'jOl. Aunqu e algunos miembros del pe rsonal habian trabajado anteriormente con Phaseolus vulgaris, el proyecto integrado de inves ti gación de fr íjol no se inició hasta e l año fiscal 1972•1973. Es te programa es uno de Jos d os programas de productos agropecuarios del CIAT que no se limit a a la s tierras bajas tropicales.El Crupo Consultiv o para la Investigación Agrícola Internacional (CCIAR) ha hecho responsab!e al CIAT de la investigación sobre producción de fríjol a nivel regional . Además, el CIAT es un o de los principales centros de gennoplasma de fríjol. Recie nt emente. el Comité Téc nico Asesor del G rupo Consultivo le solicitó desarro• llar una red coordinada de investigación en tod a América Latin a.Es ta publicación describe varios aspectos de la producción de frijol en Amé• rica Latina. Busca identifica r las <Íreas en las que se requiere mayor investigación o desa rro llar actividades similares y a las que el Programa de Sistemas de Producció n de Fríjol del CIAT podria contribuir beneficiándose todas las partes involucrad as. Igualmen te, se di scu ten los logros del prog ram a realizados hasta la fecha y las ac ti• vidades proyectadas hacia el futuro.La producción de fr ijol en América Latina se ll eva a ca bo princjpalmente en propiedades pequeñas, generalmente. sob re terre no o ndul ado. En El Salvador, por ejemplo, más del 95 por ciento de la producción de frijol se obtiene en fin cas de menos de 5 hectá reas. En Panamá. el tamaño promedio de las fincas productoras de fn\"jol es de sólo 2,6 hectáreas. Generalmente , el fríjol trepa dor, de hábit o de cre ci• miento inde terminado. se siembra con mal\"/. . Los sistemas mecanizados y la mano de o bra que no sea n Jos de las mism as familias. son escaso s : los insumos técnicos, tri.' les C0l110 fertilizantes. her bicidas y pesticidas, son generalmente limitados (Gutié• !Tei' (' Iaf.,19 75). Los pcquciios agricultores tambi én afIon.tan dificultades de merca• deo. restricciones de crédito y serv icios de extensi ón dcficientes. Tal ve z. a estos mot ivos se deba el que la mayoria de los paises estudiados pur Pinchinat (1973) ha• ya menc ionado Jos fac tores socioeconómil,;os como una de la s li mitaciones princi. pales de la producción .No obstante, en Chile, Perú, Brasil , México y Colombia existen vastas áreas en las cuales los rendimientos y el uso de insumos tecnológicos ya han alcanzado prácticamente los que se registran en Estados Unidos_ En estas áreas se cultivan fríjoles arbustivos que reciben abundante can tidad de fertilizantes y herbicidas ~ la preparación de la tierra y la recolección son mecanizadas y, con frecuencia , se utiliza el riego. Este sistema de producción es el que ha sido más extensamente estudiado, especialmente en los Estados Unidos (ver los Informes Anuales Cooperativos sobre Mejoramiento de Fríjol, 1962de Fríjol, -1974))_ En cambio, es poco lo que se conoce sobre el sistema de producción asociada de maíz y frijol.Entre las diferentes razones aducidas para explicar los rendimientos generalmente baj os de frijol en América Latina (Roberts, 1970;He rnández-8ravo , 1973;Y Pinchinat , 1973), la más frecuente es la insuficiencia e inconsistencia del apoyo investigativo. Como se aprecia en el Cuadro 2, América Latina posee un número re-Cuadro 2. Distribuc.:ión por campo de especialización de investigadores en ¡fijol de 22 paúes latinoamericanos. • ducido de inves ti ga dore s de frijol. La mayoria de los programas nacionales emplean fitomejorad ores, agrónomos y patólogos , pero no sabemos con ce rteza si se trala de una necesidad nacional o si es simplemente el sistema educacionaJ empleado en estas áreas. Pocos program as tienen entomólogos, economistas, fisi ólogos, microbiólogos y es pecialistas en ge nn oplasma y cal idad de la semilla. Si bien es cie rto que la finandación de este sinnúmero de disciplinas reviste serias dificultades para los programas nacionales pequeños, también es evidente , como se podrá observar en las secciones siguientes, la necesidad de contar con dich os científi cos. Debe agregarse que la may oría del pe rson al que aparece en el Cuadro 2 trabaja con varios cultivos diferentes mi e ntras que men os de la mitad posee la preparació n científica apropiada.El fil o mejoramiento ha desempeñado y co ntinuará desempei'iando, un papel i~nportante en el incremento de los rendimientos de frIjol en América Latina . De los 13 programas nac io nales investigados por Pinchinat (1 973) , 1 1 consideraron el mejoramiento varietal de un valor prá<.:tico defini tivo durante el pe n'odo 1969-1972. Vieira e l al. (1971))comparó los resultado s obtenidos en mas de 20 localidades en Minas Gerais y Goias donde las variedades mejoradas, tales como Ri co 23 y Rosinha da Seca, superaron en un 80 por ciento los rendimientos de las variedades locales.A pesa r de la imporlancia del mejo ramie nto varietal y d~da la gran variabilidad genética del Phaseoi/l s ¡!/llgaris. muy pocm prog ramas nacionales cuentan con los recursos para mantener oconseguir gennoplasma , lo cual re dundaría en beneficio de los programas de fitomejoramiento. Por co nsiguient e, el banco de germop tasm a del CIAT es la respu esta a las solic itudes naci o nal es de mantener ge nnoplasmél disponible , t31 como se manifestó en el Seminari o sobre El potencial del fn'jol y de ot ras leguminosas de grano comestible en América Latina . reali z<Jdo en el ClAl en 1973 (ve r la s Actas de este Seminari o). Las preferencias del consumidor, qu e varían de acuerdo con los paises y las regiones, dificultan y limitan la tran sferenc ia de ge rmo -pJa sma, incluso de las variedades prometedoras (Scobie el al.. 19 74) .También se debe te ne r en consideración la cal idad de la semilla. M~s del 50 por cie nt o de la s enfermedade s principales del frijol ! entre la s que es tán el mosa ic o com un , la unlracnosis, la mancha angular y el af'¡ublo b'H. : teriul , son transmitidas por la semilla (Zaumayer y Thom as, 1967) . Bajo condiciones fa vorab les, los materiales infectados pueden transmitir ráp idament e las en ferm edad es . Ni siquiera esta amenaza ha logrado ev itar que los peque~os agri cultores continúen ay udando ti tran smitir las infecciones. sembrando sem illa que les habl'a so brado de la cosecha anterior. ((,utiérrc7. ef al., 1975).A los pequeños agricultores les es prác ti camente imposible obtener semilla certificada. La semilla certificada representa de l 1 al 2 por ciento de la cantidad tot al sembrada (Terra-Wetzel el al .. 1971).SáncheL y Pinchinat (1974) compara ron muestras de se milJiJs de 77 fincas e n Costa Ri¡;a y o btuvieron un ¡'ndice promedio de germinación de sólo 6R por ciento, motivo por el cual los agric ultores siembran más de un grano por hueco (Freytag . 1973). Por lo general, los altos precios de los fertilizante s, especialmente de nitrógeno y de fósforo (Harry el al., 1974), además de los desequilibrios del co mercio interna• donal, han aumentado el precio de muchos insumos de las fincas perjudicando tan• to a los agricultores grandes como a los pequeños. Dado el gran nl'lmero de áreas d~ América Latina que presentan deficiencias en fósforo (Fassbender ft al.. 1968 y Vieira y Bomemisza, 1968) o que tienen una gran capacidad de njación de fósforo (Fassbender, 1969), pvede anrmarse que los requerimientos altos de fó sfo ro de las plantas de fríjol limitarán los rendimientos en muchas áreas. Además ) siendo el nitrógeno tan importante para la nutrición de la planta de fríj ol (Malavolta, 1971), no deja de ser preocupante que sólo muy pocas áreas hayan respondido a la inocuo lación de P. vulgaris (Brakel , 1966: Brakcl y Manil , 1965: y Whitcwa y y Nduku , 1967). A la temperatura, al pH Y al rhizobium nativo del suelo se les ha culpado por esta respuesta tan baja (Graham y Hublell, 1975).Los sistemas de siembra de fríjol varían considerablemente según el tipo de semilla y la región . Muchos agricultores no labran el suelo y prefieren utilizar el siso tema de \"corte y quema\" descrito por Freytag (1973) . Los sistemas de siembra pue• den variar desde el voleo al azar hasta sistemas mecánicamente controlados.El fríjol con hábito de crecimiento detenninado (Tipo 1), preferido para la siembra mecanizada, ha sido utilizado ampliamente en estudios de densidad de pa-   '\" '¡;;'\" ;; .!! ' -.\".Q1;;'\" '\" ,¡; \" '\" ¡¡¡ El '2  padoras con hábito de crecimiento indeterminado (Tipos II y 111) ensayadas en el CIAT presentan , por lo general, rendimientos estables con densidades de 200.000 a 400 .000 semillas por hectárea. La densidad óptima de siembra para los fríjoles trepadores , ya sea en monocultivo o en cultivo asociado con maíz, todavía se desconoce, aunque para las siembras asociadas, muchos agricultores usan espaciamientos que resultan ser más apropiados para el maíz que para el fríjol. El rOJol y el maíz se pueden sembrar simultaneamente en cultivos asociados; no obstante, lo usual es sembrar el frijol después del maíz e incluso cuando el mal'z ya se está secando. Las épocas de siembra del maLZ y del fríjol pueden deberse a la s diferencias en Jos patrone s de precipitación pluvial.El Programa de Fríjol del CIAT tiene un solo objetivo principal : incrementar el rendimiento y lo productj¡¡idad del [n /ol en América Latina. Esperamos alcanzar este objetivo a través de los mej oramientos varietales y técnicas desarrolladas como parte de nuestro programa experimental. de adiestramiento y de apoyo de cientlficos latinoamericanos que trabajan en los programas na ci onales y de la investigación cooperativa realizada tanto en los laboratorios de América Latina co mo de los paises desarrollados_ Dados los bajos rendimient os que nonnaJmente se obtienen en la mayor parte de América Latina , confiamos en lograr aumentar el rendimiento hasta en un 4 por ciento por año. De alcanzar este objetivo, el rendimiento promedio del fríjol en América Latina , para 1990, seria de más de 1.000 kg/ha.A corto plazo, como se aprecia gráficamente en la Figura 1, es más fa ctible progresar por medio del uso de tecnologia que reduzca al máximo la variabilidad de los rendimientos. Entre estas prácti cas se encuentran el uso apropiado de fung.icida s, inse ctici das y pesticidas; mejores sistemas de fertilización con fó sfo ro y nitrógeno; una mejor comprensión de las deficiencias de microeJementos; el suministro de mayor can tidad de semilla libre de patógenos o por lo menos, de semilla certificada, y la adopción de densidades óptjmas de poblaciones . Durante este periodo, se lograrían mayores progresos con el fríjol arbustivo cultivado bajo condiciones aceptables de campo.A fin de manten e r el ritmo de mejo rameinto de los rendimient os durante el período intemledio se requeriría selecci onar las variedades y proteger a Jos agricul. tores de las principales Ouctuaciones en precios y de la escasez de insumos. El fitomejoramiento cobraría mayor importancia en el CIAT al comenzarse, con los ensayos regionales de rendimiento, el suministro de materiales promiso rios a Jos progra• mas nacionales y 1::1 combinación de factores de resiste ncia contra diferentes plagas mkrobianas e insectiles; dicha s actividades pasarían a ser parte sus tancial de: programa. Para conservar su tasa planeada de mejoramienlO, el programa del CIAT de• beria tener disponible para 1977 variedades genéticamente mejoradas y para 1979-1980 se debería haber aumentado el número de se le cciones resisten te s a diversas enfennedades e insectos. En vista de las marcadas diferencias de color y tamaño del grano de cada región (CIAT, In forme Anual de 1973), sería imposible pro• ducir variedades apropiadas para todas las regiones. El incremento de los rendimientos de los fríjoles trep• adores tomaría mucho más tiemp o. Se han he¡;ho menos investigaciones sobre este grupo de fn'jales que generalmente , se cultiva n -corno ya se mencionó an teri ormente -bajo condiciones ambicntaJcs muy pobres. La necesidad de considerar la compa tibilidad del maíz y del fríjol es una necesidad adicional . Una prioridad urgente sería demostrar quejas variedades trepadoras ocupan una posición similar a la de las o tras variedades, independientcmente del sistema de apoyo. Una vez más, el fa cto r principal para el mejoramiento de los rcndimientos del fríjol trepador serJa el mejoramiento de las prácticas agronómicas , entre las que se cuenta una mejor comprensión del espaciamiento requerido entre el maíz y el fríjol , y de la interacción de los dos cultivos. En vista de que la mayoría de los agricultores que cultivan es te tipo de fríjol dispone de poco c rédito y dinero en efectivo, también se ría necesario ma ximi zar la eficiencia de los insumas tecnológi cos. Esto incluiría el estudio de los microorganismos y su contribución a la fijación simbiótica y asimbió tica del nitróge no y a la solubiliza ción del fosfato; una mejor utili zación de los fertilizantes y un conocimiento mayor del nivel de infestación al cual las aplic aciones de in se cticidas y fungicidas son ese nciales. Dicho paquete tecnológico no podria estar disponible antes de 1978.El mejo ramien to varietal de' frij ol trepador, especial mente de aquellos para altitudes mayo res. dependería de una mayor colección de genno plasma. Por esta razó n, es improbable que Jos ensayos region ales de rendimie nto con rríj o les trepad ores puedan co men zar antes de 1977•1978. Indudablemente , será más difícil reali za r est os ensayos de rendimiento que aqu ell os para los fríjoles de tipo arbustivo. Si se pie nsa culti va r los frijoles trepadores en enrejados, lo cu al exije una gran cantidad de mano de ob ra pe ro produce grandes ren dimient os por unid ad de área, se ría necesa• rio conside rar esta p os ibjJidad con suficien te antelació n.Un a de las dificultades principales de es tos proyec tos se rá de le nnin ar e l punto hasta el cual Jos usuarios acep tarán la nueva tecnologLa . Ya hicimos referencia, po r ejemplo, a la renu encia a adop tar nuev as v ~rieda des . La evaluación econó mica será vital en es ta área ,y para 1976-1977 ya 1cbe d an habe rse identifit:ado los fa c tores que limitan la aceptación de nueva te cnología , a nivel de la fin ca, en un buen numero de legi ones. Para asegura r la acept ación por parte de los programas na ci;:¡nales tamLién será esencial concede r mayo r i,rllportancia tanto a los program as de cooperación como a los de adiestramiento. El funci onamient o ex itoso de las red es de investigaci ón de fríj ol se rá indispensable para la tran sferencia de información y de tecnolog{a .Hasta 1975 , ha habido disponibilidad de fondos para finan c ior las posiciones de sie te científicos pe rmanentes dos de los cuales trabaj an simu ltanea mellt c en el program a de yuca de l eIAT. A partir de 1975 , se finan cia rán dos posj c ion e~ adicionales , para mantenim iento de genn o plasma y producción de semilla, en virtud de un fondo es pecial de ap oyo oto rgado por el Banco Inte ramericano de Desarrollo (B ID). La Figura 2 mues tra Ja o rient ación disci plinaria de los cientlficas del personal del programa de fríjol.A fin de log rar las me las disc iplinari as de talladas en la Se cción IlI , seria rec o• mendabl e co ntar con un person al pe rm anente de 10 cientifi cos para 1977. Has ta el mom ento, se ca rece de fond os para financiar es te aumento de p~rsot1a l. Como hasta ahora el programa ha sid o eminentemente re gio nal , todavía no se ha estudiad o la posi bilidad de cola borar es trechamente con centros asiáti cos y africanos. Incluso , asumiend o que se obtenga es te nivel de persona l, cl programa tc ndrla que ace pt ar cie rta s limitaci ones que se disc uten a co ntinu ac ión. de investigación y estaría en conflicto con las responsa bilidades básicas de otros centros internacionales .2. La experimentac ión inici al se concentrarla en cuatro loca lidades, con temperaturas , precipitacione s y condiciones de suelo diferente s. Estas localida des serían: a) l :: sede del CIAT, Palmira , Colombia (latitud 03' 22 ' norte ; alti tud 1.000 metros : temperatura media anual : 23,9°C; precipitación pluvial total anual : 1.000 mJll. Como el frijol está en desve ntaja si se lo compara con otras especies de leguminosas de grano comesti ble (como el cau pi o el m<l lll) que so n tole rantes a los suelos ácidos (lnrofllll' Anual del CIAT , 1973), no se continuará co n los ex perimentos en los suel os al tamente ácidos de los Llanos Orient ales de Colombia . La inves tigación coo pe\"tati va co n o tros púses de penderla de que se encuen tren inst ituciones y cientlficos ciese osos de participa r o contribuir a los objetivos del program a.3. Inicialmente , se le d<lra pOCa importancia aJ a ca! id<ld y al equilibrio proteinico. Los ffl]olescont iencn de un 20 a un 30 por ciento de prote l'na relativamen te bien balanceada; aSI eS que increment ar los rendi mientos tal vez sea la forma más ap ropi ada de ílumentar el contenido proteínico ( Bressan i e l al, 1973) . El Instituto de Nutrición de Centro Am érica y ll;mamá (INC'AP) , en Guatemala. se ría el lugar ideal para reaJi z.:.t r estos es tu dios. aunq ue el CIAT seleccionará el material promisorio panl fltom cjormniento a fin de garantizar que no huya deterioro grave en el contenido o en la calidad de la protelna.4 . En vista de que investigJ dores de los países de sa rrollad os est<i n interesados en reaJi zar in ves ligac ión coopera tiva o por contrato, el CIAT no de berla trat ar de resolver problemas a los cuales se encontr~lTia un a solu d')r1 r,lás sa ti sfac to ria en tales unidades de inves tigació n.  La mayoría de estas selecciones y<l han sido culti vadas en el CIAT y se han determinado sus características agronómicas y de re sistencia a las enfennedades y plagas. Para comprobar la adapta bilidad de las I{neas promisorias se han hecho nuevos ensayos de siembras en Boliche y/o en Monter{a. El anáJisis de la información ac tuaJmente disponible indica que cie rtas ca racterísticas espedficas de las plantas están relacionadas con el rendimienlO. Los fríjoles que tienen hábitos de crecimiento diferen tes también varian significativamente en los dlas requeridos para a1caniar la madurez, en el número de vainas, tamaño de la semilla , número de racimos y de se• mill as por vaina (C uadr o 6).La selección de variedades re sistentes a plagas de insec tos se ha concentrado en las espec ies de Empoasca y en menor grad..o. en los ácaros . En h!s siembras de 1973 y 1974 se identificaron va rias se lecci ones tolerantes a Empoasca con niveJes diferentes de tol erancia . Las variedades susceptibles como IC'A•CaJ ima aumentaron 37 veces su rendimiento cuando se les aplicó insecticidas en el momento de la siembra durante la estación seca. Por otra parte, las va riedades toJerantes no requ iere n un uso intensivo de insec ticidas. Cuando se aplú;an insect icidas a estas variedades, los rendimientos aumentan de 16 veces con rCA•Tui y Jamapa , a solamente S veces    En el programa de patología vege tal se le ha dado pri oridad a la se let.:ció n (en la sede del CIAT y en Monlería) de variedades resislenles a la roya, al aí'lublo bac terial y a la mustia hil ac hosa bujo condiciones de campo (Figura 7) ya la selección de va riedades res istentes al virus del mosaico co mún en invemaderos. Se han proba.do más de ~.OOO selecciones contra cada patógeno . Las varieda de s promisorias resistentes, detenninadas hasta el momento , se encuentran e n el Cuadro 7. La mano cha fo li ar angu lar no se ha mcluído e n las inves ti gacio nes por cuanto el Instituto Colombiano Agrope cuari o ( ICA) ya había hecho un esludio intensivo y había ide ntificado variedades res istenles (Ca rdona y Walke r, 1956 y Orozco y Cardona, 1959). La antracnosis no se presenta en los terrenos de la sede del CIAT pe ro se estudiará en las siembras de 1975 que se hagan en Popayán . Se h<:ln iniciado proyectos cooperati vos para al gu nas enfermedades que todavía no se han re gistrado en Colombia . Por ejemplo. en Guatemala se estudiaron recie ntemente 3 .500 se lecciones del CIAT para determinar su resistencia al mosaico ama rill o.Buscando agil iza r el suministro de ge nnoplasma para los programas na cionales, se están utili zando tarjetas de computador para al macena r jnform ación sobre cada selección . Es te sistema estará conectad o dentro de poco tiempo con un serv icio de recuperación de info•nnación. Actualmente, se es tá preparando para publicación un a lista qu e incluye las característi cas de 400 se lecciones que parece n ser pro-misorias; una lista que se publicará posteriormente , detallará las características específicas disponibles en el ban co de ge rmoplasma del e lA T. Desde mediados de 1973 hasta octubre de 1974, el programa envió más de 7.000 selecciones a 22 países diferentes, lo cuaJ demuestra claramente 10 valioso que es es te programa para los o lros programas nacionales .Otra ac tivida d esenciaJ del programa de ge rmoplasma es el desarrollo de viveros inte rnaci onales de variedades con diversos factores de resistencia. La selección de vari edades resistentes a la roya es un ejem plo obvio. La selección inicial que se hace en el elA T elimina aquell as variedades susceptibles a las razas fisiológicas locales de ro ya pero no considera las razas prevalecientes en los otros países. A través de un a red de viveros internacionales, el mate rial promisoriv de una localidad se puede ensayar en vari as instituciones cooperativas. Un taller ( t ipo de reunión/discusión) sobre la roya,lIevado a cabo recientemente en el e fAT, fijó los criterios para una det erminación más adecuada de los síntomas y estudió las variedades o selecciones que se debían incluir en los primeros viveros. Por disponer de un banco de gennoplasma de semilla libre de patógenos y de información sobre m ate ri ales re sistentes, el CIAT fue escogido para coo rdinar y di stribuir los materiales para el primer vivero de la roya . Tambié n, se están desarrollando viveros similares para re aliza r ensayos a nivel internacional con las selecciones agroJlómicamente promisorias . Como la ca racterización del ge nn o plasma ini cial ya es ta casi comple ta se inició un programa intensivo de cruzamiento con los materiales más prom isorios. Diez selecciones agronómicament e promisorias y cuyas caracte rislicas se inclu yen en el Cuadro 8, se están cruzando con material es seleccionados co n base en el tiempo requerido para alcanzar la madurez, la insensibilidad al ro tope riodo, el hábi to de c recimiento, la re sistencia a la roya, a la mancha o mustia hil achosa , al mosaico com ún, el añublo bac terial y a Empoasca. El mate rial que present a un bajo nivel de resi stencia a algun os patógenos se es tá intercru zan do con el propósito de lugrar un mayor nivel de resistencia. El mate rial promi sorio estará a di sposició n de los programas nacionales tan pronto como sea posible. Otros materiales promisorios se rán incluidos en el programa de hibri dación, des pués de ser probados en ensayos regionales de ren o dimiento. Esperamos alcanz.ar hasta 4.000 c ru ces por afio.. La su pe ri o rid ad apa re nte de las líneas de semilla negra del Ti po Ir hace mas difícil satisracer las prererencias regionales. Casi todo el materhll res is te nt e a Em-poas{'o tiene semillas negras y en las pruebas regio nales de rendim iento, nueve de las diez vanedades con mejores rendimientos han sido negras. Jáffe y Bucher (1974) también jJlrorn~aron que es te grupo posee mayor contenido proteinico.  MSU 3 I I 12-1,31128,3 11 32•2,32349 , 32030 , 32033 , 4 ,27,94 , 98, 206, 21 3. CIAT 73 VlIl 5174, 72 Vul 240 10, 25 153,24454,24147, 73 Vul 3222, Cal im a, Tara.Ecuador 299, México 309 . Guatemala 209.487 , Turrialba 4, IAN 509 1,73 Vul 3215 ,3231 ,3241 ,3242 ,3248.3285.3287. 150.5375 ,3690 . PR S,12 ,17,18,19 ,  Roya ciones de cerca de un millón de plantas por hectárea (Figura 8), en tanto que con las variedades más detenninadas y semidetenninadas, los rendimientos óptimos se obtuvieron con densidades de 250.000 a 400.000 plantas por hectárea.También , se comenzó a evaluar el banco de gennoplasma con base en su respuesta al fotoperíodo aprovechando las ventajas que ofrece el campo en el CIAT . Las genotipos insensibles al fotoperíodo son de importancia crítica a fin de poder desarrollar variedades fácilmente adaptables a todos los ambien tes para los programas nacionales, En 1974 se iniciaron en la sede del CIAT, Montería, Popayán y Boliche,ensa• yos varietales replicados. En cada una de estas localidades se ensayaron de 40 a 50 variedades comerciales o selecciones promisorias. La superioridad de la variedad Porrillo Sinté tico en tres de las cuatro localidades fue evidente (Cuadro 11). En la prueba en la sede del CIAT el peso del grana/vaina estuvo estrechamente relacionado con el rendimiento, pero se podían observar dos grupos diferentes de sem illas (Figura 9). Las plantas Tipo 1 de hábito de'crecimienlo determinado tenian vainas con tres a cuatro semillas con un peso individual alto por grano, en tanto que las varie• dades semideterminadas tenían un núme:-o menos estable de semillas/vaina y por lo general, tenían semillas más pequeñas. Número de granos por va ina Figura 9. Relación entre el peso de grano/vaina y el núme ro de granos/vaina en ensayos varíetales con Phaseofu.s vulgaris ll evados a cabo en el CIAT durante 19 74 , Obsérvense las diferencias en relación con los hábitos de crecimiento de las variedades .sólo de la fertili zación con fosfato sino de la forma de aplicarlo (Figura 10). La fijación del fosfato también fue importante en el caso de sus forolas más solubles. En dos localidades se ob tu ~o re spuesta al nitrógeno cuando se aplicó la ca ntidad adecuada de fósforo. Debido al fósforo, las leguminosas inoc uladas desarrollaron nódulos más grandes y fijaron más nitrógen. o. Los estudios que se están realiza ndo actualmente consideran los requerimientos de fósforo para la fijación de nitróge no en el fríjol y el uso de especies de 1ñiobacillus y Endogone para mejorar la disponibilidad de fósforo en el suelo, Además, se efectuaron experjmentos de fe rtil ización con boro y molibdeno . El programa mantiene y distribuye gran variedad de inoc ula ntes para Pllaseolus IJ ulg!lris,La producción de semilla básica libre de patógenos fue una prioridad en 1974, La semill a limpia sumin' ist rada ini cialmente por el erA T a 80 pequeros agricu ltore s de Jos valles de Las Monjas y San Malias, en Guatemala , aumentó los ren-  , La mate ria se<:a total es igual al peso del lallo. de los , AJl> a folillI máX ima '= índicc de áre a de~pu ¿s de la noraci ón peciolos, dc 'a~ ~ainas y de los fr ijoles. en ~, mome n• rcndun icnto fríjol ( u de I~ madl'l n':l. mas la ma ll'ria $Cea roHar O1a~im a, , Eficienda de rcnd irn iclllO de rTlJol (Rr) dc)pués dI. \"\" la Iloraclón díu huta la m:.zdurc1.rendIm iento fríjol , Eficicnei3 materia seca tOlal (MST) = ma te ria seca total Indl ~;: de co~eha ma lcoa:¡eu 10lal X 100 d íu hou ta la madurez dimientos de 515 a 1.545 kg/ha en una sola estación'. El e rAT también cooperó 'en la limpieza de la semilla de las variedades comerciales de Perú y de Brasil. En 1975, la mayoría de las líneas promisorias de gennoplasma no prese ntarán enfennedades transmitidas por la misma. sem illa y en la mayoria de los ensayos en la sede del ClAT se utilizará solamente semilla libre de patógenos . Deb ido a las restricciones nacionales sobre cuarentena vegetal, la labor del CrAT en este programa será la de limpiar la semilla básica e identificar las áreas dentro de los paises en los cuales se pueda multiplicar esta semilla libre 'de patÓgeno\"s .Los estudios sobre protección de las plantas efectuados en 1974 enfatizaron el  y de piretros no tóxic os. Aun que se e nsaya ron vari os insecticidas para verificar su control en el campo y se hicieron algunas recomendaciones, se tra taba de encontrar soluciones a corto pla zo las cuaJes n o serán parte ese ncial del p rograma de spués de 1974.Se efectuaro n estudios patol ógicos si mila res, ent re los que se incluyen: 1) la evaluación de las pé rdidas de rencli m iento debidas a enfe rmedades específic as y a las epocas de com ienzo de la enferme dad; 2) la innuencia de las p rá.cticas cult!J ral es, t illes como la densidad de siembra en la incidencia, gravedad y difu sión de la crifc nn e• dad; y 3) una eva luación del control que eje rcen los fu ngicidas en variqs patóge nos principales (Figura J J) .Como se menc ionó anterio nnen' te en la Sección 11, diversos problem3s soc ioeconóm icos lim itan la productivida d de l fn' iol en Amé:ica Latin a. Para log rar un a   mejor comprensión de la te cnología qu e actualmente se encuentra disponible para los agricultores y del impact o que la nueva te cno logia podrta tener , el grupo de Economía Agrícola del CIAT es ta est udiando la producci ón de ffljol en tres áreas principaJ es de Colombia . Se está recopi land o información detallada sobre las prácticas cu ltu rales co rrientes, especialmente los sistemas de siembra , meca ni zac ión , uso de semillas, fertilizantes y plagu icídas; por ot ra pa rte, se cuen ta con agrónomos ad iestrados encargados de inspeccionar los cu lti vos para encontrar las plagas y defi• cie ncias de nutrimentos. También , se están es tudiando los problemas asociados con el mercadeo y la financiación de la producción. Los resultados preliminares sobre 72 de las fincas est udjadas presentan las diferencias principa les en el uso de crédit o y tecn ología ent re las tres áreas (ver Cuadro 11) y ay udarán al CIAT a asignar sus re • cursos de investigación.La red latinoamericana de investigación sobre f~/jvlComo se mencionó en la intro ducción . al CIAT se le soli citó es tablecer y coordinar una red latinoamericana de in vestigac ión sobre frijol. La Junta Directiva del ClAT, aunque en principio aceptó esta solicitud , pidió un año de plazo para considerar los progresos logrados con el programa hasta la fecha y las implicaciones futuras que los gastos del establecimiento de dicha red tendrían en el programa. Un donativo a corto plazo del Banco Interamericano de DesarroJ1o fInancia algunas de las actividades de investigación que se han encomendado a la red para su coordi• nación.Aunque en los programas nacionales e internacionales de investigación, lo mismo que en algunas disciplinas, se menciona con frecuencia la importancia de las redes cooperativas, la realidad es que muy pocas funcionan eficientemente , por una o más razones . El grupo organizador puede patrocinar unidades cooperativas 0 , por el contrario, no responder a sus necesidades. Puede darse duplicación de actividades dentro de la misma red y finalmente, se pueden presentar intereses encontrados que no admiten solución. Si la red de fríjol ha de ser operante debe es tar fundada sobre una base de respeto, complementación y ayuda mutua entre el CIA T y los programas nacionales y regionales. Dentro de esta red, el CIAT se deberia concentrar en las actividades que sean aplicables a toda América Latina, en tanto que los programas Cuadro 12. ¡'xperimentación cooperativa del programa de [\"jol  ~'3n en el Cuadro 12 , ayu dar ían a resolver problemas espe cíficos fuera del alcance \\,. : las capacidades técnicas, disciplin arias y de dispunibilidad de genn oplasma de los programas nacio nales.Las re laciones de trabajo entre el personal del CIAT y los inves tigador« de Colombia, Ec uador, Guatemala y Perú eran.exce lentes, incluso antes de presentarse la sol icitud del Comité Técnico Asesor. Entre las actividades realizadas en colaboración con estos países se enc uentran las siguientes: 1) Aseso rar a los go biernos sobre los requerimient os y pri oridades de la in ves tigación en fríjol ; 2) Suministrar germo• plasma y materiales selec tos; 3) Ad ies trar cientíncos; 4) Brindar servicios de docume ntaci ón; y 5) organi za r la experimentación cooperativa. La red de investigación sobre fríjol continuará y am pli ará estas actividades. Recienteme nte, aJgunas institu• ciones de Brasil , Chile , Cos ta Ri ca y Venezuela expresaron su interés en el enfoque que se ha dado a la red de investigadón.Hemos mencionado algunas ac tividade s de la red de investigación so bre frij ol del CIAT ; po r ejemplo, la selecció n y sumini stro de gennoplasm a. En esta sección de la publicació n concentrarem os las ac tivida des de adies tramie nt o, se rvicios de in�� fo rmación , organización de reuni ones y \" taJl e res\" y coordinación de experimenta. ció n cooperativa.Com o se me ncio nó en la Sección JI , el respaldo científico in suficiente e inconsistente es uno de los p rinc ipaJes fa c tores responsables de los bajos rendim ie ntos del fújo!. Muchos países no tienen los espedalis tas que req uieren y por lo ge ner,a l, tampoco puede n brincar a los cientlficos la opo rtunidad de es pecializa rse. El CIAT resaJta la importancia del adiestramiento a nivel de posgrado recibiendo becari os de tres ca tego rías, proce dentes de di ve rsos programas e in stitucione s nacionales. a) ¡.os Becarios de Posgrado. durante un periodo de sz is meses a un año en el CIAT, redben adiestramiento e in strucción sobre diseño y manejo de ex perimentos, aJ mismo tiempo que se les inco rpo ra al programa general de investigación. Mas de 20 becarios de nueve pa ises fu eron adie strados en el programa de fríj o l durante el período 1973-1974. UII as pect o esencial de este adiestramiento es mante ner el con• tacto entre el becario y el CIAT después de qu e és te termin a su per íodo.  Tend\"-,, una duración variable y harán hincapié tanto en la parte teórica como en la práctica de los métodos propuestos para obtener una producción de fríjol más eficiente.La organización de un programa coordinado de adiestramiento para los inves• ligadores de fríjol de América Latina, constituye una necesidad esencial. Actualmente, hay varios centros o programas latinoamericanos (el CIAT, el Centro Agrícola Tropical de In~estigación y Ensenanza (CATlE) y la Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuaria (EMBRAPA» que poseen fondos y las facilidades para adiestrar a los investigadores dedicados al cultivo de fríjol. Varias universidades de países desarrollados (Cambridge, Comell, Florida y la Universidad Estatal de Michigan) también están involucradas en el adiestramiento de estudiantes de esta región. Los programas se deberían organizar de acuerdo con: a) el nivel de adiestramiento requerido; b) el equipo humano y la experiencia con que se cuente : e) las similitudes de clima y de sistemas de producción , entre el país del estudiante y la institución adiestradora.En Agosto de 1974, el Programa de Frijol estableció un servicio de resúmenes y documentación a través del cual los científicos y las instituci ones interesadas pueden recibir. a costo mínimo, tarjetas de resúmene s y bibliografías sobre la literatura disponible de frijol. En la Figura 12, aparece una tarjeta típica de resúmenes. Se comenzará el proyecto con la elaboración de resúmenes de las publicaciones más recientes, que se remontarán paulatinamente hasta 1960; para mayor conveniencia, estas tarjetas se publicarán en Inglés. A partir de 1976, las versiones en Inglés y en Espailol estarán en disponibilidad de quienes las soliciten .Los \"talleres\" cortos (tipo de reunión/discusión) sobre una disciplina especi• fica , con asistencia de 15 a 25 participantes, estimulan la colaboración, el mejoramiento de los métodos experimentales , la comparacfón detalJada de los resultados y un mayor contacto entre los científicos. Dichos talleres también garantizan una exposición constante del personal del CIAT a áreas específicas de problemas conectados con el cultivo del frijol. Cada año se planean dos talleres , de acuerdo con el siguiente progratna:-\" rl7-5: Taller sobre Protección de las Plantas  . \"-f--~ -\\' segregantes se seleccionaron lIneas arbustivas, lineas con gu fa corta y lineas con ::::. _ , ' : ' : , ' . ' : ' ,, -: __ \" ' , < _ ' , ' , : _ : , ; _ , _ , ' . ' : , ' , -_ , , , ' : . _ , ' : ~ ía larga. La,' . Se espera que la investigacTón sob re cada uno de estos campos específicos esté suficientemente adelantada para la fecha que se ha establecido para cada taller (Fi• gura 1). De esta forma, el taHer sobre Fitomejoramiento y Gennoplasma , para 1975 , proveerá una oportunidad para djscutir las pruebas recíentemente conc1uídas sobre utili zaci ón de germoplasma y la forma en la cual los programas re gionaJes podrían utili zar más provechosamente el material disponible . El taller también debería tener disponible la progenia F3 de los materiales de fitomejoramiento que aparecen en el Cuadro 8 y discutir el proceso de transición de las pruebas básicas de rendimiento realizadas a nivel local a pruebas con alcance internacionaL Igualmente , el Taller sobre Economía, para 1977, debería coincidir con la te rmin ac ión de los dos es tudios económicos sobre los factores Iimitantes de Jos rendjmientos del fríj ol que se están llevando a cabo fuera de Colombia,El Cuadro 12 muestra las áreas de investigación cooperativa propuestas para 1975. Como se sugirió anterionnente , dichas áreas tratan de resolver problemas específicos de la localidad utilizando la experiencia y las facilidades técnicas del CIAT, conjuntamente con los conocimientos y la supervisión prestada por Jos científicos de los programas nacionales.Las pruebas regionales de rendimiento mencionadas anteriormente son un ejemplo patente de actividad internacional. La evaluación inicial en el CIAT servirá para identificar variedades o líneas promisorias, en cuanto al rendimiento, dentro de unas condiciones ecológicas limitadas. A fm de comparar tales materiales con los desarroUados por los programas nacionales se establecerán ensayos integrados de rendimiento en tantas áreas como sea posible. Para que estos ensayos tengan éxito será necesario reunirse con los líderes de los programas nacionales que deseen participar en los programas de pruebas de rendimiento y fijar, de común acuerdo, las variedades que deberían incluirse, el tipo de protección estándar con fertilizantes y plaguicidas que se debería establecer, el tamaño de las parcelas y la información que se 'debería recopilar.De igual manera, el ClA T puede poner a disposición de los agriculto res pequeñas cantidades de semilla limpia proveniente de su banco de germoplasma. No obstante, esto sólo puede hacerse multiplicando la semilla bajo el control de los programas nacionales interesados.Los estudios sobre Apion, la antracnosis y la mancha O mustia hilachosa, aunque son de importancia primordial para la región, no se pueden efectuar fácilmente en la sede del CIAT.Cuando se estudiaron las propuestas para formar la red cooperativa de investigación sobre el cultivo de fríjol para América Latina, el Comité Técnico Asesor resaltó la necesidad de crear un Comité Asesor de carácter científico. Se sugirió que dicho comité podría revisar las necesidades regionales de investigación, ayudar a canaliza r las áreas-problema al ClAT o a las entidades nacionales apropiadas y comunicarle al personal del programa de investigación de fríjol del CIAT aquellas deficiencias de orden técnico que aparecieran en su operación .  El Director General o en su defecto, el Director General Asociado del CIAT, tambi én será miembro de es te comité. La integración y actividades del comité se revisarán y ratifica rán en el primer encuentro qu e tendrá lugar, probablemente, en Junio de 1975\",Como se mencionó en la Sección IV , exis ten numerosas áreas de in ves tigación del fríjol qu e se pueden estudiar en form a más apropiada en los laboratorios de los países desarrollados o bajo contratos especiales. Entre éstas se pueden mencionar las siguientes:Estu dios sobre temperatura del suelo. La temperatu ra del suelo en la sede del CIAT puede exceder los 45°C durante varias horas al día y en otras áreas se aproxima a los 60°C . Con temperat uras mucho más bajas di sminuye el crecimiento de las plantas y la fijación del nit rógeno en otras legu minosas de grano (Dart et al., 1973). El efecto de la te mperatura depen de casi siempre de la variedad o cepa que se esté estudiando. El CIAT no tie ne facilidades para e f..:ctuar expe rimentos con temperatura regulada; este fenómeno se podría es tudi ar mejor por me dio de inves tigación de apoyo realizada en otros laboratorios mejor equipados. En la sede del CIAT se continuará con las medidas prácticas para reducir la tempe ratura del suelo tales como la cubierta protectora , la labranza m ínima y los cultivos asociados. Con la cubie rta protec tora , en especial, se han obtenido buenos resultados.El desarrollo de germoplasma para tierras altas tropeza rá con el problema de las temperaturas bajas, lo cual requerirá un estudio similar.Enfermedades transmitidas por la semilla. Muchos aspe ctos de las enfermedades transmitidas por las semillas se pod rían estudiar en form a más eficaz fuera de la sede del CIAT . Por ejempl o , la difi cult ad 'de di stin guir entre !os problemas virajes con sintom atología simiJar, Existe mu cha confusión entre el virus del mosaico amarillo del fríjol (que se encuentra corrientemente en Chile), el viru~ del mosaico dorado (en Guatem,la) y el virus del mosaico ampolladO (e n El S?Jvador). Lo más ade• cuado para identificar ~stos virus difere!1tes sería utili za r los rr,étodos se rológicos pero esta técnica no se justifica dentro del programa del CIAT. El hecho de que va• riedades aparentemente libres de patógenos, algunas veces muestren síntomas en generaciones subsecuentes, es de interés directo para el eIAT. Se debe investigar el mecanismo mediante el cual estos virus o bacterias permanecen viables en las plan• tas sin causar daños visibles.Fertilización con fósforo. Ya se ha hecho alusión a la impo rtancia de la fertilización y del sistema de aplicación del fósforo. Si bien el CIAT no puede inves• tigar la química del fosfato en el suelo, el conocimiento en este campo ser ía sJmamente importante para desarrollar prácticas de fertilización. Igualmente, se debería detennmar la presencia de micorrizas endotrópicas en Jos suelos tropi cales y su importancia con relación a la disponibilidad de fósforo.Manejo de la infonnación. Si, como parece posible, el Programa de Fríjol del CIAT Uega a ser el centro mundial de germoplasma de Phaseolus vulgaris, se ría neo cesario mejorar el manejo y la recuperación de la informaci��n así como los sistemas de análisis de la misma. La información sobre el banco' de germoplasma puede ser una herramienta de gran utilidad, por ejemplo, para los estudios hechos en Austra• lia de Srylosanthes sp. (Burt et al., 1971). Los procedimientos que agilicen la se lec• ción son esenciales para disminuir el tiempo perdido al suministrar los pedidos de germoplasma .Estudios proteinicos. Dada la falta de énfasis que en la actualidad da el ClAT a la cantidad y calidad de la proteína, es esencial que otros centros comiencen estudios sobre las interacciones proteína~rendimiento. Este trabajo se está realizando, en parte, en la Universidad de Cambridge y en eIINCAP , en Guatemala.El acuerdo entre el CIAT y las. universidades de Cornell, Hokkaido y Michigan sirve para ilustrar la eficacia de la investigación cooperativa. El factor principal estudiado por estas universidades, bajo este acuerdo, es la fisiología básica del fríjol que comprende factores tales como la caída de las flores y el desarrollo de la vaina, la fotosíntesis de la vaina y su contribución al rendimiento, y las c'ausas de la inestabilidad en los hábitos ,de crecimiento del • fríjol.Bean lmprovement Cooperative. A,mual Repori. v. 5, 1962 . . ","tokenCount":"7994"}