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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"733495da499d35db03b96b384dcb4ce9","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/55baf33c-817c-4ab9-af05-d48aeb022fc7/retrieve","id":"1051973006"},"keywords":["Livestock development","Dairy","Ex-ante impact assessment","Environmental sustainability","Cost-benefit analysis","Decision-making Communicated by Luis Lassaletta"],"sieverID":"aab01b4d-44f7-4776-8e0d-a2dee5b3150b","pagecount":"14","content":"The gap between milk demand and domestic supply in Tanzania is large and projected to widen. Meeting such demand through local production of affordable milk presents an opportunity to improve the welfare of producers and market agents through the income and employment generated along the value chain (VC). Efforts to maximize milk yields, production and profitability need to be balanced with long-term sustainability. We combined environmental and economic ex-ante impact assessments of four intervention scenarios for two production systems in the Tanzanian dairy VC using the CLEANED model and an economic feasibility analysis. Intervention scenarios propose increases in milk production through (i) animal genetic improvement, (ii) improved feed, (iii) improved animal health and (iv) a package combining all interventions. Results show that economically feasible farm-level productivity increases of up to 140% go hand-in-hand with increased resource-use efficiency and up to 50% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emission intensities. Absolute increases in water, land and nitrogen requirements in mixed crop-livestock systems call for careful management of stocks and quality of these resources. An overall rise in GHG emissions is expected, with a maximum of 53% increase associated with an 89% increase in milk supply at VC level. The CLEANED tool proved effective to evaluate livestock interventions that improve incomes and food security with minimal environmental footprint. Here, our simulations suggest that due to current low productivity, the greatest efficiency gains in combination with relatively low increases in total GHG emissions can be made in the extensive agro-pastoral dairy systems, which represent the majority of herds.East Africa (EA) is endowed with immense livestock resources representing the largest proportion of Africa's livestock population (FAOSTAT 2015). The livestock sector is a source of livelihoods, and provides food, income and employment for many millions of people in the region. This is particularly the case in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, which are home to a vibrant smallholder dairy sector. In many East-African countries, livestock production is an important contributor to the gross domestic products (GDP) and foreign currency export earnings (AU-IBAR 2015). Although the livestock sector is expanding in EA, the rate of growth does not match the increased demand for livestock products being experienced in the region and beyond. Low livestock productivity is one of the principal reasons for the inability of domestic production to meet the demand for livestock products.In Tanzania, agriculture employs about 75% of the total labour force and contributes one-third of the country's agricultural GDP (URT 2013), and in turn about one-third of this is from the dairy sector (URT 2011). The annual domestic milk production of 1.8 million litres (FAOSTAT 2015) is estimated to meet only about \"two-thirds\" of the milk demand and this supply gap is projected to continue to widen in the near to medium future (Kurwijila et al. 2012;Michael et al. 2018). The income and employment that could be generated by affordable local dairy production, processing and marketing to meet this unmet milk demand presents an important opportunity for improving the welfare of producers and their market agents (Omore et al. 2019). Unlike most agricultural enterprises, benefits propagated throughout the dairy VC are generated daily rather than seasonally. Dairy production is, therefore, considered to be one of the most promising agricultural pathways out of poverty and for inclusive development, especially in instances where women retain control over milk income (URT 2015). This is in line with African Union's Livestock Development Strategy, which envisions a transformation of the sector from the prevailing subsistence livestock production systems into vibrant market-oriented systems with an enhanced contribution to socio-economic development and equitable growth (AU-IBAR 2015).Despite the opportunities and benefits that increased livestock production could bring to the Eastern African Region, it is widely observed that livestock systems are key drivers of global environmental degradation (Foley et al. 2011), including increased nutrient loads, GHG emissions, water use, grassland degradation and land-use conversion (Steinfeld 2006; de Vries and de Boer 2010; Godfray et al. 2018). Thus, the predicted demand increase for dairy products poses a danger that the necessary rise in livestock production could become environmentally unsustainable, particularly as many ecosystems in the EA region are already under heavy pressure.Efforts to maximize milk yields, production and profitability thus need to be balanced with long-term sustainability and environmental stewardship. It is therefore important to assess potential environmental impacts before embarking on largescale development projects geared towards livestock production intensification and VC transformation (Notenbaert et al. 2016a). We developed an indicator framework for ex-ante assessments of environmental impacts of development interventions in livestock VCs, i.e. the Comprehensive Livestock Environmental Assessment for improved Nutrition, a secured Environment and sustainable Development (CLEANED). It estimates biomass, water and nutrient flows and assesses three dimensions of environmental impacts across different spatial and temporal scales: (1) water use, (2) soil health and (3) greenhouse gas emissions. The CLEANED framework is intended to support decision-making and to help prioritise the development action of governments, donors, NGOs and farmer organisations in data-scarce environments (Notenbaert et al. 2014).In this paper, we take a consultative approach, soliciting input from local stakeholders and experts, to assessing the impacts of four production-enhancing intervention scenarios for two dairy production systems in the Tanga Region, Tanzania: (i) introduction of improved dairy breeds, (ii) improved feed availability, especially during the dry season, (iii) improved animal health, (iv) all three technology interventions combined together. We describe and compare the scenario outputs in three ways: (a) their impact on productivity and total milk supply to the market, (b) their economic feasibility, (c) their environmental impacts in terms of land requirements, water use, GHG emissions, soil erosion rates and soil nutrient balances. Finally, we discuss the opportunity of simultaneous appraisal of different impact dimensions to support evidence-based discussions on environmentally sound intensification pathways for the Tanzanian dairy VC.Our study follows the concepts and guidelines of the CLEANED framework as described in Notenbaert et al. (2014). It is an indicator framework for ex-ante environmental impact assessment. It has been operationalised in an excel model, CLEANED-X, which focuses on three environmental dimensions: water use, soil health and GHG emissions. In addition to the assessment of environmental impacts, a simple enterprise-level cost-benefit analysis (CBA) is carried out to assess if the proposed intervention scenarios make economic sense for livestock keepers.CLEANED does not assess the impacts associated with the full farm but is limited to the livestock enterprise only. It estimates the impacts associated with crop productionsuch as land requirements, nitrogen (N) balance and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions from soils-from the feed production areas only and does not include impacts associated with other crops potentially cultivated on the farm. On the farm input supply, the only environmental externalities included are those associated with fertilisers used for feed production. Although potential changes in transport, both from input and to output markets, might be associated with important changes in environmental costs, they are excluded from the analysis. The assessment is therefore not a full VC assessment in its true sense. Apart from considering losses along the VC, the model only takes pre-farm gate activities into account.The CLEANED framework prescribes a stepwise procedure for carrying out an ex-ante impact assessment. In a first step, the study area is defined, and different types of livestock enterprises characterised. For each of the livestock enterprise types, baseline assessments are run and the potential impacts of different intervention scenarios estimated so that the potential impacts can be compared against the baselines. In a last step, an overall VC-level impact is calculated (Fig. 1). The following sections summarize how each of these steps and sub-steps was operationalised in the dairy VC in the Tanga region of Tanzania. More detailed information about the actual calculations can be found in the supplemental information.The study focuses on the Tanga region of Tanzania. The area is home to the largest milk processing plant in the country (Tanga Fresh Ltd) which handles about 60,000 l daily (Cadilhon et al. 2016). Several development projects have been involved in supporting dairy production in the Tanga region. The Government of Tanzania and several national and international development partners are spearheading operation \"Maziwa Zaidi\" (\"more milk\" -https://maziwazaidi. org/) to increase milk production in the country, including in the Tanga Region (Cadilhon et al. 2016). The region is located in the coastal humid to semiarid climatic zone (FAO 2012), characterised by erratic rainfall patterns and large spatial and temporal variation in accessible surface water for agricultural or domestic use. In general, both crop and livestock production are fully reliant on rainfall in this area.The dairy sector in the Tanga region shares characteristics with the main dairy production systems identified in Tanzania (Kurwijila et al. 2012). In our study, the characteristics, scale and spatial extent of the Tanga dairy production systems were captured using participatory mapping exercises during a multi-stakeholder workshop organised in Lushoto in June 2014 (Morris et al. 2014). In this data-gathering approach, issues being assessed are discussed and mapped by the local stakeholders, so that the knowledge produced is rooted in the local community and is spatially explicit (Cinderby et al. 2011). This information was validated and further refined by triangulation with existing spatial and household data (Mangesho et al. 2013;Omondi et al. 2018;Silvestri et al. 2014), field visits and expert knowledge.The participants of the workshop in Lushoto identified four broad categories of livestock production enterprises: (i) ranching, (ii) intensive zero-grazing, (iii) semi-intensive and (iv) extensive agro-pastoral. The ranching system is rare, with only two known ranches in the region, with both entirely focusing on beef production. This system was excluded from further analysis. The differences in management and feeding practices between the intensive zero-grazing and semiintensive systems were too small to produce significantly different environmental impacts. Thus, for further analysis, these two systems were combined and labelled \"mixed crop-Fig. 1 Conceptual figure showing the workflow of CLEANED ex-ante impact assessments. The enterprise-level changes in environmental footprints are summed up to estimate the changes in environmental footprints at study area level. Impact indicators include land requirements for feed production, greenhouse gas emissions (GHGe) associated with feed and milk production, water used for feed production and nitrogen balances in the feed producing areas. At value chain level, the loss of milk is taken into account to express these impact indicators per unit of milk consumed instead of per unit of milk produced livestock systems\". The detailed description and characteristics of the two systems included for analysis, (i) extensive agro-pastoral systems and (ii) mixed crop-livestock systems, can be found in the Supplemental Information (SI).As part of the \"Maziwa Zaidi\" program in Tanzania, sixteen village-level innovation platforms (IPs) were established in Tanga. These IPs are designed to bring together different agents in the VC, including farmers, traders, food processors, researchers and government officials, to provide a useful space for local stakeholders to jointly identify constraints, opportunities and devise and implement solutions. Further information about the innovation platforms can be found in the Supplemental Information. Their advantage over conventional methods, e.g. surveys and VC analyses, is that they can rapidly identify key constraints and opportunities by drawing on extensive local knowledge. Furthermore, local people are more likely to take ownership of the solutions they have actively identified, increasing their likelihood of success (Homann-Kee Tui et al. 2013). In May 2014, these IPs developed \"site-specific plans\" focusing on relevant interventions for dairy VC intensification (Twine et al. 2017). We carefully examined the 16 site-specific plans and extracted four distinct scenarios of production-enhancing technological interventions. For the purpose of this study, each of these intervention scenarios was described in terms of changes in relevant system characteristics, according to literature review and expert opinion. The four scenarios (A-D) are briefly described below. We refer to table 2 in the SI for a more detailed description of changes in input and parameter values. (A) \"Animal genetic improvement\": This scenario represents the historically most preferred strategy for driving productivity improvements within the region, whereby more exotic animal genotypes are introduced, often through cross-breeding (Wilson 2018;Marshall et al. 2019). Within the mixed crop-livestock system, this results in increased live weight of cattle but restricted milk yield increases due to the limiting effects of diseases, such as mastitis and other infections. Within the extensive agro-pastoral system, the changes towards more exotic genetics are expected to go hand-in-hand with a reduction of herd size to compensate for restricted sturdiness of the animals and reduced reproductive function, but at the same time with an important increase in milk yield per animal due to significantly increased genetic potential. No changes in feedmix are assumed in this scenario, only increased feed quantity. (B) \"Improved feed\": This scenario increases nutrient provision to the cattle herds within the two systems. Livestock feed baskets are altered to demonstrate the inclusion of legumes and improved forage preservation for use during the dry season when energy deficit limits milk yield. Within both systems, increases in milk yield and live weight are expected to correspond to an increase in metabolisable energy availability for the well-nourished and thus stronger animals. These increases are, however, quite limited as they are assumed to be hampered by health status in the mixed crop-livestock and by genetic constraints in the extensive agro-pastoral system. In addition, the herd sizes are assumed to increase. (C) \"Improved animal health\": This scenario represents an increase in veterinary interventions, both prophylactic and dynamic care, promoting reduction in production limiting diseases. In this scenario, the intensive mixed crop-livestock system exhibits increased live weight, increased milk yield and increased herd size, following improved calf survival rates; limits are still imposed by nutritional restriction and breed characteristics. Within the extensive agro-pastoral system, the scenario implies increased milk yield and live weight and a more significant increase in herd size resulting from the greater impact of reduced calf mortality and greater reproductive health. (D) \"Combined interventions\": The last scenario combines all three separate interventions into a situation where animals with higher genetic potential are subject to better animal health care and improved seasonal feed availability. This is assumed to result in increased animal live weight and higher milk yield because limitations imposed by health status, lack of feed or genetic potential are reduced. In the mixed systems, a significant increase in herd size is expected due to reduced calf mortality and adequate feed availability. Also in the agro-pastoral systems, the herd sizes are assumed to be quite large, though less than the current local herds, due to limiting reproductive function of the improved breeds.We set up simple minimum-data calculations to estimate the following environmental footprint indicators (Mukiri et al. 2019;SI).1) Productivity (kg Fat and Protein Corrected Milk (FPCM), kg FPCM/ha) 2) Land requirement (ha, ha/kg FPCM) 3) Soil loss (kg, kg/ha, kg/kg FPCM) 4) Soil nitrogen (N) balance (kg N, kg N/ha, kg N/kg FPCM) 5) Water use (m 3 , m 3 /ha, m 3 /kg FPCM) 6) GHG emissions (kg CO 2 -equivalent (CO 2 -eq.), kg CO 2eq./ha, kg CO 2 -eq./kg FPCM)The environmental indicators are all expressed as absolute values as well as intensities, on a per area as well as per product basis, i.e. per kg Fat and Protein Corrected Milk (FPCM) consumed. Comparisons with the baselines were expressed in percentage change.In addition, we adopted a simple economic feasibility analysis that comprises the comparison of annual values of production (VOP) and the calculation of the change in gross profit (GP) based on the estimated costs of scenario implementation (see SI for more details).The assumption underlying the out-scaling is that agricultural strategies are likely to have the same relevance for all enterprises of the same type and that the estimated enterprise-level impacts can be widely applied across the study area. Regional impacts were calculated based on an estimated attainable level of adoption of the respective scenario's technologies and the importance of each of the enterprise types in the area. For the Tanga region, we assumed that the total number of enterprises remained unchanged, and that 20% of them would adopt the intervention scenario. This percentage lies within the range of observed adoption of technologies in the East-African Dairy Development program (Kiptot et al. 2015). We assumed that the potential increase in milk supply would be fully absorbed by the market which is a realistic assumption given the high local demand. In order to calculate overall VC-level impact figures, the environmental footprint indicators of the individual livestock enterprises were multiplied by one-fifth (20%) of the estimated number of such enterprises and weighted averages calculated for the intensity indicators.The dairy enterprises in Tanga are estimated to provide about 135,000 tons FPCM to consumers in the region (Table 1). The feed for the herds producing this amount of milk is grown on marginally less than 600,000 ha. About 24% of the land used for feed production is associated with rainfed mixed croplivestock farms, which are producing 27% of the local milk consumed at a productivity of 525 FPCM/ha. About 73% of the milk is produced in the more extensive agro-pastoral systems (195 FPCM/ha), bringing down the average productivity in Tanga district to 235 FPCM/ha.Due to large off-farm grazing areas, the total amount of soil lost in an agro-pastoral farm is about 20-fold the amount lost from a mixed crop-livestock farm (Table 2). When expressed in soil loss per area, on the other hand, the agro-pastoral systems lose less than the mixed crop-livestock systems. This is not surprising, as the agro-pastoral livestock production is typically taking place on flatter land with less rainfall. This, together with the continuous grasscover, compensates for the more erodible Fluvisol soils found here as compared to the annually tilled Andosols in the mountainous area of the mixed crop-livestock farms. Due to a higher stocking rate and animal productivity in the mixed crop-livestock systems, the amount of soil lost per kg FPCM is less than half of the loss per kg FPCM in agro-pastoral farms.The soil N balance for livestock production in the mixed crop-livestock farms is negative, mostly because of the removal of feed biomass with only limited input of fertilisers, indicating that nutrients are mined at an average of about 58.5 kg N per hectare per year. Through manure collection from the stable and subsequent application to non-feed crops, about 51 kg N per ha is exported from the livestock to the crop enterprise. The agro-pastoral system exhibits a less negative N balance. Nitrogen losses, through grass and crop residue removal, leaching, gaseous losses and erosion, are partly compensated through recycling of feed-N back to soil through the urine and manure production of the relatively big herd. About 35% of this manure is assumed to be deposited during grazing in the off-farm grazing areas and none of the manure is assumed to be re-directed to the crop enterprise. As the milk productivity in the agro-pastoral enterprises is lower than in the mixed crop-livestock enterprises, the N losses per kg FPCM are estimated to be almost 65% greater.The estimated water use per kg FPCM ranges from 1100 l in the mixed crop-livestock systems to about 2600 l in the agro-pastoral enterprises (Table 3), which is in line with the estimates by Sultana et al. (2014).The dairy production from the ~9000 extensive agropastoral and 31,000 mixed crop-livestock enterprises (see SI) in the Tanga region is estimated to produce GHG emissions totalling to more than 400 thousand ton CO 2 -eq. The agro-pastoral \"farms\" exhibit a higher GHG emission intensity (GHGe/unit of produce) than the mixed crop-livestock farms, mostly because of the lower quality of the animals' diet, the low milk yields and the substantial influence this has on methane (CH 4) -efficiency of enteric fermentation. Higher stocking rates of bigger and more productive animals result in an estimated doubling of GHG emissions per hectare in the mixed crop-livestock systems.Based on the assumed changes in per animal production and herd sizes and composition, the total milk supply is projected to increase under all scenarios. The largest relative supply gains would be made in the mixed crop-livestock farms and mostly so if the genetic, feed and animal health interventions were combined. The milk production increase in those farms is projected to go hand-in-hand with big increases in land requirements for feed production and associated increases in absolute soil loss. Under unchanged fertility management systems, these would be accompanied by an increasing negative N balance.The land productivity (kg FPCM/ha) is expected to increase across livestock production enterprise types and scenarios. The only exception is the genetics scenario in the mixed crop-livestock enterprises. Under all scenarios, the live weight of the animals is assumed to increase and more beef would also be produced. Similarly, all envisioned intervention scenarios, apart from the genetic improvement, would have a positive impact on soil loss and N efficiency in the mixed crop-livestock systems, i.e. result in lower losses per kg FPCM and to a lesser extent per hectare. In the agro-pastoral systems, the impact on amounts of soil lost and N balances would be mixed. Impacts on soil erosion are mostly positive, apart from the absolute value under the \"combined interventions\" scenario. The same scenario is also projected to negatively affect absolute N loss and N loss per hectare, while efficiency in terms of N loss per unit milk produced improves across the scenarios.In the mixed crop-livestock systems, the absolute total water use is expected to increase under all intensification scenarios due to larger feed requirements. In the agro-pastoral systems, only the combined intervention would be accompanied by a slight increase in water use. The water appropriated per unit of milk would however decrease across scenarios and production enterprise types. The only exception is the improved genetics scenario in mixed farms, as the land productivity is estimated to decline in that scenario.All intervention scenarios, apart from the improved genetics, assume larger herd sizes with bigger and more productive animals. These herds are estimated to cause higher GHG emissions. In contrast to the generally higher total GHG emissions, we often see lower emission intensities, especially when expressed per unit product.Applying an observed farm gate price of 0.38 and 0.30 USD per kg milk (see SI) in the mixed system and agro-pastoral systems, respectively, the baseline value of the total milk production in the Tanga region is about 42 million USD per year. This is expected to increase by between 6.7 and 105% under the genetics and combined intervention scenarios, respectively (Table 4). Considerable extra benefits can be expected from increasing live weight gain and manure production associated with the dairy intensification scenarios. Under the \"combined interventions\" scenario, for example, and applying a price of 0.060 USD and 0.0025 USD per kg manure, i.e. the prices farmers receive in the mixed crop-livestock and agro-pastoral areas respectively (see SI), the extra manure produced is estimated to be worth about 7 million USD.The costs associated with the implementation of the intervention scenarios are listed in the SI. In addition to these costs,  an opportunity cost of 52 and 25 USD per ha per year was applied to the changes in land requirements for feed production in the mixed crop-livestock and agro-pastoral enterprises, respectively. The resulting changes in GP after 5 years were positive for each of the intervention scenarios (Fig. 2). The value of the extra milk and manure production outweighed the investments, maintenance costs and opportunity costs associated with implementing the interventions. From the perspective of a mixed crop-livestock enterprise owner, it appears to make economic sense to invest in a package of combined genetics, feeds and animal health interventions. In contrast, for an agro-pastoralist, the highest returns may be expected from a feed or an animal health intervention. Due to the low primary productivity of the grazing lands upon which these systems depend, the increased milk production in the combined scenario, with its large amounts of feed required for energy and protein provision, results in large increase in land requirement. The projected increase in milk production does not outweigh the associated increase in land requirement.The study shows that there are large environmental footprints associated with the different types of dairy production systems in the Tanga region of Tanzania, which is in line with global assessments (de Boer 2003;Capper et al. 2009;Gerber et al. 2010;Guerci et al. 2013;Sultana et al. 2014). Yet, from the baseline situation of both pastoral and mixed crop-livestock systems, increases in productivity (up to 89%) may outweigh expected increases in GHG emissions (53%). These findings corroborate the claims (e.g. Boadi et al. 2004;Martin et al. 2010;Thornton and Herrero 2010;Cederberg et al. 2013;Gerber et al., 2013;Rojas-Downing et al. 2013; Herrero The types of dairy enterprises studied in the Tanga region differed in productivity, natural resource use and environmental footprints. The productivity of agro-pastoral dairy production was low as compared to more intensive production in the mixed crop-livestock farms. The differences in productivity to a large extent reflect the intrinsic agricultural potential of the locations where the different types of production are taking place. Pastoralist dairy enterprises in the low and more arid areas cannot be expected to be as productive as the mixed systems in the highlands with their more favourable soil, water and climatic conditions. Taking these local conditions into account, we do not consider a transformation of the agropastoral systems into intensive mixed systems based on zero-grazing to be feasible. It also needs to be noted that agro-pastoral enterprises typically also supply considerable amounts of beef and live animals to the market. The total live weight gain of a typical agro-pastoral herd of 50 adult animals and 20 calves is estimated to be about 2500 kg per year compared to the production of about 10,000 kg milk per year. If a biomass-based allocation of environmental footprints between beef and milk were applied, it would reduce the reported milk footprint by about a quarter. Additionally, as people in the more marginal lands have often limited access to banks and other financial services, their animals are used to store and manage wealth and offer an important buffer in times of crisis (Siegmund-Schultze et al. 2011).In addition to the multi-functionality of keeping livestock, which is especially important in the agro-pastoral systems, the milk production in these systems is taking place on land that is much less suitable for growing food crops. While the mixed dairy enterprises in the highlands might thus exhibit higher productivity, they also exhibit a higher opportunity costs for the land, as this land is highly suitable for food crop production (Van Zanten et al. 2016). A similar logic applies to the water appropriated per kg FPCM, where the mixed systems appear to perform much better than the agro-pastoral systems. Biomass growth on marginal lands, with sparse vegetation and a large fraction of soil evaporation, the water use per unit feed cultivated or biomass grazed is often several magnitudes higher than on more suitable lands. This is one reason behind more water-efficient livestock production in mixed systems. Our model does not yet include such suitability perspective, as proposed by, e.g., Van Zanten et al. (2016) and Ran et al. (2017), which would make it possible to appraise alternative water use options. It is, however, important to keep this difference in opportunity cost and multi-functionality of livestock in mind when comparing dairy productivity. The sole focus of the current study on milk production is an important limitation, as the calculations of environmental footprints change depending on the functions included, an argument echoed by, for example, Weiler et al. (2014).The negative N balances are in line with the findings from Kihara et al. (2014). They are likely to lead to nutrient mining and could have an impact on future yields (Bindraban et al. 2000). This can mostly be attributed to the removal of N through the feed crops and food crop residues which is not compensated for by N input, be it from chemical or organic origin, nor by N fixation by leguminous crops. The N losses per hectare are estimated to be larger for the mixed croplivestock systems than the agro-pastoral systems. This is in line with the findings of Snijder et al. (2013) who argue that the transition from traditional herding of cattle in communal grasslands to sedentary husbandry systems based on homegrown forages has a negative effect on net nutrient balances. They recommend importing nutrients into the system in combination with a radical improvement of manure management technology. The negative soil N balance associated with the livestock enterprises in the mixed crop-livestock systems does provide a co-benefit to the farmers in the form of manure redirected to crop production on the same farm. On many farms, this is seen as an important function of livestock as the purchase of mineral fertilisers is, in general, low and expensive (FAOSTAT 2018) and frequency of manure application has been shown to be associated with higher yields (Kihara et al. 2014).In terms of GHG emissions, the low productivity of the dairy production systems in Tanga is associated with GHG emission intensities well above the global average of 2.4-2.8 CO 2 -eq. per kg of FPCM associated with milk production, processing and transport (Gerber et al. 2010;Opio et al. 2013). The relatively lower productivity in the agro-pastoral systems was associated with higher emission intensities per litre of milk than the ones in the more productive mixed croplivestock system. The higher emissions are mainly explained by high levels of methane produced by enteric fermentation. This finding is in line with FAO's global assessments of sources of dairy-related GHG emissions (Gerber et al. 2010(Gerber et al. , 2013a, b), b).All modelled scenarios resulted in agro-pastoral enterprises emitting less GHGs per unit of product, with emission intensity reductions ranging from five to 40% (Table 3). Also in the mixed crop-livestock farms, improvements in emission intensity are expected. They are projected to be smaller than in the agro-pastoral farms. The only exception was the improved genetics scenario in the mixed farms, where body weight of the animals is assumed to increase-and thus also energy requirements for maintenance-while their increased genetic potential in terms of milk production is not met because the feeding regimes are not adapted accordingly. The introduction of such intervention resulted in a projected 6.5% increase in emission intensity. Productivity-enhancing interventions would all result in large increases in absolute GHG emissions and GHG emissions per unit of area (Table 3). Other tradeoffs between environmental impact categories include a growing demand for land and water for feed production in all productivity-enhancing interventions in the mixed farms. It is important to note that the expected expansion of land use for feed production could have several negative side effects. If feed crops replace food crop production, this might have trade-offs in terms of overall food security. If nonagricultural land would be converted, negative impact on biodiversity could be expected. A key limitation of this study is that we cannot identify where the extra feed cultivation will take place and what land use it will replace. This influences the location-specific erosion, nutrient and water change estimates and the implications of those changes.Under current assumptions, the genetics scenario is of general concern in the crop-livestock systems. Through singular trait selection without the associated infrastructure of artificial insemination, quality nutritional provision, disease prevention and treatment, the perceived effects of improved genetics could conceivably present as negative. Genetic improvement in the mixed systems will benefit from the growing interest in the use of genomic approaches and for developing new breeds that have the adaptation and resilience of indigenous breeds combined with the productivity of exotic breeds (Marshall et al. 2019). In addition, they will need to be complemented with feed and animal health interventions and advice on appropriate animal husbandry, fertility and manure management.In general, the environmental indicator assessment results in this study corroborate previous findings (e.g. Thornton and Herrero 2010) that intensification in the mixed crop-livestock systems mostly goes hand-in-hand with absolute increases in resource use. Gains were however possible in terms of efficiency, expressed as resource use or GHG emissions per unit of production. As Tanzania has included mitigation through livestock systems in their Nationally Determined Contributions (URT 2015), pursuing such reduced GHG emission intensity is a relevant climate strategy and also in line with the recommendations of the Livestock Master Plan (Michael et al. 2018).The interventions also make economic sense for livestock keepers. Combined interventions were estimated to be more environmentally friendly than isolated technologies. This is in line with the findings of, e.g., Cortez-Arriola et al. (2014) and Mayberry et al. (2017) who found that packages of interventions rather than single interventions are required to bridge existing dairy yield gaps. Future work and inclusion of more scenario analyses allowing the elucidation of the marginal effects of each of the interventions could provide more detailed insights to this effect. In addition to the more sophisticated technology scenarios brought forward by the stakeholders, simple improved husbandry interventions such as the provision of water ad libitum, better-designed housing and udder hygiene will also affect the animal health status and productivity and could be included in the promoted intervention scenarios too. The fact that the intervention scenarios, and most notably the genetics improvement one, exhibit differential impacts in different systems clearly points to the importance of careful context-specific planning. This was also concluded by, e.g., Giller et al. (2011) and is one of the important recommendations in FAO's guidelines on climate smart agriculture (FAO 2013).This study set out to demonstrate that ex-ante environmental assessments can help unpack complexities across interventions and potential impacts to inform environmentally sound investments in the livestock sector. Choosing the most beneficial (least negative impacting) interventions is challenging because different objectives are often dynamically interconnected, and trade-offs might be experienced in the pursuit of multiple, sometimes competing, goals (Klapwijk et al. 2014;Salmon et al. 2018). Quantitative estimates of the impacts of potential interventions can inform the choice of interventions (e.g. Noltze et al. 2012). The current evidence base is, however, considered to be inadequate to support effective decision-making, and largely inaccessible to decision-makers at the national and local levels (Lipper et al. 2014). Policymakers, scientists and extension educators urgently need examples of how to identify technologies and visualize their relative performance across multiple domains (Snapp et al. 2018). This study demonstrates that rapid ex-ante assessments of alternative intervention scenarios can provide such information. Through applying the CLEANED assessments, we provided information about different impact dimensions simultaneously to inform discussions of development pathways in the Tanzanian dairy VC.This assessment only looks at a limited number of indicators of sustainability, focusing on four environmental dimensions complemented with a simple calculation of economic feasibility at farm level. The social dimension of sustainability is not included in the assessment. In terms of environmental dimensions, changes in ecological resilience, water quality, pollution and biodiversity are also likely to occur. If interventions are, for example, narrowly focused on increasing productivity through increasing input and management requirements, there is considerable potential for losing much of a system's resilience (Salmon et al. 2018). Indigenous livestock breeds, for instance, are generally considered be better adapted to challenging local environments (Berman 2011). It is important to note that the tool was conceptualised as a rapid user-friendly assessment tool with limited data requirements. This informed the limited number of environmental dimensions considered and the choice of simple mathematical equations for impact quantification, thereby losing some of the inherent complexity in agricultural systems and the critical feedback loop with changes in natural resource stocks. We thus recommend the use of the tool for a quick first-step evaluation of the potential impacts of a wide range of interventions, to identify sub-sets of promising specific interventions for evaluating using more detailed quantitative information, to estimate aggregated impacts in certain regions, or to link them to global and regional change models (Notenbaert et al. 2014). The complexity of agricultural systems also brings about the need to consider not only environmental but also social, human and economic aspects (Loos et al. 2014;Smith et al. 2017). The interventions are, for example, likely to have significant impacts on social relations, labour requirements and employment along the value chain, nutrition and market dynamics. For livestock keepers, one of the main incentives to move towards more intensified systems is to achieve higher income, especially where land or labour is scarce (Salmon et al. 2018). Our results suggest that all intervention scenarios would make economic sense for livestock keepers. The longterm economic benefit for livestock producers, however, relies heavily on the market demand and the opportunity to sell all additional produce now and in the future. Also, how the extra income is allocated within the households and how this could influence intra-household power relations and control over resources is equally not assessed. Another element missing in our study is the inclusion of local substitution effects, such as potential changes in land-use allocations and people's dietary choices, and the potential off-site impacts in terms of loss of markets and income in the countries or regions where milk is currently being imported from. This shows that the environmental assessments in themselves are useful and interesting, but that they are even more powerful when carried out alongside non-environmental assessments (Notenbaert et al. 2016a). Thus, we see the application of the approach illustrated in this paper not as a stand-alone activity but as complementary to other processes and assessments carried out in preparation for livestock sector development.In terms of process, we have to take into account that behavioural uncertainties can affect the practical value of predictions from quantitative analysis (Swim 2009). To ensure that the results and insights of the assessments are taken up and contribute to more-informed planning, it is important to integrate them in decision-making processes through early involvement of stakeholders. This raises awareness, creates support for the issue and its solutions and increases the likelihood of the recommendations being implemented. Engagement in the evidence-generating process is often at least as important as the actual information produced (Notenbaert et al. 2016b). We thus recommend anchoring the analysis in the real-life context through stakeholder engagement starting from the design and data collection stages. Finally, there is a need to set up appropriate monitoring and evaluation processes and the provision of timely feedback for validation and improvement of the analysis.Food security, poverty and nutrition are high on the global development agenda. Improving agricultural yields and farmer incomes are often seen as priorities, and development actions are thus designed with these specific aims in mind. The results of the case study presented here show that reduced emission intensity and N losses associated with improved animal genetics, feed and animal health interventions can be synergistic with productivity increases and increased incomes. Combined interventions are estimated to be more environmentally friendly than an isolated one-technology focused approach. The current emphasis on genetic improvement in the mixed systems needs to be carefully revisited and complemented with feed and animal health interventions and advice on appropriate animal husbandry, fertility and manure management.Due to the current low productivity of the agro-pastoral dairy herds, greater gains in efficiency in combination with relatively low increases in total GHG emissions can be made in these types of enterprises than in the mixed crop-livestock systems. In addition, estimations of large absolute increases in water, land and nitrogen requirements in the mixed croplivestock systems point to a need for careful management of stocks and quality of these resources. Moreover, an overall rise in GHG emissions is expected, with a maximum of 53% increase associated with an 89% increase in milk supply at the VC level.The CLEANED tool was developed to support the design of actions to improve incomes and food security in livestock VCs have a minimal environmental footprint. Strengths of the method include the relative ease of use and limited data requirements, in combination with multi-disciplinary impact quantification along different environmental dimensions (in absolute as well as relative terms) and economic feasibility.The target audience for the framework is decision-makers at different levels such as donors, government agencies and NGOs. It aims to provide them with a rapid ex-ante assessment highlighting potential positive and negative environmental impacts and the trade-offs between them. Specific uses include evaluation of project proposals by donors and providing input in investment decisions of local implementers, both in the private and public sphere.","tokenCount":"6675"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3e9e16ac70733982b431114c8a909a65","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1e44ca40-1432-4773-83a6-756e348e47d0/retrieve","id":"2132351290"},"keywords":["Burkina Faso","Nom du village : Ouda","Coordonnées GPS : 11°42'51.9\"N ; 1°02'41.6\"W Thème 1 : Ressources Communautaires Thème 2 : Cadres Organisationnels Thème 3 : Réseaux d'Information"],"sieverID":"069cab75-c0c8-42b4-b184-5a9c29e5a7e1","pagecount":"44","content":"Le secteur agricole au Burkina Faso est de plus en plus affecté par les effets du changement climatique, ce qui constitue une menace pour la sécurité alimentaire. Dans le cadre du Programme « Technologies et Innovations Agricoles pour l'Accroissement de la Résilience des Systèmes de Production et des Exploitations Familiales en Afrique de l'Ouest et du Centre (TARSPro) », une étude de base a été conduite dans le village de Ouda, dans la Région du Centre Est. Le but ultime de cette étude était de définir la vision du futur de la communauté à l'horizon 2030, en se basant sur l'état des ressources communautaires actuelles. Les discussions se sont déroulées sur trois jours et ont concerné les thématiques sur i) les ressources communautaires du village, ii) le cadre organisationnel et sur iii) le réseau d'informations. Les discussions sur chaque thématique se sont déroulées en une journée chacune, avec des focus groups d'hommes et de femmes constitués de quinze personnes par groupe. Les participants aux échanges ont été choisis aléatoirement en se basant sur la liste des ménages du village. Au terme des discussions, quatre grands types de ressources ont été énumérés à savoir les terres agricoles, les rivières, les ressources ligneuses et les infrastructures. A l'exception des infrastructures qui ont connu une bonne évolution dans le temps, les ressources naturelles ont connu une nette dégradation avec le temps. Les résultats sur le cadre organisationnel du village de Ouda ont montré que la communauté villageoise est accompagnée dans ses efforts de développement par une diversité d'organisations intervenant dans la sécurité alimentaire, l'assistance lors des crises alimentaires et dans la gestion des ressources naturelles. Au total dix-huit (18) organisations intervenant dans le village ont été répertoriées parmi lesquelles celles intervenant aux niveaux régional et national sont des principalement des institutions étatiques comme la SONAGESS ou des partenaires au développement tels que Plan Burkina, l'Association Zaak-la-Yilguemdé et Farm Sahel. L'Association Zaak-La-Yilguemdé, l'Association Wendsongdo et l'Association Natigmbzanga ainsi que les services techniques déconcentrées en charge de l'agriculture, de l'élevage et de l'environnement pourraient constituer des portes d'entrée pour la mise en oeuvre des actions/activités dans le cadre du TARSPro Les résultats sur le réseau d'informations ont révélé que la communauté bénéficie d'informations variées sur les itinéraires techniques, les informations météorologiques, le prix des engrais et sur l'élevage. Au regard, des nombreuses ressources et des potentialités dont dispose le village, il définit la vision du futur d'ici à 2030 par un retour de la fertilité native des terres agricoles, une augmentation des rendements des cultures et par une évolution de l'ensemble des infrastructures. Pour ce faire, la mise en place d'un village climato-intelligent pourrait être une réelle opportunité pour la population à travers les paquets technologiques qui seront promus au cours du projet.A cet effet l'équipe pays de mise en oeuvre du projet TARSPro du Burkina Faso a bénéficié au même titre que les équipes des autres pays d'une formation sur l'approche AIC animée par l'ALLIANCE au Sénégal suivie d'une autre formation sur l'approche VIC au Bénin. A la suite de ces sessions de renforcements de capacité au cours desquelles une feuille de route a été établie, une concertation a été organisée par l'équipe pays du Burkina Faso sur la conduite de l'étude de base pour la mise en place du VIC. Au sortir de cette rencontre la Commune de Bindé dans la région du Centre Sud a été proposée à la suite des analyses pour abriter le VIC du Burkina Faso pour les raisons suivantes : (i) Après la collecte des données, l'équipe s'est assurée de leur qualité et a apporté les compléments en se référant aux notes prises afin de procéder à l'analyse et à l'élaboration du présent rapport. Après un retour sur la méthodologie de collecte de données, le point des résultats de l'étude est analysant l'état et l'évolution i) des ressources communautaires du village, ii) du cadre organisationnel y intervenant et iii) du réseau d'informations de la communauté pour leurs différentes productions. Le rapport se termine par une conclusion et des recommandations.La commune rurale de Bindé dont relève le village de Ouda est située entre 11,9057° et 11,6784° de latitude nord d'une part, et 1,8207° de longitude Ouest d'autre part, au nord de la province du Zoundwéogo, dans la région du centre-sud du Burkina Faso, sur l'axe Guiba-Garango RN17 (Figure 1). Elle est située à environ 100 km au sud de la capitale Ouagadougou à partir des routes nationales N5, N29 et N17. Ouda est accessible à partir de Bindé avec la route nationale N17 jusqu'à Kaibo-Centre d'où le village situé au nord est rallié par une piste rurale.Au plan climatique, la commune de Bindé est située dans la zone climatique Nord-soudanienne (GUINKO, 1984), caractérisée une longue saison sèche de novembre à mai et une courte saison hivernale de juin à octobre marquée par des orages avec de forts ruissellements. Les pluies sont généralement abondantes mais mal réparties dans le temps et dans l'espace. Les sols, en majorité propices à l'agriculture, sont de divers types (tableau 1) :  2021) Les sols peu évolués d'érosion régosolique sont les plus dominants en termes de surface occupée. La végétation est caractéristique de celle du plateau central avec la particularité de l'impact d'un réseau hydrographique assez dense. De façon générale, les principales espèces rencontrées donnent à la commune les formations végétales suivantes : La savane parc, la formation rupicole, la forêt, la savane arborée et la savane arbustive. Dans les parcs agroforestiers, les principales espèces comestibles ou utilitaires épargnées par les agriculteurs sont Vitellaria paradoxa, Parkia biglobosa, Lannea microcarpa, Balanites aegyptiaca, Acacia sp, etc. La strate herbacée est constituée d'une variété d'espèces mais les principales qui sont d'un intérêt pour les populations sont essentiellement : Andropogon pseudocarpus (mossaolgo en moré) et surtout Andropogon gayanus (pitou) etc. Ces espèces sont d'un grand intérêt pour les populations car elles entrent dans la construction des toits de chaume et des greniers pour le stockage des récoltes. On les retrouve un peu partout dans la commune mais surtout dans les espaces non cultivés et où la pression animale est moins importante. Le réseau hydrographique est constitué par le bassin-versant du Nakambé. En dehors de ce fleuve qui est plus ou moins pérenne, tous les autres cours d'eau sont temporaires ; leurs eaux tarissent sitôt la saison hivernale finie (confère figure n°3 ci-dessous). L'hydrographie se caractérise également par la présence de quelques plans d'eau, qui servent à l'abreuvement du cheptel, la production horticole et aux usages domestiques. Le territoire communal de Bindé est occupé à environ 75% par une zone agricole car l'agriculture constitue la première source de production de richesses. Le système de culture extensive et la coupe du bois (déboisement) à des fins agricoles et pastorales sont caractéristiques des pratiques courantes des populations. Selon les données du rapport provisoire du 5 ème recensement général de la population et de l'habitat (RGPH) réalisé en 2019 (INSD, 2022), la population de Bindé est estimée à 42 769 habitants avec 20 064 de sexe masculin soit 46.92% et 22 705 de sexe féminin soit 53.08%. C'est une population majoritairement constituée de mossis. Il y a aussi les peulhs et les Bissa. Malgré les irrégularités pluviométriques de ces dernières années, on observe depuis 2016, une tendance générale à l'augmentation des quantités produites. Les tableaux ci-dessous renseignent sur les productions et les superficies emblavées dans la province du Zoundwéogo pour la période allant de 2016 à 2020. De plus en plus, nous constatons que les terres cultivables se font rares. Cela est dû au bradage des terres par les communautés qui en sont propriétaires.  2021) D'une manière générale on note au cours de ces cinq (5) dernières années, une amélioration de la productivité agricole ; amélioration qui tient non seulement compte des conditions pluviométriques favorables de ces dernières années, mais aussi de l'amélioration des pratiques agricoles avec le temps (pratique CES/DRS, utilisation de semences adaptées, mécanisation progressive, etc.). L'élevage constitue la seconde source de production de richesses de la commune. Cette activité est pratiquée de façon traditionnelle de type agro-pasteur avec des potentialités relativement appréciables. Dans l'exercice de leur activité pastorale, les éleveurs bénéficient de l'appui des services techniques de l'élevage que sont le Poste Vétérinaire de Bindé (Kaïbo), la Zone d'aménagement pastorale de Sondré-Est et la ZATE de Bindé. Les autres activités concernent le commerce, le transport, l'artisanat, etc. La Région du Centresud en général et la commune de Bindé en particulier sont reconnues pour la qualité des agrégats dont elles regorgent. L'exploitation de ces agrégats constitue une source de revenus non négligeable pour une bonne frange de la population. La dégradation du sol qu'elle entraîne s'accentue avec les ruissèlements en saison des pluies. D'autres activités telles que la collecte du bois mort par les camions, la préparation et la vente de bière locale (dolo), etc. contribue à la vie de la commune grâce aux taxes prélevées par la régie des recettes.Au Burkina Faso, l'étude de base communautaire pour la mise en place du VIC a été conduite du 23 janvier au 10 février 2023. L'échantillonnage des participants aux différentes discussions de groupe s'est appuyé sur la liste exhaustive des ménages du village dressée par le Président du Conseil Villageois de Développement (CVD). Ainsi, 30 personnes (15 hommes et 15 femmes) ont été tirées de façon aléatoire sans remise avec le tableur Excel (Fonction ALEA) pour le 1 er et le 3 ème jour et 30 autres personnes (15 hommes et 15 femmes) ont été choisies pour le 2 ème jour. Des lettres d'invitation ont été adressées à chacun de ces participants pour les convier aux sessions d'échanges de groupe. La collecte de données qui s'est déroulée sur trois (3) jours, a consisté en la conduite de focus group de discussion genrés réalisés en s'appuyant sur le canevas de debriefing. Les sessions ont été animées suivant trois (3) thématiques (sur les ressources communautaires, l'environnement organisationnel et le réseau d'information). A l'issue de chaque journée de collecte de données un debriefing était réalisé au sein de l'équipe pour faire le point et harmoniser les points de vue sur la façon d'aborder la prochaine journée de collecte. En prélude à la phase de collecte de données, un certain nombre d'activités ont été réalisées dont (i) une mission exploratoire qui a permis de rencontrer les acteurs locaux en vue du choix du site du VIC, (ii) le recrutement et la formation des preneurs de notes et de la traductrice, (iii) la mobilisation du matériel et des fonds nécessaires.La visite a commencé par une rencontre de l'équipe avec les autorités villageoises de Ouda dans ledit village et précisément sur le site retenu pour abriter les essais de démonstration des technologies entrant dans le cadre de l'AIC à mettre à l'échelle. La délégation villageoise était composée de six (06) personnes. Une brève présentation du projet TARSPro ainsi que les activités de l'étude de base sur la mise en place du VIC a été faite par l'équipe de l'INERA. Des précisons sur la logistique ont été apportées par le Comité Villageois de Développement (CVD) notamment le lieu de la tenue des séances de travail avec les groupes de femmes et d'hommes et l'organisation de repas communautaires. Ces précisions ont été suivies de la visite du lieu devant servir de cadre d'échanges durant les trois (03) jours de travaux. Au matin du premier jour des travaux, une assemblée générale publique a été tenue avec toutes forces vives du village de Ouda. Cette assemblée a permis à l'équipe du projet de présenter le projet TARSPro, l'approche VIC et ses objectifs et le mode d'échantillonnage des personnes devant prendre part aux discussions de groupes. Pour finir, l'agenda des travaux a été présenté et adopté à l'unanimité de la communauté par acclamation. Au total 134 personnes dont 82 femmes (soit 61%) étaient présentes à cette assemblée. Deux jeunes (un garçon et une fille) du village ont été choisis et formés à la prise de vues avec des appareils photos. Ils ont pris des photos deux jours durant, des ressources du village qui sont apparus importants à leurs yeux. Les discussions de groupe ont été faites dans deux salles à l'école rurale du village à raison d'une salle pour le groupe des femmes et une autre pour le groupe des hommes. Chaque jour a correspondu au développement d'une thématique précise :-Le premier jour, chaque groupe a procédé à l'inventaire des ressources du village et à leur analyse suivant le canevas de du document de Débriefing ; -Le deuxième jour, chaque groupe de discussion a procédé au recensement des organisations qui interviennent dans le village de Ouda en termes d'appui au développement relatif à la sécurité alimentaire, à la crise alimentaire et à la gestion des ressources naturelles ; -Le troisième jour, le point des types d'informations recherchées par les acteurs du village pour l'implémentation de leurs activités agricoles et les canaux de transmissions de ces informations a été fait par chacun des groupes de discussions. Aussi, une vision future du VIC a été définie dans chaque groupe de discussion puis consolidée pour le village. Cette journée a pris fin avec l'assemblée publique finale qui a connu la participation du chef du village et ses notables. Au cours cette assemblée, le bilan de la collecte des données a été présenté, amendé et adopté.L'après visite a été consacrée à la finalisation du document de debriefing et à l'élaboration du rapport de l'étude de base.L'animation au sein de chaque groupe de discussion a été assurée en langue locale mooré par une équipe constituée d'un facilitateur, d'un preneur de note et le cas échéant d'un traducteur. Ainsi le groupe des hommes a-t-il été animé par Sodré Etienne (facilitateur) et Sawadogo Soumaïla (preneur de notes) tandis que le groupe des femmes a été animé par Bandaogo Alimata (facilitatrice), Yerbanga Ivette (preneuse de notes) et Bouda Edwige (traductrice). Les travaux dans les deux groupes ont été supervisés par le Chef d'équipe, Tassembedo Boureima. Les sessions se sont déroulées en plénière et de façon participative. Elles ont été ponctuées d'exercices pratiques qui ont amené les participants à s'investir pleinement pour apporter toutes des informations réelles nécessaires à l'étude. Les sessions ont duré en moyenne 8 heures par jour ponctuées par des pauses-santé et une pause déjeuner.Les discussions dans cette thématique ont consisté à faire le point de l'état actuel des ressources communautaires en comparaison avec leur état passé pour analyser les facteurs de changements et définir une vision future souhaitée de ces ressources par la population.  • Principaux changements dans l'état des ressources La comparaison de l'état des ressources du passé au présent dans le tableau 5 montre une dégradation de la forêt ou même de sa quasi-inexistence selon les hommes. Selon ces derniers, ces forêts ont été remplacées par des arbres agroforestiers qui, cependant rencontrent quelques difficultés pour leur entretien et leur régénération. Les terres agricoles ont aussi évolué négativement dans le temps en perdant leur fertilité native, ce qui a engendré une baisse de la productivité des cultures, constituant une menace pour la sécurité alimentaire au sein de la communauté. Le groupe de discussion des hommes a également mentionné la non disponibilité des champs de brousse dans l'environnement actuel. Les infrastructures quant à elles ont connu une bonne avancée avec la construction de nouvelles écoles (collège), de lieux de cultes, marché, forages et puits, la construction du pont sur la rivière et l'élargissement de la route. Néanmoins, le centre de santé publique existant dans le passé est à présent non fonctionnel.• Facteurs de changement L'analyse du tableau 5 indique que les principaux facteurs de changement au niveau des terres agricoles sont principalement induits par la pression démographique et le phénomène de la vente des terres qui a amené les propriétaires terriens des villages voisins à retirer les champs de brousses. On note également la mécanisation, l'utilisation des pesticides, l'érosion hydrique, l'utilisation des engrais chimiques et la non application de la fumure organique parmi ces facteurs de changements au niveau des terres agricoles. • Echanges sur les principales difficultés et opportunités (selon le genre) L'analyse du tableau 7 indique que des difficultés persistent pour l'atteinte de la vision du futur due à l'arrêt de la jachère, l'absence d'animaux chez certains agriculteurs, la présence de maladies et la pénibilité de la réalisation des techniques de CES/DRS, notamment chez les hommes. Pour les femmes, l'insuffisance de la fumure organique est la principale difficulté qui pourrait entraver la productivité des terres agricoles. En ce qui concerne les ressources ligneuses, les principales difficultés résident dans l'insuffisance des pluies, l'absence de jeunes plants forestiers et agroforestiers pour le reboisement, la mortalité inexpliquée des arbres comme le karité et la tenure foncière ne permettant pas la mise en place de certaines technologies selon les hommes. Les femmes quant à elles estiment que les feux de végétation, la coupe de bois, le manque de moyens financiers et matériels et l'indisponibilité des moellons constitueraient des contraintes majeures au développement agricole. Quant à la mise en place de certaines infrastructures, les deux parties s'accordent sur le fait que le manque de moyens constitue la principale difficulté. A cela, les femmes ont également ajouté le manque de technicité. Néanmoins, il existe un bon nombre de potentialités dans la région qui pourraient être utilisées pour apporter des solutions à ces difficultés. Il y'a entre autres, l'utilisation des ressources en eaux (rivières), la disponibilité d'information climatique et sur les itinéraires techniques, l'information dans les lieux de cultes et au marché et l'accompagnement des organismes locaux, régionaux et nationaux.• Interprétation/Discussion des résultats et discuter selon le genre (hommes et femmes) Les discussions avec les groupes de personnes dans le cadre de l'étude ont montré que la population était confrontée à six (06) facteurs abiotiques et biotiques (raccourcissement des pluies, sécheresse, inondation, vents violents, tempêtes de poussière et ravageurs). Ces six facteurs ont été tous mentionnés par les hommes et les femmes n'en ont cité que quatre dont la sécheresse, les vents violents, les ravageurs et les inondations (Tableau 7). Parmi ces facteurs, les inondations, les vents violents et la sècheresse sont les aléas climatiques qui affectent le plus, les ressources avec respectivement des scores totaux de 38, 37 et 36. Les deux groupes ont aussi trouvé que les terres agricoles étaient la ressource la plus affectée par les aléas climatiques avec un score de 20,5 et 19 respectivement pour les hommes et les femmes. Elles sont suivies par les ressources ligneuses et les ressources en eaux pour les deux groupes. Ces résultats s'expliquent essentiellement par les variations climatiques qui entrainent des modifications dans le régime des pluies ce qui engendre de plus en plus des inondations affectant les terres agricoles. A cela, s'ajoute le fait que l'agriculture dans la zone est exclusivement pluviale ce qui la rend particulièrement vulnérable au manque d'eau et aux ravageurs.Tableau 7 : matrice de la vulnérabilité aux aléas climatiques (hommes et femmes)    • Organisations oeuvrant dans le domaine de la sécurité alimentaire Les échanges de groupe selon le genre sur les organisations intervenant auprès de la communauté de Ouda dans le cadre de la sécurité alimentaire ont permis de les matérialiser sur des graphiques de paysages à trois niveaux ainsi que les liens qui les relient le cas échéant (Photo 33a et 3b). • Organisations oeuvrant activement dans les moments de crise alimentaire A la suite de la sécurité alimentaire, l'exercice de répertorier les organisations et de les placer sur un graphique de paysages à trois niveaux avec les liens qui existent entre elles a été fait pour les situations de crise alimentaire (Photo 4et 4b). • Insérer le Feuillet/graphique sur la gestion des ressources naturelles pour hommes et femmes, y compris les liens Des graphiques de paysages à trois niveaux sur les organisations intervenant dans la gestion des ressources naturelles ont été réalisés par le groupe des hommes (photo 9) et celui des femmes (photo 5a et 5b)Il ressort des graphiques que l'environnement organisationnel de gestion des ressources naturelles est relativement très pauvre. La principale organisation qui y intervient soulignée aussi bien par les hommes que les femmes est l'association Natigmbzanga. Cette association a réalisé des reboisements dans le village. Pour les hommes, en plus de cette association, il faut noter la présence de pépiniéristes dans le village de Ouda qui produiraient des plants d'espèces locales et exotiques qu'ils commercialisent avec les acteurs qui en demandent. Il y a aussi la ZAT qui intervient auprès de l'association Natigmbzanga et des populations en passant par le CVD pour les former aux bonnes pratiques de reboisement et d'entretien des ressources ligneuses.• Implication/participation des organisations Le Tableau 1111 fait la synthèse des organisations impliquées dans la gestion de la sécurité alimentaire, des crises alimentaires et des ressources naturelles à Ouda. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 141 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 Utilisation des aliments 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 Crise Alimentair e 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 7 2 2 2 0 23 GRN 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 8 Autres 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  Ces organisations ont de très fortes capacités de mobilisations des communautés qui pourront être mises à profit dans le cadre de la mise en oeuvre de TARSPro. Aussi les associations de femmes pourront constituer une base pour dérouler certaines composantes de l'approche AIC dans le village notamment l'amélioration de la plus-value des PFNL. La collaboration avec les organisations évoquées va certainement nécessiter un renforcement de leurs capacités sur l'approche AIC afin qu'ils puissent se l'approprier et accompagner à la mise en oeuvre des activités entrant dans son cadre.Il est question dans cette section de mettre en exergue les informations recherchées par la communauté de Ouda et de la diversité des canaux utilisés pour accéder à ces informations. Il ressort du Tableau 1212 que le groupe des hommes a identifié cinq thèmes pour lesquels ils ont besoin d'informations ou d'appui/conseil que sont :• Variétés améliorées (cycle court) ;• Informations météo (Début de campagne et régime des pluies) ;• Entretien des sols (Techniques de travail du sol et de CES/DRS et amendements des sols) ; • Itinéraires techniques sur la culture du riz ;• Campagne de vaccination des animaux. Le groupe des femmes a quant à lui, recensé cinq différents thèmes à savoir :• Informations météo (Début de campagne et régime des pluies, inondations)• Itinéraires techniques (Bonnes pratiques culturales) ;• Alimentation et entretien des animaux ;• Information sur les prix des intrants agricoles ;• Période de collecte des graines de balanites. En résumé, les groupes de femmes et d'hommes ont identifié communément les besoins en informations météorologiques, en itinéraires techniques de production agricole et en entretien des animaux. Seuls les hommes ont identifié les variétés améliorées tandis que les femmes ont mentionné l'intérêt pour les prix des intrants agricoles et la période de collecte des grains de balanites. La synthèse des données collectées montre que certains leaders locaux constituent des canaux d'informations. Il s'agit entre autres du chef du village, du chef de terre et d'autres leaders villageois (Conseiller villageois, président de jeune, présidente des femmes).  Le projet TARSPro a permis à une équipe de l'INERA, en collaboration avec l'Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT, de conduire une enquête de base communautaire en vue de l'installation d'un village climatique face au climat. L'objectif de cette étude était de dégager la vision du futur de la communauté de Ouda dans la commune de Bindé situé dans la région du Centre-Sud du Burkina Faso en s'appuyant sur l'état des différentes ressources communautaires.Les résultats sur l'analyse ressources communautaires montrent que les hommes et les femmes qui ont pris part à l'enquête ont indiqué que les moyens de subsistance provenaient essentiellement l'exploitation des ressources naturelles. ","tokenCount":"4035"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"91a10a28ae129f1c1d80967eb5a580ad","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/07548572-1a6a-4343-af02-a57fad5131bc/retrieve","id":"-815301692"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"883192d0-e8a4-4b4c-ae5f-e1bbaff35b1b","pagecount":"6","content":"In 2010, the CGIAR requested proposals for programs on seven key development themes. These programs would represent a new way of working, the hallmarks of which would be research integration, strong partnerships, and sharp focus on development impact. Given its broad mandate related to food security and climate change research, CIAT is actively involved in research partnerships in several CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs). The Center's researchers are substantially involved in the CGIAR Global Rice Science Partnership (GRiSP) and the CRP on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). CIAT contributed significantly to several proposals, and now plays central roles in the two programs already under way.We look forward to further strengthening the Center's partnership with BMZ/GIZ and aligning some of our initiatives more closely with their priorities. In addition, we welcome continued efforts to identify opportunities for research and institutional cooperation with our German partners engaging in developing countries, interaction with the private sector, biotechnology groups, and German Universities to fight against poverty, improve rural livelihoods, and better understand climate change and its impacts.CIAT staff Period US$ Results member (in '000s)• This project will integrate new forage hybrids to intensify agriculture and to mitigate climate change through regulation of nitrification in soil. It will contribute to developing climate-smart crop-livestock systems for smallholders in the tropics.• Quantified the impact of climate change on coffee in Guatemala, Brazil, Tanzania, and Vietnam. The analyses and results serve as the scientific base for implementing partnerships between GIZ and public and private sectors on coffee and climate change.• On-station seed increase of grasses and legumes initiated in collaboration with KARI in Kakamega, Kenya, and the NARO-Bulindi ZARDI partnership, Uganda. • Quantified the impact of climate change on coffee.Results will form the scientific base for implementing the GIZ project on farmers' livelihoods and climate change. The methodology was adopted for other crops in other regions.• Field studies on the adaptation of common bean revealed important drought-resistance mechanisms and aluminum (Al) resistant genotypes. Two elite bean lines were tested under drought in Rwanda and released as varieties. A variety, highly resistant to Al toxicity, and lines with resistance to multiple stresses (drought, low P, Al toxicity, and acid soils) were obtained. Some lines also showed excellent yield potential under intermittent drought stress. Interspecific progenies are being tested in Rwanda, Kenya, and Ethiopia. • Seven Brachiaria forage-grass hybrids with high root vigor and higher levels of Al resistance were identified. These hybrids also combined some degree of resistance to major pests (e.g., spittlebugs) and are therefore suitable for integrating into crop-livestock systems in the tropics. Cultivar Mulato II was selected by farmers as the most preferred Brachiaria variety in Rwanda because of its adaptation to drought and acid soils, and production of green forage. • A total of 21 journal articles, 2 book chapters, and 6 articles in conference proceedings were published, together with 37 oral and poster presentations at international and national conferences and workshops.• Originally designed as post doctorate work for Dr. Peter Lentes, the project's outputs were subsequently revised.• Research confirmed that intervening entities can catalyze the learning-selection processes with forages, beginning with simple technologies such as forage germplasm and often finishing with more complex technologies such as silage and hay. Once the technology is accepted, farmer-to-farmer dissemination allows scaling-up, which continues, both among small farmers and institutions, after the project finishes.• Farmer-led seed enterprises were facilitated. They continue to function, gradually expanding into other business areas such as producing forage-based concentrates.• Five studies: one ex post analysis from Latin America, three ex post analyses from Southeast Asia, and one ex ante analysis from East Africa. They indicated that more than 80% of all grass seed sales in Latin America are for Brachiaria cultivars. Ex post impact of adopting Brachiaria grasses was estimated in four countries.Brachiaria currently accounts for 90% of seed sales in Latin American markets. Associated improvements in milk and beef production helped generate increases in net farm incomes (32% in Guatemala; 177%, Nicaragua; 238%, Costa Rica; and 288%, Honduras).Returns to family labor increased by as much as 2.5 times, depending on the country. • Studies in Southeast Asia indicated major livelihood benefits from using forages, measured in terms of improved benefit-to-cost ratios, higher productivity, higher incomes, and reduced labor. Case studies included fish farming in Vietnam, cow-calf systems in Vietnam and Indonesia, and short-term cattle fattening in Vietnam.• Technology developed to confirm cases of gene flow by pollen transfer between cultivated and wild beans. Morphological traits and molecular markers for which inheritance was known were used. Direction and intensity of gene flow could therefore be defined for materials suspected to be products of natural introgression. • Because Costa Rica was selected for field studies, three sets of activities were performed in this country:(1) all populations of wild beans (and cases of possible introgression) were surveyed; (2) gene flow between modern cultivars was measured on the experiment station (showing low levels of introgression); and (3) gene flow between landraces and wild forms was measured under farmers' conditions (showing slightly higher levels of introgression). • Other cases of introgression between landraces and wild forms (identified since 1985 and kept in the genebank) were then screened, using the marker technology developed, across the geographical range, from Guatemala through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia to Argentina. These cases were confirmed. • In Costa Rica and Colombia, some natural hybrids apparently involved species closely related to the common bean. These cases were confirmed, using molecular markers. This kind of gene flow, however, is of limited consequence in beans as progeny does not survive beyond the second generation (F 2 ). ","tokenCount":"933"}

data/part_1/0052075467.json

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c371afc311711d6020e1a8f7bd868100","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/918b8c02-0e8a-4736-8012-78ef90c43362/retrieve","id":"-1537617605"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8eeb290c-abc3-4ca8-8d11-76de1f1795e7","pagecount":"4","content":" Methane emission factors at the provincial scale range from 1.08 to 7.7 kg CH4/ha/day, depending on soil type, submerging condition, and cropping season. In most provinces, the methane emission factor in the summer-autumn season is higher than in the other seasons. This compilation of emission factors is derived from the data of Vo et al. ( 2018), but will need updating once more emission rates become available in the future.Rice production was recognized as a major source of methane (CH4) emission (Wassmann and Aulakh 2000). In Vietnam, rice production is estimated to contribute more than 50% of total emissions from the agriculture sector annually (MoNRE 2014). The largest CH4-emitting region in Vietnam is the Mekong River Delta (MRD) where more than 23 million tons of rice are produced annually accounting for about 55% of the Vietnamese rice production (GSO 2017).The Mekong River Delta (MRD) can be divided into five agro-environmental zones with different characteristics influencing methane emissions from rice production: (1) alluvial zone, (2) acid sulphate zone, (3) saline zone, (4) deep flood zone and (5) elevated zone (Fig. 1). A map of the agro-environmental zones was generated based on the soil map of MRD at a scale of 1:250,000 (Ton That Chieu et al. 1989) and the flooding map of the delta simulated for the middle of a flooding season in a normal flooding year under the CLUES project (Phong et al. 2016;Wassmann et al. 2019).1. The alluvial zone is located in the middle of the delta. Soils in this zone were generated from deposited alluvial materials of the Mekong River. This zone comprises the bulk of the favorable rice fields along the river branches. Land use in this zone is intensive with two to three rice crops per year.2. The zone dominated by acid sulphate soils covers the area surrounding the alluvial zone. Acid sulphate soils are used to cultivate one or two rice crops per year. In acid sulphate soils with shallow sulfidic materials (0-50cm), special soil and water management practices must be applied to avoid oxidization of the topsoil. The sulphuric material can influence methane emissions. Rice cultivation in soil with deep sulfidic materials (>50cm) can be practiced similar to what applies to alluvial soils.3. The deep flood zone is located in the northern part of the delta, mostly in the provinces of Long An, Dong Thap, and An Giang. Water level in this zone may rise above 1.5m during flooding season (August to November). This strongly influences rice cultivation practice, as well as cropping calendar and GHG emissions.However, a large area of this zone is used for double or triple rice production.4. The saline zone covers the coastal area of the delta. Rice production in this zone is often affected by salinity intrusion, especially during the dry season (December to April). The zone is dominated by rice-based systems such as ricecash crop or rice-shrimp. Shortage of irrigation water is the main challenge for agricultural production in this zone. Methane emissions, though, are often low in this zone.5. The elevated zone includes disconnected elevated fields in the north of Dong Thap and Long An provinces, close to the Cambodian border. Cropping rotation in this zone is mainly rice-rice-cash crops. Soil in this zone belongs to the degraded soil group.Field experiments were conducted in four out of five agro-  The area and distribution of rice land in the MRD in 2016were extracted from a high resolution land use map of the Lower Mekong Region (Servir Mekong 2019). The spatiotemporal information obtained from analyzing time series of satellite images from 2015-2016 using the PhenoRice method (Boschetti et al. 2017) was used to estimate the seasonal EFs (kg/ha/day) of MRD provinces for the three cropping seasons (Table 2), including winter-spring (2015/16), summer-autumn ( 2016) and autumn-winter ( 2016). The values for provinces differ because each province covers more than one agro-environmental zone.In this regard, the EFs have been weighted by the respective share of total rice area per zone and season.Overall, seasonal EFs in the winter-spring season are lower than in other seasons, varying from 1.08 (Ben Tre) to 2.65 kg CH4/ha/day (An Giang and Dong Thap). The EF in the summer-autumn season is the highest in 9 out of 13 provinces. For provinces covering the deep flood zone, especially An Giang and Dong Thap, EF in the autumn-winter season is relatively high, reaching values higher than 7 kg CH4/ha/day. In principle, the EFs could further be disaggregated to district level. This data base, however, is not included in this info note due to size constraints.  The data used in this analysis were based on measurements conducted during the CLUES project (2011-2015) described in Vo et al. (2018). In turn, the data base only represents a 'snapshot' corresponding to the information available by the time of publishing the info note, that is, mid-2019. This data base will need to be updated once additional GHG data become available.Due to the nature of this calculation, these EFs will undergo some inter-annual variations because the areas planted with rice may vary on a yearly basis. Regardless of these small uncertainties, the presented data on EF represented a good basis for calculating 'baseline emissions' in the MRD.","tokenCount":"865"}

data/part_1/0060739985.json

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3da8d1511a4f201c2c4dea51e5a5b5b1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1f2eaeda-66e1-4eb4-927a-c527ff4f180b/retrieve","id":"-2019793088"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8416b8c0-aee8-4a57-9a2b-b8b3f7dbe74a","pagecount":"116","content":"A beef cattle production model developed at Texas A&M University was applied to the traditional production system and an improved ranching system in Botswana. The potential contribution of mathematical modelling as an aid to livestock production research and related development problems was demonstrated and additional problems were identified where further applications of modelling techniques could assist research and development in Botswana.Vast areas of Africa are used for beef cattle production systems which are often extremely complex in terms of the interactions which occur between the plant, animal and human components. The complexity of these systems is compounded by the highly variable productivities encountered at different levels. Throughout Africa, the research to date on these systems has been piecemeal, usually empha sizing a few of the key bio-technical relationships . Yet these livestock systems are now the target of substantial development activity. Research, if it is to be of value, must provide promptly the information necessary to design competently this devel opment activity. Furthermore, research should lead to the quantification of those key aspects of production systems on which development efforts will have an impact, so that the probable consequences of development are clear and explicit.Modelling is a research tool which can be applied to beef cattle production systems in order to use research information more effectively. While only a limited number of production systems or alternatives can be examined experiment ally, modelling offers the possibility of examining large numbers of alternatives under different conditions. Prerequisites to the use of this research tool are the existence of appropriate models and sufficient quantitative information to produce valid results.The animal science systems group at Texas A&M University (TAMU) has developed a computer-based beef cattle production model for use in tropical countries. This model can be used to predict animal and herd productivity under a variety of management regimes in diverse environments. Economic analyses can then be made, based on these predictions. Since 1970, field research in range livestock production in Botswana by a multidisciplinary team has yielded a con siderable quantity of detailed information. However, the pressure on extension services for immediate advice has indicated many unanswered research questions.It is difficult to set priorities among these questions, and the resources required to conduct all the research needed are beyond the economic capacity of the national government. ILCA, therefore, sponsored the application of the TAMU model in Botswana with the objectives of introducing computer-based modelling techniques to simulates the existing ranch production systems, but the results of the validation runs for cattle post conditions are not so satisfactory. However, since one objective of the study is to illustrate the methodology by applying it to a real system, rather than to produce results of immediate practical value, it is con sidered appropriate to undertake initial studies with the model on both ranch and cattle post systems .These initial studies are summarized in Chapter 5 by presenting the results of five sets of simulation runs. Four groups of production alternatives feasible for introduction at the individual herd level in Botswana were simulated. Simulation of alternative weaning ages illustrated an innovation requiring only a change in husbandry practice; introduction of controlled breeding, weaning and use of reserve pasture illustrated a compound experiment where innovations can be examined individually and then in combination; use of Leucaena leucocephala as a dry-season forage plant illustrated the introduction of a new technology; and simulation of hand milking in a Tswana herd illustrated the examination of an area of potential devel opment. Production under a different sequence of environmental conditions was also simulated to demonstrate the importance of assessing productivity over several years. These simulation runs demonstrate the utility of the modelling approach and the range of production alternatives which can be examined. The discussion in this chapter focusses on the biological responses of the systems to the various interven tions. An economic interpretation of selected results is presented in Chapter 6.Chapter 7 identifies further possible applications of the modelling methodology to the livestock production systems in Botswana. These additional applications are grouped according to their data requirements and the suitability of the existing TAMU model. Included are summary specifications for additional runs which follow directly from the preliminary results given in Chapter 5.The potential contribution of mathematical modelling as an aid to livestock production research and related development problems has been clearly demon strated for any situation in Africa where sufficient production information exists. Mean annual rainfall varies from 700 mm in the north-east, dropping to 400 mm in the east and 200 mm in the southwest. The rain falls in the summer months from October to April and fluctuates widely between and within seasons . The beef cattle industry is based on the use of the natural pasture produced by this environment. Botswana has a human population of about 800 000, giving the high ratio of cattle to human population of 3. 75 : 1 which is unique in Africa. Exports of ani mal products from Botswana, mainly in the form of fresh meat, account for 17 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and almost one half of the value of exports . Before the recent expansion in the mining industry, the livestock sector was even more important to the economy .The success which has been achieved in beef marketing is due largely to a history of effective disease control, particularly foot and mouth disease, and the absence of rinderpest and pleuropneumonia. Tsetse flies carrying trypanosomiasis are limited to part of the Okavango swamp area, and there is no limiting tick-borne disease such as East Coast fever (theileriosis).Beef Cattle Production Systems. Two broad cattle production systems are practiced. The first is the traditional cattle post system where cattle are grazed on unenclosed, tribally administered land with no individual security of land tenure and a traditional right to grazing of unlimited cattle numbers . The second is a freehold farming system with fenced ranching. The traditional system has changed through time; undoubtedly there have been radical changes in the comparatively recent past, particularly due to the opportunity to exploit ground water resources by mechanical bore-hole drilling and consequent extension of the grazing area. This process has been accelerated since the Second World War and has been responsible in part for the increase in the cattle population. The exten sion of grazing areas and the widely held fear of degradation of the range resources from overgrazing has led to the introduction of the national tribal grazing land policy (TGLP). The aims of tribal grazing land development are to stop overgraz ing and degradation of the rangeland, to promote greater equality of incomes in the rural area, and to encourage growth and commercialization of the livestock industry on a sustained basis (Botswana, 1975).Grazing in the tribal cattle post areas is communal, but some farmers have drilled their own boreholes and have acquired an individual right to the borehole water. Cattle are penned at night when they are near cultivated areas and when there is danger of stock losses from predators . Stock theft is rare in Botswana, hence herding is rarely practiced during the daytime. Animal management stan dards are low, and it is difficult to introduce innovations such as the weaning of calves or the controlled use of improved bulls .On the ranches, fences are used to control breeding herds, to separate young stock and to retain standing hay for the dry season. Disease control measures are applied, and mineral supplementation is provided to combat phos phorus deficiency. The ranch cattle also have perennial, adequate water supplies available within a reasonable distance.History of Animal Production Research. The history of animal pro duction research in Botswana is similar to that of many former colonial territories .Government farms were established during the colonial area to investigate and demonstrate improved methods of husbandry. These were run by the Veterinary Department as the government agency responsible for animal husbandry. Much of this past research was carried out in isolation, or in separate operations which were not part of any particular production systems. Not only were the research results not adopted by cattle producers, but the research failed to provide many aspects of basic production data. In animal breeding, for example, the paucity of information on the performance of indigenous cattle throughout southern Africa has been noted even up to the present time (Maule, 1972). Experimental design was frequently deficient, which made comparisons of the performance of different breed types impossible. In 1970, the few breeds of cattle maintained on 12 govern ment ranches were each isolated on a different station under different conditions, rendering comparisons of breed performance impossible (Trail and Fisher, 1971).Range research was initiated in Botswana in 1936 at Morale. However, when this long-term research was reviewed there was found to be insufficient conclusive evidence to permit the formulation of management recommendations (McKay, 1968). The only other range research results available are surveys of the grazing resources (Blair Rains and Yalala, 1972;1973).As a result of this pattern of research, there was little concrete information available to extension advisers or economic planners when Botswana achieved independence in 1966. The advice given was essentially of an ad hoc nature, based on results and experience from other countries and from casual observations in Botswana. Much of this advice was undoubtedly sound, and the development of the cattle industry in the country is indebted to these workers, but it has been seriously hampered by the lack of more comprehensive research results.Integrated Research Approach. In 1970, the Ministry of Agriculture formed an Animal Production Research Unit (APRU). Although one of the preliminary objectives was to evaluate beef cattle breeds and crosses, it was quickly realized that a multi-disciplinary approach would be necessary to cover the many aspects of beef production. The programme which has developed covers three broad areas :-1. the measurement of animal productivity from the range areas,the measurement of what the rangeland can supply to the animals, and 3. the measurement of the effects of animal productivity on the rangeland.The objectives of this integrated programme in Botswana are to provide reliable da ta on which politicians, economists and planners can assess the potential value of development proposals, and to provide reliable information to extension workers and producers, demonstrated in an acceptable ongoing production system.To these ends, the APRU plans and supervises all technical aspects of a net work of 17 ranches, totalling 40 000 hectares and carrying over 5 500 cattle. It also co-operates with commercial ranches and other organizations, involving a further 10 000 cattle. As positive research results must be fed continuously into the production system for demonstration to extension workers and producers, extensive data handling facilities have been set up for rapid collection, analysis and use of beef cattle performance records (Trail and Rennie, 1974;McNamara et al., 1975).The detailed research programmes being undertaken and the results to date can best be summarized under four main headings. These are animal productivity results from the two beef cattle production systems; range productivity and im provements; nutrition and animal productivity; and breeding and animal pro ductivity.Productivity under Traditional and Improved Management. Studies on the two main beef cattle production systems in Botswana -traditional cattle posts and improved ranches -began in 1970 (Rennie et al. , 1977). At that time, 92 percent of the cattle were maintained under a traditional management system on unenclosed grazing (on cattle posts). These herds produced approximately 85 per cent of the cattle slaughtered for export. The remaining 8 percent of the cattle were maintained under a fenced system and produced 15 percent of the slaughtered animals (Botswana, Ministry of Agriculture, 1970).In productivity studies, reproductive performance, growth and viability have Large-scale grazing trials were then initiated in 1974 in an attempt to en courage the better species and to determine if improved cattle performance would follow. Four grazing treatments were examined; continuous; one-herd threepaddock; four-day grazing, 32-day resting rotation; and seven-day grazing, 56day resting rotation. Stocking rates of 1 LSU : 10 ha and 1 LSU : 8 ha were adopted in the first and second years of the trials respectively. After two years, no significant differences have been detected among treatments in terms of total yield of dry matter, dry matter of good species, botanical composition or cattle performance.Removal of bush cover by chemical treatment of cut stumps is also being exam ined, and the changes in the grass species composition monitored. Results three years after treatment showed significant but small increases in dry matter yields from cleared areas and a general improvement in botanical composition (Botswana, Ministry of Agriculture, 1978). Work on range fertilization has just commenced, as has the examination of introduced legume and grass species, with some promising results, although establishment costs appear formidable.Nutrition and Animal Productivity. Factors of considerable economic importance in any beef production system are the reproductive performance of breeding cows and the length of time taken by growing animals to reach slaughter weight. In semi-arid areas such as Botswana, with variable summer rainfall and a prolonged winter dry season, nutritional deficiencies in the natural pasture limit both reproductive performance and liveweight gain. Deficiencies of phos phorus, crude protein and energy in the natural pastures of southern Africa have long been recognized, and the beneficial effects of phosphorus supplementation have been demonstrated repeatedly. For phosphorus supplementation, the basic recommended policy is to allow cattle access to a 1 : 1 mixture of bonemeal and salt at all times.1. One LSU is equivalent to one mature bovine weighing 500 kg.As mentioned earlier, the range research programme in Botswana has determined that under natural grazing conditions crude protein rather than energy is the major limiting factor. Several supplementary protein feeds containing non protein nitrogen (NPN), often referred to as rumen stimulatory licks, are available commercially to offset the deficiencies in the natural pasture. A series of trials has been carried out to investigate the effects of these licks on the reproductive performance of breeding cows and the liveweight gain of growing cattle (Capper et al. , 1977). The trials involved 1 375 breeding cows at five artificial insemi nation centres, and 360 breeding cows and 269 growing stock under ranch conditions.The licks increase the percentage of pregnancies in cows under lactation stress by up to 20 percent, but have no effect on the reproductive performance of dry cows or cows with a calf older than five months. In growing animals, the provision of rumen stimulatory licks increases live-weight gain by an average of 12 percent. Since 1970, performance tests have been carried out on all male and female stock on a network of 13 government ranches. Superior performance-tested males are thus available as artificial insemination (AI) sires or as bull replacements for the government ranches. The remaining superior males are sold to farmers, while inferior males are castrated and eventually slaughtered. Superior females are selected for herd replacements.The breeding programme was planned to cover three main areas:.the evaluation through performance testing of major types to determine their qualities,the continued performance testing of superior types for further improvement, and 3. the exploitation of heterosis effects through crossbreeding.The ongoing breed studies are carried out mainly under fenced ranch con ditions, but evaluations of crossbred cattle under traditional management conditions in the communal grazing areas have also been made. Production is entirely from natural pasture with the exception of phosphate supplementation. Sufficient stand ing hay is retained for dry season grazing. The traits examined are calving per centages, weights at birth, weaning and 18 months, and calf mortality, Over a three-year period, the calving percentages of Africanders, Tswanas and Tulis were 64. 5, 70. 6 and 85 percent respectively (Trail et al. , 1977). Mor The use of Tuli sires on Tswana cows is therefore now recommended for all management conditions. The use of Brahman and Simmental sires on Tswana cows also produces superior growth under both ranch and cattle post conditions. An evaluation of mothering ability and reproductive performance of first cross females is now needed. The indications are that a criss-cross breeding system for Brahman and Tswana will be valuable, with the Simmental breed substituted for Brahman under improved management conditions.The critical researcher is constantly aware of the many interacting com ponents in the beef systems under study and the difficulties of simultaneously evalu ating their implications. However, even with the involvement of many disciplines, the formal research approach will only allow the examination of particular facets in isolation. Because of this, innovations which initially appear most favourable may interact with other components of the system in such a way as to significantly weaken their overall impact.To date, the integrated research programme has been successful in indi cating some specific recommendations for the extension services (Botswana, Ministry of Agriculture, 1976b). However, many further extension needs have been identified during the early implementation stages of the tribal grazing land policy. For animal production, extension recommendations are needed in the areas of animal management, nutrition, breeding, milk production and the impact of drought.These topics are outlined briefly below.Animal Management. Cattle productivity levels are lower in the tra ditional system than on ranches, but it is still not possible to quantify the incremen tal advantages of adopting different components of the ranch management package.To date this problem has not been studied, as it has been assumed that piece-meal adoption of individual components of the package will have little effect. Examples are improving water supplies in the absence of grazing control, urea supplementa tion when forage is severely limited, and early weaning without adoption of a breeding season. However, the need to study these questions is now urgent in Botswana with the introduction of the tribal grazing land policy (TGLP) and the implementation of the Second Livestock Development Project (Botswana, Ministry of Agriculture, 1976a). This project meets the aims of the TGLP in that it seeks to create the infrastructure needed for the development of sustained profitable pro duction systems suitable to communal and commercial grazing areas, and for the marketing of livestock products . The development of improved management at cat tle posts will, in most cases, be a gradual process, and producers will require sound advice from the extension services on the best development sequence to be followed. In 1974, when prices were favourable, feedlot finishing of cattle appeared attractive and feedlot performance trials were conducted. Supplying sufficient cattle to the feedlots would involve the removal of significant numbers of animals from the herds. This would have an important effect on grazing pressures and would increase the grazing available to the remainder of the herds. Such effects are difficult to measure but must be estimated before the overall effect on the production system can be evaluated. This problem will assume importance if price ratios again become favourable to feedlot operations . A system can be defined as a collection of elements that are interrelated and that interact with one another. All the elements which contribute substantially to its inputs and outputs are included in the system. It has physical and conceptual boundaries which vary according to the objectives of those who are studying it. A systems approach to a problem is one which defines the problem in relation to some system. It differs from a process -oriented approach which is concerned typically with understanding some process and not with how such understanding might be used to influence the system of which the process is a part.To date, the process-oriented or analytical approach has been fruitful in many areas of research, and particularly in agriculture. However, in developing countries, where the outcome of a development process is so dependent on the inter action of many socio-economic and physical factors, this traditional approach has limi tations.To overcome these limitations, emphasis on the functioning of whole systems rather than on particular processes is required. The major advantage of the systems approach to a problem is that it can synthesize the existing knowledge on components of the relevant system and permit study of their interactions and combined effects.For research on livestock production systems, application of the systems approach will not replace traditional research, but it will assist in identifying those areas where further research would be most beneficial. The capacity of the systems approach to address this issue will assume increasing importance over time as research funds become more restricted relative to development needs. The devel opment of holistic models of production systems is at the core of the systems approach. While quantitative models can be used to identify the appropriateness of a particular task, or the importance of a particular component in relation to a whole system, it is not necessarily appropriate that such models always be applied. In some instances it may be sufficient to prepare a descriptive model of the system.Irrespective of the class of model which is formulated and other classes of models are possible besides quantitative and descriptive models the application of the systems approach involves a step-by-step, interactive process. The sequence of steps outlined in this section applies to the case where a quantitative model of a system is to be developed.a.Problem definition: The objectives of a study must be defined rigorously.These determine both the boundaries of the system (i.e. , those relation ships and variables inside and outside the system) and the level at which the system is to be modelled (e. g. at the level of the cell, animal,herd, farm, national economy). The modelling must be conducted at a level which cap tures the essence of the system and with sufficient detail to meet the objectives of the study, but at the same time it must simplify the system sufficiently to be manageable.Quantitative formulation of the model: A detailed mathematical representation of the model is required which accurately reflects the knowledge available.This representation must also be consistent with the objectives of the model.For example, if an objective is to examine the consequences over time of particular changes in the system, then the model will need to have the capacity to simulate time-related effects. The outcome of the work at any of the above stages can lead to a return to earlier stages. For example, during experimentation with the model it may be come apparent that the model specification is inappropriate to the task at hand, so the researchers must respecify part or all of the model. This would in turn require a repetition of the verification and validation steps before further experi ments could be conducted.In the field of animal production, measurements such as weaning weight, growth rate or mature weight usually reflect only one segment of the production system and are thus only partially related to the system's overall efficiency.Furthermore, such measurements alone do not make it possible to identify improve ments in productive efficiency of whole systems. The research group at TAMU recognized the need to consider multiple inputs and outputs in evaluating beef pro duction systems and tried to account for them on an additive basis (Joandet and Cartwright, 1969). These early models were expanded to include some variable, non-linear functions but still required a priori specification of animal performance and the subsequent computation of nutrient requirements (Long et al. , 1975;Cartwright et al. , 1975;Fitzhugh et al. , 1975).By 1972, the need became evident to model the interactions between genotype and environment and management practices in order to predict animal productivity.At about this same time, USAID recognized that a systematic, comprehensive approach was required to increase the productivity of tropical cattle. It accounts for the interactive effects of genotype, breeding system, nutrition, reproduction, growth, milk production and nutrient intake. The lack of a feedback effect from the cattle herd to the grazing resource is a major limitation of the model in its present form. However, it can still be applied with advantage to situations where this effect is important so long as the results are interpreted taking this limitation into consideration, as for example when the predicted stocking rate under a production strategy exceeds reasonable limits. The Ebini and Rupununi areas of Guyana served as the first tropical testing grounds for the model (Davis and Cartwright, 1976). Data to characterize the resource base at both locations were limited, and it was necessary to rely on sketchy experimental results and personal observations to describe the variation in quality of forages consumed throughout the year.The Ebini area is an isolated part of Guyana with poor quality forage and no livestock production at present. Simulation results predicted that cattle production in this area would not be viable without supplementary feeding. This result was limiting factor. Following this, a run was made assuming cows on a higher plane of nutrition derived from longer use of improved pastures. Under these conditions it was indicated that a productive herd could be maintained with a reasonable level of offtake.Cattle production was also simulated for the Rupununi area which currently  (Sanders, 1977). This approach has proved highly efficient. Topics researched with the model include the effects of forage quality on the productivity and profitability of cow-calf feedlot management systems and the comparative efficiencies of a number of beef cattle cross-breeding systems (Notter et al. , 1978a(Notter et al. , , 1978b(Notter et al. , , 1978c).The computer model, described in detail by Sanders (1974Sanders ( , 1977) ) and Sanders andCartwright (1978a, 1978b), consists of a main segment and a number of The intake of cows more than eight years old is adjusted downward by three percent for each year of age over eight. The nutritional requirements to achieve potential levels of performance are also calculated. Intake is set at the minimum of these three limits (from equations (1) to (3) ) if this minimum is below the calculated re quirement. If the minimum limit is above the calculated requirement, intake is set halfway between the two levels .Nutrient requirements (of digestible dry matter per day) for maintenance, activity, milk production, lean tissue growth and fat deposition, based on genotype, size, sex, condition, pregnancy and lactation status, are calculated for each animal in each month. The following equations are used:where AC is an activity coefficient particular to each situation (in the range from The nutrient requirements calculated by equations ( 4) to ( 8) are summed. If total nutrient requirements are less than calculated nutrient intake (from equations for each application. It is recognized that the value of these other parameters may not always be applicable or may later need to be modified for African cattle breeds.The derivation of the two specified parameters is given here.  4.1. This date is at the end of the wet season when all animals tend to be in the best condition after several months of sustained growth. This section summarizes the procedures used to validate the model and presents some selected results of the validation runs made, using the input data described in the previous section. available for the real system only over a two-year period at several locations and for an above-average rainfall sequence. Additional output data are available for about a seven-year period, but are not matched by corresponding input data. For sophisticated models of complex systems, the complete data sets which would be desirable for formal validation are seldom available, and this particular model is no exception. In such cases, subjective considerations become relatively more important. When greater reliance is placed upon subjective criteria for validation, minor differences between outputs can be detected with less confidence, and this decrease in confidence becomes even more important as the number of parameters by which an output is being evaluated increases.The model is considered to be validated for conditions in Botswana if it satisfied the following three criteria :-  The data from the ranches are pooled according to the methods described in   growth achieved every year until the onset of the dry season which is followed by a period of significantly reduced growth and even weight loss. Although the values simulated are, in most instances, slightly above the recorded weights at the corresponding age, the phasing of changes in the growth rates corresponds suf ficiently well for this validation criterion to be satisfied.The data presented here are the most important of the parameters used to  2. The field data available for the cattle posts are less complete than the detailed data available for the APRU ranches. Thus coincidence between the cattle post data which are available and the simulation results does not necessarily imply that the model is validated for application to these production systems. In this case, subjective factors are relatively more important in determining the acceptability of the simulation.The model predicts higher calving percentages on both cattle posts than have actually been reported. The model assumes that phosphorus in the diet is not limiting for reproductive performance, while research results from southern Africa indicate that calving percentages are in fact very significantly reduced if the phosphorus intake is inadequate (e.g., Van Niekerk, 1974). Another factor that makes the comparison of survey data and simulated results more difficult is that in the model heifers are not joined until 28 months of age, while on the cattle posts the individual joining age is often earlier. Also the model does not make allowance for the impact of infectious disease such as brucellosis which may depress calving rates on the cattle posts below those predicted.In Herd productivity depends on relationships among variables whose values are determined both within and outside the system (endogenously and exogenously).The herd manager has varying degrees of control on the exogenously determined variables. For example, complete control over weaning age is a practical possi bility, but only limited control is possible over the forage regime on offer to the animals, and no control is possible over the weather.In a model, all parameters corresponding to both the endogenously and ex ogenously determined variables are controllable and can be set at any desired value. In this way a validated model is used to investigate the likely impact on the real system of changes in the level of any set of variables. The values of vari ables can be reset at particular levels and the model can then simulate operations through time and predict the changes which would occur in the real system being modelled. The model is then operating as a high speed 'if-then' calculator. In this report, when parameters have their values set at levels other than those used in the validation runs, the corresponding computer simulation run of such a pro duction alternative is defined as an intervention. These simulation runs can be designed so that they correspond to real-world experimentation.For any production system, it will be useful to test This can be examined by simulating adverse environmental conditions with the model.The greatest amount of information is ohtained from the simulation of pro duction systems when the results from the runs within a set of experiments are comparable. For example, while the model predicts animal performance in re sponse to the forage regime on offer, it does not relate performance to land area.The simulated forage quality and quantity available per animal does not decrease as the herd size increases as it might in practice for a real herd on a specific area of 2 land.Therefore Cow reproductive performance has been considered the production trait of primary importance, thus the management has aimed at giving cows the best opportunity to reproduce. Optimum calf treatment has been considered of secondary importance.Seven months was thought to be the lowest age at which calves could be weaned safely on all the ranches.The present simulations compare five-and nine-month weaning with the seven-month standard. These are simulated under the Masiatilodi/Matlolakgang ranch conditions, as five-month weaning might well be feasible in the relatively favourable environment of this area. A summary of the simulated performance of the system under the three weaning strategies is given in Table 5.1. The values in that table are the solution values after the effects of introducing the different weaning ages are assimilated. This presentation recognizes that, while the wean ing age can be changed in a particular year, the effects of such a change will be evident in the system's performance only after several years. Column 1 of this table repeats the results simulated for the validation of the model for this  The results indicate that the effects of weaning age are retained to some extent for seven years. At five months, the average calf weaning weight of 160 kg is only 70 percent of the weaning weight under the nine-month strategy. By one year, calves weaned at five months are 31 kg, or 13 percent lighter than one-yearold calves weaned at nine months. By two and one-half years of age, however, this difference falls to 20 kg, or four percent. At three years of age, cows that have been weaned at five months are still 18 kg, or four percent lighter than those weaned at nine months. However, the effect on the cows of suckling a calf for five months rather than nine months is such that, by five years of age, the cows under the five-month weaning regime recover this four percent disadvantage. At seven years of age, they are 39 kg, or nine percent, heavier.The later the weaning age, the greater the number of breeding cows which can be carried when the herd size is scaled to a total herd consumption of 1 800 tons of dry matter per year. This reflects the lower number of calves produced.The calving percentage is markedly reduced by extending the weaning age, while calf survival from birth to weaning remains approximately proportional to the weaning age.One index of biological efficiency appropriate to a grazing herd is the total amount of dry matter consumed by the herd per kilogramme liveweight sold from the system. In terms of this index, the five-month weaning regime is four percent more efficient, and the nine-month regime is 13 percent less efficient than the standard seven months . The total liveweight of animals sold -steers plus surplus heifers and cull cows -is substantially lower when calves are weaned at nine months. The total liveweight sold is 391 kg per cow in the five-month system and 294 kg per cow when the weaning age is set at nine months .These results are simulated assuming that average forage conditions are constant from year to year. The calves under the five-month weaning regime are weaned from mid-March to mid-June at a time when the quality of the available forage is declining progressively before recovering in September-October. In years of below-average forage quality, it could be anticipated that the modest advantage of five-month over seven-month weaning might be reduced or even elim inated by inadequate fodder during this period. To test this hypothesis it will be necessary to carry out simulation experiments under a number of nutritional regimes, including random sequences of above-average and below-average years.non-protein nitrogen (NPN) supplementation to calves in the early post-weaning period. Before making any extension recommendations, these simulations will need to be run under conditions corresponding to the different major ecological zones in Botswana, as there may be regional differences in the appropriate weaning strategy.Although weaning would be the simplest form of management practice to evaluate by physical experimentation, since only a single parameter in the system is deliberately varied, such experimentation would require a considerable commitment of time and physical resources. Any conclusions from such field ex perimentation would only be reliable if the environmental circumstances encoun tered during the experimentation period included unfavourable years. For such research situations, a simulation model can be of major use, as different environ mental sequences can be specified readily. Testing the hypotheses with a simu lation model would be considerably less expensive than testing them by physical experimentation and the results would be available much more quickly. Seven-month weaning, if introduced without other changes, increases the calving rate from 56 percent to 64 percent (Column 2, Table 5.2). This reflects the reduced stress on the cows and the resulting shorter average calving interval.The average calf weaning weight decreases by 16 percent to 142 kg. This weaning effect is still partially reflected in three-year old cows which are slightly lighter than those from the natural weaning regime. However the mature cows are heavier, as a result of the reduced lactation stress when calves are weaned at an earlier age. Overall, the total liveweight sold and the composition of the sales from the two systems are similar. The change in herd composition caused by introducing seven-month weaning is modest. The major difference is the increased number of steers carried as a result of the higher calving rate.By contrast, the introduction of a three-month breeding season without any change in the weaning policy (the cattle post weaning average of 10 months being used in the simulation) reduces the calving rate from 56 percent to 50 percent (Column 3, Table 5.2). The average weaning weight increases from 170 to 188 kg, as a higher percentage of calves are born at the more favourable time of the year (October -December). Slightly more cows are carried for the total herd consump tion of 1 800 tonnes of dry matter, but overall a smaller herd can be carried because average cow weights are higher. Calf survival to weaning at 10 months is slightly lower when the breeding season is controlled, as this innovation when introduced alone tends to concentrate the weaning near the end of the dry season.As fewer calves are born, the cull cows comprise a higher fraction of the liveweight sold from the herd. There is no significant change in overall biological efficiency as given by the index of total kilogrammes of dry matter consumed per kilogramme of liveweight sold.The third single intervention considered is the provision of a reserve pasture during the dry season for calves from weaning to one year of age (Column 4, Table 5.2). For the simulation, the reserve pasture is made available to the weaners from July 15 to December 14. Overall biological efficiency is reduced slightly by adopting this strategy. Fertility changes insignificantly and weaning rates remain constant. The average weight of three-year-old animals increases substantially, reflecting the use of the higher quality reserve pasture from weaning to one year of age. However, with breeding all through the year, a considerable fraction of the calves are weaned at a time that does not permit them to use the reserve pasture before they reach one year of age. As in the basic cattle post simulation at Kweneng, crop stover (from maize) is available to the main herd in the first month of the dry season (July). In the model, however, the weaned calves on the reserve pasture are not given access to the crop stover as this is considered likely to be outside the fenced reserve pasture area. This assumption undoubtedly reduces the impact of the reserve pasture; the results will be more favourable if the crop stover is made available to the weaners. The total dry matter consumed by the weaned calves on the reserve pasture is 2.4 percent of the total diet of the herd. This is equivalent to about 150 hectares of land for a cattle post area of 6 400 hectares.If both seven-month weaning and three-month breeding are adopted (Column 5, Table 5.2), the results can be compared relative to the baseline run or to the runs simulating the introduction of each of these innovations singly. The introduc tion of seven-month weaning combined with three-month breeding gives a lower reproductive performance than the introduction of seven-month weaning alone, but a slightly higher performance than the introduction of three-month breeding alone.The combined changes produce a herd which is slightly more efficient in terms of the conversion of dry matter to saleable liveweight.The addition of a reserve pasture for weaners, combined with a seven-month weaning period, increases average calf survival from 77 percent to 91 percent (Column 6, Table 5.2). This is mainly due to a marked reduction in calf mortality for the younger cow groups because of their significantly higher body weights. The resultant increase in lactation stress among these younger cows in turn reduces the overall calving percentage. The reserve pasture contributes 3.7 percent of the total dry matter in the herd diet when seven-month weaning is practised, an in crease from the 2.4 percent contributed when the reserve pasture is used with traditional 10-month weaning. This difference simply reflects the extra three months during which the calves are using the reserve pasture. About 250 hectares of reserve pasture are required to provide 3.7 percent of the total diet for the herd.The combination of a three-month breeding period and reserve pasture produces the lowest calving percentage, with less than 50 percent of the cows calving each year (Column 7, Table 5. The combined introduction of a seven-month weaning period, a three-month breeding season and a reserve pasture for the weaned calves increases the overall biological efficiency of production and produces the greatest liveweight sales of all the alternatives simulated (Column 8, Table 5.2). The weaning weight of 170 kg is the same as in the baseline cattle post simulation but is achieved in seven rather than ten months. Young cows are heavier but mature cows are approximately the same weight. The total number of animals in May is higher in the baseline run than predicted with the combination of innovations. This favours the innovative system, as the forage demand during the dry season is then lower. While 31.3 percent of the total dry matter intake is required during the five-month dry season under baseline conditions, only 27.8 percent of the total demand is during this period when the three management modifications are introduced together. This gives an increase in the ratio of wet season to dry season demand from 2.2 : 1 to 2.6 : 1.This management regime requires that 4.8 percent of the dry matter intake is available from the reserve pasture. This is equivalent to about 300 hectares on a 6 400 hectare cattle post. Liveweight sales per cow are 10 percent higher than in the existing baseline systems but, overall, the biological efficiency of these combined interventions is only five percent greater than that of the baseline cattle post.which can usefully be performed with a validated cattle herd model. They do not address all the issues which would be involved in actual cattle post development, such as the differential performance or changes in the ranking of these alternatives if operated in a variable environment. Nor do they indicate conclusively whether slight modifications of these interventions will not have a more favourable impact on the performance of the overall system. For example, it was suggested at the workshop that given the poor forage regime of the cattle post, a three-month breed ing season from February to April might be preferable to a January-March season because during the later period the nutritional status of the cows would more 4 likely be rising, giving higher conception rates.Such alternative specifications were designed following the workshop and will be simulated. Thus the initial runs have served as an aid in formulating hypotheses about the 'best' development strategy.of the herd relative to the baseline situation. The combined introduction of all three management innovations produces the greatest improvement in biological efficiency, but it may not be warranted from an economic point of view as the gains are only modest. The economic gain would be greater if the changes in manage ment also resulted in improvement over time in the forage quality. Thus it would be useful to test these same innovations using simulations specifying a steady im provement in the quality of the available forage over time and reaching the quality of forage available on the ranches in, say, five or ten years.Simulation runs will also be necessary to test the impact of different se quencing of the introduction of innovations to ensure the earliest possible payoffs from the investment made. The runs will then need to be replicated using different environmental sequences, to be certain that the development strategy will be viable when implemented in the real world of uncertain climatic conditions. Such exper iments with the model will help to quantify the risks undertaken by individual pro ducers embarking on the suggested development strategy. Credit facilities and other related development activities can then be designed to help the producers meet such risks.Introduction of a Dry-Season Forage Plant. In Botswana, the quality of forage for cattle drops markedly in the dry season. Providing higher quality dryseason forage will improve overall herd productivity, but whether the investment necessary to achieve the improvement will be economically justifiable is not known.On a ranch, the introduction of new fodder plants is one of several ways of alleviat ing a dry-season forage deficit. Although the initial capital cost of plant introduc tion may be considerable, it has an advantage over food supplements brought to the farm in its substantially lower recurrent costs. Research work from neighbouring Malawi suggests that a promising fodder plant to introduce in Botswana is Leucaena leucocephala. This plant has not yet been studied in Botswana to determine either the best establishment methods or yields in different areas under different environ mental conditions. However, it is likely that the plant can be grown, although perhaps at considerable cost.Research in other parts of the world provides basic information on its use by cattle (Hill* 1971;USNAS, 1977). Leucaena cannot exceed 30 percent of the dietequivalent to about 3 kg of dry matter per head per day -for an extended period without causing mimosine toxicity and its attendant problems. This upper limit on its intake can be specified easily in a simulation model. Therefore the impact of leucaena on cattle performance in Botswana can be predicted using the model. The Lesego-Impala ranch is used for the initial investigations as this area has the lowest overall forage quality so that introduction of a plant such as leucaena could be expected to be of particular value •In the model, leucaena is specified as being available each year for the three months from August 15 to November 14. Thus it is not specified for use as drought reserve fodder, but as a routine part of the ranch's annual grazing programme.With the constraint of maximum leucaena intake, the composition of the overall diet in these months improves from approximately 38 percent digestibility and 3.8 percent crude protein to over 46 percent digestibility and 8 percent crude protein.The leucaena could, in practice, be made available to any class of cattle at any time within this three-month period. For purposes of illustration, however, only two feeding regimes are examined. The first regime provides the leucaena to all animals in the herd. The second restricts access to leucaena to cows which are lactating and/or pregnant. These are the animals under greatest stress whose performance is expected to be most responsive to the availability of high quality forage. Both these feeding regimes are practical management alternatives.The impact of the leucaena supplementation is summarized in Table 5.3.Column 1 repeats the baseline validation run for the Lesego-Impala ranch, against which the effect of leucaena is gauged. When leucaena is provided to all animals, the weight of young cows increase by 15 percent and of mature cows by 3 percent.The overall calving rate increases from 67 percent to 83 percent in response to the improved nutritional status of the cows . Calf survival from birth to weaning does not alter significantly. Together, the increased calving rate and the higher animal weights imply a higher dry matter consumption per cow when leucaena is supplied. A total of 313 cows can be supported with a herd consumption of 1 800 tonnes of dry matter in the baseline system. When leucaena is introduced and the system is again in equilibrium, only 263 of the heavier and more productive cows can be supported by the same level of dry matter consumption for the herd. Using the weight of dry matter consumed per kilogramme of liveweight sold as an index of biological efficiency, the provision of leucaena to all animals increases efficiency by almost 7.5 percent. Total liveweight sales increase by over 8 percent while the liveweight sales per cow increase by over 28 percent from 262 to 337 kg per year.This regime requires 1 902 animal months per year of grazing on leucaena, with the special-purpose forage contributing about 9.5 percent of the total annual dry matter consumption by the herd.The alternative specification examined is the provision of leucaena only to pregnant and/or lactating cows. Only 621 animal months of grazing on leucaena are required per year, or about one-third of the number necessary when all animals are supplemented. In this situation, leucaena accounts for 3 percent of the total herd consumption. Providing the supplement only to the cows under stress pro duces an increased calving percentage approaching that of the strategy of feeding the entire herd. Also, more calves are born annually under this feeding regime than with the 'all herd' feeding strategy, reflecting the slightly higher stocking rate possible when the animals are all marginally lighter.The biological efficiency of the more limited supplementation regime is slightly lower than when fodder is provided to all animals. However, an economic appraisal of these two feeding regimes is presented in Section 6.2.1 which shows that the provision of leucaena to all animals is less favourable from an economic standpoint than providing it only to the females under stress.Milking of Indigenous Cows . Botswana annually imports considerable quantities of milk and milk products . An important development question is whether the indigenous Tswana cattle can be used to substitute for these imports without impairing their performance as producers of meat. In areas with good road or rail access, milk can be taken to the consumption centres without spoilage, and at an economic price. Although such areas are of limited extent, they are considered by some to be adequate to provide substantially for the needs of the country . The simulation model is used to carry out initial investigations into this aspect of devel opment to determine production potentials, but economic evaluation of the inter ventions would be necessary before final recommendations could be made.Two milking strategies are simulated using Kweneng as the test location.Cattle posts at Kweneng have reasonable access to a milk market and cows can graze high quality crop stover during the dry season (crop stover is not available on cattle posts in the Serule area). An additional reason for basing these initial experiments on the Kweneng area is that milk sales provide a cash income which may facilitate the transition of a cattle post to a ranch-type operation. The two strategies examined are milking with and without feed supplementation for the milking cows .Decision rules are specified in the model to determine whether an individual cow is to be milked, and the same rules are used for both milking strategies. Only cows in their fourth year of age or over are milked, and these are milked only if the calf will still gain at least 300 grammes per day if one quarter of the milk is taken. A maximum of one half of the cow's milk can be taken (by milking two quarters of the udder), if the calf is still left with sufficient milk to gain 300 grammes per day. The indigenous Tswana is specified in the model as having a milk potential of 11. 25 litres per day at the beginning of lactation. Milk taken from the cows can be consumed by the herder and his family or sold.Column 1 of Table 5.4 repeats the results of the validation run for the Kweneng cattle post. Columns 2 and 3 summarize the simulated status of the herd in the fifth year after the introduction of milking without and with supplementation respectively. The solution values for the Kweneng cattle post (as given in Column 1) are used as the starting point for these other two simulations . The initial conditions as given in Column 1 are scaled to give a total herd consumption of 1 800 tonnes of dry matter.Although five years of milking are simulated beginning with the baseline equilibrium situation, there is evidence in the simulation results that the new equilibrium status of the herd is not reached in that time. This is most evident for the run in which milking is carried out without supplementation. In that run, the December weight of open four-year-old cows immediately post partum averages 333 kg for the first three years of the simulation, decreasing to 323 kg at the end of the Values in Columns 2 and 3 are from the fifth year of simulation starting from the baseline conditions summarized in Column 1.fourth year and to 307 kg at the end of the fifth year. This time series, and others which can be taken from the model output, indicate that the effect on the cow herd only becomes evident in the last two years of the run when the calves born within the milking system themselves reach maturity . This overall decline in herd pro ductivity can be expected to continue for some years before the new equilibrium status of the herd is reached. Emphasis in this discussion is on the performance of the herd in the fifth year after milking is introduced.When the cows are milked and not given supplementary feed, the total dry matter consumed by the herd decreases from 1 800 to 1 500 tonnes by the fifth year (Column 2, Table 5.4). This mainly reflects the reduced numbers of herd followers (steers and surplus heifers) due to increased calf mortality and the lower weights of the young cows being introduced to the herd in the later years of the simulation.Whereas there are 142 replacement heifers in the herd in the baseline situation, this number is reduced to 48 after five years of milking. Fewer heifers are avail able for sale when calf survival is reduced by the milk deprivation of the calf caused by milking, and the same number is needed to replace the cow herd after mortalities and culling. While 198 calves are weaned annually in the baseline run, only 166 are weaned in the fifth year of milking. The herd status indicated by Column 2 is for a transition year between two equilibrium states, with herd per formance declining. This gives the upper limit for survival of calves born in the 5 fifth year of 69 percent (calculated as 166/247).By the fifth year of milking, the total liveweight sales from the herd are reduced from 73. 8 to 52. 7 tonnes. This is equivalent to a drop in liveweight sales per cow from 173 kg in the baseline situation to 122 kg in the fifth year with milking. The liveweight sales per cow of steers and surplus heifers fall from 131 kg to 80 kg per year. Cull cow sales comprise 24. 5 percent of all sales in the baseline situation, increasing to 34.5 per cent in the fifth year under the milking regime.The 242 calves born in that year will be weaned partly in the year and partly in the next year of the simulation. This is a 10-month weaning system with year-round breeding. Some of the 165 calves weaned on the fifth year are born in the fourth year, which has a marginally more favourable maternal environment than the fifth year. The sixth year will be even less favourable, resulting in still lower calf survival.Without supplementary feeding of cows, the average weaning weight of calves declines from 170 kg to 132 kg, a reduction of 22 percent from the baseline value.Correspondingly, the average weight of three-year-old cows is 278 kg in the fifth year, versus 319 kg in the baseline situation. Liveweight sales are reduced by almost 29 percent through the introduction of milking. Mlk is a joint product under this regime, and 70 598 litres are extracted. This is 44 percent of the total milk produced, with the remainder consumed directly by the calves. The amount extracted is 165 litres per cow in the herd, or 286 litres per cow which calves in the year.The index of biological efficiency, expressed in total kilogrammes of liveweight sold per kilogramme of dry matter consumed, drops by over 16 percent when milking is carried out without feed supplementation, compared with the base line situation. When the quantity of milk extracted is converted to liveweight equivalents using a conversion factor of 9 : 1 (constructed from values given by Dewry, et al. , 1959), the index of efficiency of this milking strategy improves from 28.47 to 24.78. This approaches the baseline index value of 24.39.An important aspect of this milking strategy is that the producer loses some flexibility to respond to drought conditions by manipulating stocking rates. The herd (as indicated by the mid-May inventory) is composed predominantly of cows, so the producer has only a limited number of non-breeding stock which can be sold in below -average or drought years. One alternative to manipulating stocking rates in this way is to sacrifice herd productivity (particularly fertility) in poor years and compensate for this loss by improved productivity in the above average years.Such alternatives can readily be investigated by the appropriate specification of experiments with the cattle herd model.Table 5. 5 presents the distribution of milk production at Kweneng over the year during the fifth year of the simulation. The highest monthly production in January is 7.3 times the lowest monthly production in September. Monthly yields show a steady decline from January through June, with an increase in July when the cows graze on maize stover. The milking decision rule specified for this simu lation limits milk offtake to 50 percent of the production in any month, but this equilibrium after five years, the output from the model indicates that the equilib rium level of production under this strategy will be closer to the baseline situation than when the milking cows are not given a supplement. In practical terms, this means that the adoption of milking with supplementation on a cattle post will not affect the herd as markedly as when the cows are not given a supplement.  not have a clear advantage over their current practice, particularly in poorer production years. Furthermore, when an intervention is considered likely to have a substantial effect on the system, it may be necessary to follow its impact over a number of years to avoid drawing conclusions based only on short-run gains, as undesirable consequences may occur in the longer term. Properly specified simu lation experiments with a validated model can overcome these particular difficulties.As many different environmental sequences as necessary can be specified, and the model can run for sufficient simulated time to make clear the long-term changes This section illustrates the impact on herd performance of variables out of management control, using a change in the forage regime as an example. The onset of the annual wet season is assumed to be delayed by two months, reducing 7 the length of the growing season by the same period.The runs are conducted with the model for Senile cattle post. The present model is deterministic but it can be modified to a stochastic mode by specification of distributions for key parameters which are variable in the real system. An example of such a parameter is the quality of forage on offer each month. In the stochastic mode the model would produce distributions of outcomes through simulated time as repeated runs are made with the same initial conditions and randomly selected values of the stochastic variables. The deterministic formulation of the model is used in this report as the objective is to illustrate the modelling methodology rather than to provide operational answers to research questions.Interpretation of output from a stochastic model is more difficult. Further more, where, say, 50 repeats of each particular intervention are necessary, the cost of operating a stochastic model is much greater. A composite approach is therefore often advantageous . The deterministic model is first used to identify promising interventions, and then this subset of interventions is investigated using the model in a stochastic mode.The impact of drought would be specified by a much more severe reduction in forage supply and quality. The forage seasons starting at the end of Years 3 and 4 are normal, as is the season beginning just before the end of the run in the fifth year simulated.This phasing of normal and late forage seasons is presented schematically in    These results show that even modest changes in the forage supply have important lagged effects, even when followed immediately by two normal years.The impact of this modified forage regime will still be evident in the performance of the system several years later. Furthermore, the changes in the forage regime specified for these runs are modest compared with the changes which do occur from year to year in Botswana. At present the model does not allow for tactical responses to such factors as the impact of disease, different environmental circumstances or the condition of the herd in relation to the forage supply. For example, to examine the impact of a drought on the herd it will be necessary to include a decision module to simulate the actions of producers when confronted with such a situation. Such a decision module could be incorporated into the model to take account of the herd status in absolute terms and in relation to environ mental circumstances. feeding leucaena to all animals results in higher cow weights, calving percentages, total liveweight sales and biological efficiency than providing it to pregnant and lactating cows only. However, it must be kept in mind that numerous alternative management regimes could be specified for the use of leucaena and neither of the above two regimes specified here is certain to achieve the maximum biological efficiency.Both leucaena feeding strategies increase meat sales from the ranch. At a price of 0. 70 pula per kg cold dressed weight (CDW) and assuming a 50 percent dressing out percentage, the ranch yields total sales of 28 700 pula for 82 000 kg g liveweight without the special purpose forage (cf. Table 5.5).Providing the forage to all animals increases total liveweight sales by 6 600 kg per year and farm revenue by 2 310 pula. Supplementing only pregnant and /or lactating cows, a more restrictive feeding strategy, raises revenue by 1 435 pula for the extra 4 100 kg liveweight sold. The grade of meat sold is assumed to be the same in all cases.However, extra annual costs are incurred if leucaena is used. Since the area must be well fenced, a fence maintenance cost must be included. Maintenance of the leucaena is also necessary. The annual fence maintenance cost is estimated to be 10 percent of the capital cost of the fencing, while maintenance of the leucaena is costed in the budgets at 10 pula per hectare per year.Based on experience elsewhere in the world, the annual yield of leucaena under Botswana conditions can be expected to range from two to eight tonnes of dry 8.All calculations assume meat prices constant across years and months within years and across all classes of cattle.matter (DM) per hectare, with the most likely average yield in the region of five tonnes. Under favourable conditions, the cost of establishment for nursery prop agation might be as low as 120 pula per hectare, but if the plant proves more 9 difficult to establish the cost per hectare may be as high as 260 pula. Table 6.1gives a breakdown of these estimated costs. At this time, researchers in Botswana consider that the plant will be difficult to establish and, therefore, that the cost of establishing it will likely be high. Propagation from a nursery is budgeted, as seed germination is expected to be poor even in prepared seed beds. For the evaluation of mutually exclusive development alternatives to be financed from a given budget the use of present values is formally the correct method. Since in this case no budget optimization is necessary this complication can be neglected.For this feeding strategy and yield and investment cost, the incremental invest ment in leucaena yields an annual IRR of 17.9 percent.   As shown in Table 6.3, if leucaena is fed to the whole herd each year and the dry matter yield is two tonnes per hectare per year, the internal rate of return is negative over the range of investment costs considered. At a yield of four tonnes the IRR is about nine percent at the lowest establishment cost con sidered of 120 pula per hectare, but is negative if the establishment cost is higher than about 260 pula per hectare. Under the most favourable, but unlikely, circum stances of an annual yield of eight tonnes of DM per hectare and establishment cost of only 120 pula, the IRR is 24 percent. If an establishment cost of 200 pula per hectare applies and the opportunity cost of money in Botswana is in the region of 10 percent per year, then a sustained annual yield of more than six tonnes per hectare is necessary for this investment to be economic.Leucaena is a deep rooted plant and its yield losses in below-average rain fall years will be less than for other pasture species. Thus, over several years the internal rate of return calculations presented here will tend to underestimate its average contribution. The simulation model can be specified to examine the incremental benefit due to this differential performance in dry years . This benefit will depend, of course, upon the relative frequencies of years with above-average and below-average rainfall.The calculations in this section illustrate a method of evaluating the economic desirability of introducing leucaena to livestock production units when only limited cost and productivity data are available. These preliminary results suggest that additional simulation runs should be made to investigate the contribution of leucaena to both ranch and cattle post systems in Botswana. Also it would be desirable to augment these computer-based studies by field trials directed toward the determi nation of yield and establishment cost.Milking Indigenous Cows. The summary of the simulation runs to examine two alternative milking strategies in the Kweneng cattle post area is pre sented in section 5.5. That discussion indicates that substantial quantities of milk can be extracted from a cattle post herd when cows are milked both with and without supplementary feeding. This section discusses the economic merit of milking without supplementary feeding.Farmers in this part of Botswana receive a farm-gate price for milk of approximately 0. 15 pula per litre, with on-farm milking costs of 0. 05 pula per litre, giving a net price of 0.10 pula per litre. Although the price varies through the year, rising in the dry winter months, an average price of 0.10 pula per litre is used here, as the objective is to illustrate the method of economic analysis rather than to be prescriptive. When cows are milked without supplementation, the producer does not need to purchase any additional inputs other than those already accounted for in the net price assumed above.It was indicated in section 5. 2.4 that five years of milking is not a sufficient time for the impact of milking to be fully expressed in the system's performance.In the fifth year the herd is still in transition from one equilibrium state to another.The interest here is in the economic evaluation of the milking intervention from the viewpoint of the individual producer. The changes in herd performance over time following from the introduction of an intervention are important in such an evaluation, as economic gains or losses can result in the short or long term. The phasing of these gains and losses is a key determinant of the attractiveness to the producer of an intervention. If the herd performance is simulated for a short time, say five years, and the equilibrium status is significantly different from the initial conditions, these conditions will influence the outcome. The influence diminishes as longer-run simulations are made. This parallels the performance of the real systems being modelled where the status of the herd at any time can only be related confidently to immediately prior events. Different initial conditions will thus produce different time paths of variables as the status of the simulated herd moves toward the equilibrium state. The initial conditions used for the simulation run of the milking strategy are the baseline values for the herd at Kweneng cattle post when no milking is carried out.Defining Year 0 of the simulation as the last year before milking is intro duced, the model then simulates performance for five years, defined as Years 1 to 5. Table 6.5 gives the livestock and milk sales from the herd for the five-year period. Assuming a meat price to the producer of 0.  While Table 6. 5 indicates that an increase in income is achieved in the first three years of milking, this is obtained at some expense in terms of the value of the livestock (herd) capital used in production. Table 6. Together, the inventories of two-and three-year-old females decline in value from 9 740 pula to 8 796 pula over the five-year period, a drop of almost 10 per cent. The value of the steers and excess heifers together drops by 45 percent from 25 360 pula to 13 869 pula. While there is some reduction in the numbers of animals in these two classes, most of the fall in the value of the inventory is attributable to the lower average weights .  initially to simulate many more runs in each of these sets but, as with real-world experimentation, the examination of a system's performance for each additional variable incurs extra costs. It is usually more cost-efficient to conduct runs with the model in a stepwise manner, with the results from each set of runs used to identify subsequent simulations. The specifications for a second series of runs requiring no additional field data are as follows :a.Alternative weaning ages. The preliminary runs made to examine the ranch performance under different weaning regimes indicated that a change from sevenmonth to five-month weaning may be warranted as it improves reproductive per formance (Section 5.2.1). In this situation, post-weaning supplementation given to calves during the dry season, and particularly in drier than average years, could be advantageous. The series of five runs shownin Table 7.1 addresses this question.All parameters not included in the table are set at the values used in the baseline validation run.  ","tokenCount":"11725"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f4fee50cdae9971b9313a943b147a3ac","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://publications.iwmi.org/pdf/H018329.pdf","id":"234668603"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"85a98876-4296-44a6-b8f5-82ca61457bc5","pagecount":"8","content":"In most places in the hills of Nepal, and to a somewhat lesser extent in the Tarai, the low elevation plains of southern Nepal, wherever the potential for irrigation exists, farmers have already made efforts to irrigate at least part of the potential command area. The command area is defined as the cultivable area that could be irrigated by a given canal if there were sufficient water available. Estimates suggest that farmer-operated irrigation systems provide 93% of the irrigation in the hills and 74% in the Tarai (Water and Energy Commission, 1981). Some irrigation systems were built hundreds of years ago under the direction of local rulers. Other systems, including some recent ones, have been developed entirely by local farmers' initiative and resources. The size of farmer-managed irrigations systems is normally determined by the hydraulic boundaries of an individual diversion and canal. Systems in the hills vary from several hectares to about 100 ha, the size being constrained largely by topography. In the Tarai, farmer-managed systems of more than 5000 ha have been observed (Pradhan et al., 1988). The term \"farmer-managed\" in refers to irrigation systems operated by the irrigators with little or no input from the government or other outside agencies. This type of irrigation system is also referred to as community-managed irrigation, peoples' irrigation, communal irrigation, and simple irrigation.The description of farmer-managed irrigation presented in this case study is based primarily on a 1982-83 study conducted by the authors on 25 systems in the hill area of the Western and Far Western Development Regions of Nepal. In eight of the systems, intensive field measurements, farmer interviews, examination of the organizations' records, and participation in meetings of the organizations were carried out over a period of one and a half years. Information concerning the remainder of the systems was obtained through rapid appraisals conducted by a team, including the authors. These systems were well-organized and managed, making possible intensive agricultural production. More recent work undertaken in Nepal's Central Development Region by the Water and Energy Commission Secretariat of the Ministry of Water Resources with the assistance of the International Irrigation Management Institute has revealed farmer-managed irrigation systems with less sophisticated management organizations and less intensive agricultural production than those reported here.Wherever there is existing irrigation, there is also an organization to carry out the primary tasks of an irrigation system: construction of the civil works, allocation of water entitlements, water distribution, maintenance, and management of conflicts arising among members. To carry out most of these tasks, the organization must have a means of mobilizing both human and financial resources.A broad diversity of organizations and means to carry out these irrigation system tasks have been developed among farmer-managed systems in Nepal. Some farmer irrigation organizations are informal, while others exhibit a high degree of formality with scheduled meetings, designated functionaries, written rules, accounts, lists of members and their water allocation, and a register of members' attendance at work. In the hills of Nepal, the amount of organization required and the formality of the organization is, to a large degree, a function of how much labor must be mobilized to maintain the system to capture and deliver the available supply of water as needed. If little labor is required, the organization tends to be much less formal and vice versa.Even though there are frequently a series of canals-which may even cross each other-delivering water from the same stream to a contiguous area, each canal has a separate organization for its operation. A given plot of land within the command area usually has water allocated to it from only one canal. All farm operators receiving water from a given canal are usually considered members of the organization that operates that canal system. A farmer is a member of several irrigation organizations if he cultivates several plots of land which receive water from different canals.Nearly all of the irrigation organizations have some recognized functionaries. They are usually selected at a meeting of all the members. Typically one functionary is responsible for organizing and supervising work on the system, and another keeps the accounts, minutes of the organization's meetings, and a record of members' attendance at work. Depending on the nature of the system, other functionaries may be appointed. In larger systems there may be several tiers or levels of organization with officers selected to represent different areas of the system at different levels. The performance of these functionaries is usually reviewed annually, and they may continue or be replaced depending on members' satisfaction with their performance. While functionaries may be responsible for specific tasks, major decisions are made only at meetings of all the members.Groups of farmers have worked hard to develop their water resources, investing large amounts of their labor and, in some cases, cash. Some have constructed long canals through jungle, hard rock, and along the face of cliffs. Often they have hired workers from other villages who are skilled in cutting canals and tunnels through hard rock. Until very recently all materials used were from the local community, though now cement, steel, and plastic pipe brought from outside have become quite common. Flows in excess of 300 liters per second have been measured in canals constructed by farmers in the hills, and flows of over ten cubic meters per second have been observed in systems in the Tarai.An irrigation system must somehow allocate entitlement or rights to the water among the farmers. This is typically based on either of two basic principles. The most common principle used is to divide the water in proportion to the area of land irrigated by each farmer in the command area. Thus, if a farmer cultivates one-twentieth of the irrigated land area, he is entitled to one-twentieth of the water in the system.The other approach to water allocation is to sell shares in the system to the members. There is no relationship between land ownership and water ownership in this method of water allocation. In one system the total water supply is divided into 60 shares, and the 105 members each own from one eighth of a share to four shares. If one farmer has more water than he needs for his land and another has less than desired, the one can sell water to the other. One year, ten additional shares were added to this system and sold for a total of Rs 28,000 (about $2,000 U.S.). The money was used to make improvements to the main canal so that more water could be delivered to serve a larger area. It is important to note that this principle of water allocation by purchased shares offers both an incentive for efficient use of water and a mechanism for expanding the area irrigated.Water Distribution. In a well-functioning irrigation system, water is distributed to farmers' fields in the amount to which each is entitled by the allocation scheme. Three methods of distributing the water for monsoon rice cultivation have been observed.One method in the systems studied is through the use of proportioning weirs called saachos. A saacho is made from a log with two or more notches of equal depth but varying widths cut into the top. It is installed in the canal so that all the water flows through the notches, causing the flow to be divided in the same proportions as the ratio of the widths of the notches. In some systems these saachos are used only to divert a portion of the flow from the main into secondary canals, while in others they are used right down to the individual field level.Another common method for distributing the water according to the allocation is by a timed rotation. Each fanner takes water from the canal for a specified length of time. The length of each farmer's tum is calculated to provide him the proportion of the flow to which he is entitled by the allocation. In some systems in the Far West of Nepal intermediate storage tanks are used to collect very small flows. The tank is then emptied by periodically opening the outlet and allowing a high discharge to surge down the canal to individual plots.The third method of distribution observed is by contract. Here the members of the organization pay one or more persons to deliver the water to all the fields. The contractors adjust the flow throughout the command area so that all fields are covered as adequately as possible. This method of distribution is especially suitable when the fields are a long distance from the village where most of the fanners live.Water distribution for wheat and maize tends to be much less precisely regulated. Usually the farmers decide among themselves when each will irrigate his fields, and then each farmer will be allowed to take water until his fields are fully irrigated. Since water is relatively scarce at the time of maize planting, an appointed functionary of the organization may be in charge of distributing water so that all members are able to plant at least some of their maize at the optimal time.Maintenance. The critical period for maintenance of most farmer managed irrigation systems is prior to and during the monsoon season. Most organizations have a meeting of the members in May where plans are made for the major annual maintenance which is done prior to land preparation for rice planting.Generally, the maintenance is done by the members, and they contribute labor in proportion to the benefits they receive from irrigation. Some organizations give a contract to one or more members for this work, and all members contribute money to pay the contractor. Cash may also be raised in this way to purchase tools and cement.An important element in the operation of a hill irrigation system is a method for early detection of any problems at the intake, landslides that block the canal, and leaks in the canaL During the monsoon, usually two people patrol the canal every day. The members may do this tum by tum, or two people may be hired to do this on contract. The persons patrolling the canal do minor repairs and alert the rest of the members if more labor is required. If they report an emergency, the leader will call all members to report immediately for work. Work may be carried out continuously night and day until water flows again.Conflict Management. Irrigation organizations inevitably experience conflict. After all, they distribute a limited resource among many members requiring their cooperation for operation and maintenance. Some members may try to steal more than their allotted share of the water, or may fail to contribute their required share of the labor and cash to maintain the system. To function well, irrigation organizations must have an effective way of managing conflicts when they arise.Persons who are caught stealing water are usually fined, may be physically punished, and frequently are denied water in their next tum. One organization exacted a public confession from a member caught stealing water, and recorded it in the organization's minute book. Most organizations levy cash fines against members who are absent from work. Since the enforcement of sanctions is in the hands of the members who benefit from the proper adherence to the rules and who control the distribution of water, they have both the incentives and the means to enforce the rules.In all of the farmer-managed irrigation systems we have observed, the organizations have, over time, improved the canals and expanded the area and number of farmers served. Most improvements have been accomplished by mobilizing resources from the members. Money has been raised to pay persons especially skilled at cutting canals and tunnels through rock, and to purchase cement. Recently, irrigation organizations have been turning more to government resources for the improvement of systems, and over half of the observed systems have received some assistance from the government. Sources of government assistance have been the Irrigation Department, Ministry of Panchayat and Local Development, and the district panchayats. Nepal's government structure until 1990 was made up of elected \"panchayats\" or governing councils at different levels. The smallest or local unit of government is the Village Panchayat, of which there are more that 3,000. There are 75 District Panchayats.When applying for and receiving government assistance, the local irrigation organization gives up some control over what work is done and how it is carried out. In some cases it appears that the organization's efforts are becoming increasingly focused on pursuing external resources. \"Grantsmanship\", i.e., efforts to secure government grants, is occupying more of the organization's efforts than \"self-help\", i.e., the mobilization of resources from within the organization.An irrigation organization must be able to command labor and material to accomplish the irrigation system tasks described above. The ability to mobilize resources in a timely fashion is the major factor distinguishing a well-operating irrigation system from an ineffective one.In systems where water is allocated in proportion to the area irrigated, members are usually required to contribute labor and cash according to their land area served. For instance, in one system a person with 0.5 ha of irrigated land is required to provide one laborer every day that routine maintenance work is done. A person with only 0.25 ha has to supply one laborer every other day. In another system, cash was raised at the rate of Rs 160 ($8.89 U.S.) per hectare to pay a contractor to do the maintenance.Farmer irrigation organizations which allocate water in proportion to purchased shares of water also mobilize labor and cash contributions on this basis. One laborer must be provided each day of routine maintenance for each share of water owned. Several years ago, one organization with 105 members irrigating 34 ha, raised cash at the rate of Rs 250 (about $18.00 U.S.) per share for a total of Rs 15,000 ($1080 U.S.) from 60 shares to improve their canal. This cash was in addition to their regular maintenance expense.Another basis for resource mobilization is in proportion to the productivity of the irrigated land. In one case, each member's irrigated land is rated by measuring the yield of rice. A volume measure approximately equal to 50 kg of unhusked rice is used. Both labor and cash are contributed in proportion to the number of volume units each person's land yields.When emergency maintenance is necessary, most organizations require all members to work, irrespective of the number of shares owned or the size of the land holding irrigated. At times, work will continue at night by the light of kerosene lanterns and flashlights.The resources fanner irrigation organizations mobilize are significant. Several systems with command areas of 30 to 50 ha regularly mobilize more than 2000 man-days of labor in a year. One organization with 55 members raised Rs 70,000 (about $5,000 U.S.) in one month's time to install a pipe to bring additional water from a source across a major river.To mobilize these resources, an irrigation organization must have means of enforcing its rules and assessments. Most organizations keep written records of members' attendance at work, and people are fined if they do not work as required. Fines are set at about the same level as the local daily wage rate. If a person refuses to work or pay the fine, the organization can deny that person water. Several organizations have reponed that when a member has refused to pay, a group of the members has gone to that person's house, taken his pots and pans and threatened to sell them. The person then paid the fine, and all the members observed how serious the organization was about enforcing the rules.Farmer irrigation organizations have successfully mobilized substantial resources to construct and operate their systems. This in itself is a major accomplishment. However, evaluation of farmer-managed systems should ultimately be based on the agricultural productivity achieved by the irrigation.In most of the systems observed. triple-cropping is practiced with cropping intensities of nearly 300%. Average yields from sample crop cuts in four mid-hill systems ranged from 3.0 to 3.5 metric tons/ha for rice and 2.0 to 2.5 tons for wheat. Maize yields are similar to those for wheat. resulting in approximately eight tons of grain production per hectare per year. Given the infrequent use of management-responsive varieties and fertilizer. these figures are quite remarkable. and demonstrate the effectiveness of these systems.Several important lessons emerge from the study of farmer-managed irrigation systems in NepaL These points, which have important implications for irrigation development, are summarized below:1. In most locations where the potential exists, farmers have already developed the water and land resources to some extent. Thus, local experience with water management and irrigated agriculture already exists. Wherever farmers must work together to bring water to their fields some degree of organization has developed. This existing organization should provide the starting point for a users' group, and farmer knowledge and experience should be tapped whenever government provides assistance to an irrigation system or plans new irrigation development in the area. 2. Farmer-managed irrigation systems are effective in managing the water resources to achieve improved agricultural production. The organizations are capable of: a) timely delivery of water; b) allocation and distribution of the water; c) labor mobilization for maintenance of the system; d) raising cash to pay for maintenance of the system; e) supervising and carrying out construction; and t) identifying the most serious problems in the physical structure and setting priorities concerning what should be improved first. 3. Farmers use an incremental approach in irrigation development. This allows the accumulated knowledge and experience of each undertaking to be utilized in the next improvement or expansion. By undertaking one segment at a time, there is minimum disturbance of the existing irrigation supply and work can be fitted to slack periods in the cropping cycle when labor is available. 4. The principle upon which water allocation is based can influence the efficiency of irrigation management and the expansion of the area irrigated. Water allocation by purchased shares provides financial incentives while allocation in proportion to area irrigated provides no such incentives. 5. \"Ownership\" of the system greatly affects farmers' attitudes and behavior.The users \"own\" the farmer-managed systems, and they take full responsibility for its operation. The performance of the system is a direct result of their efforts, and they provide the resources-labor and cash-to operate it effectively. The farmers in these systems have both the incentive and means to enforce compliance with the rules formulated for efficient and equitable operation of the system.","tokenCount":"3065"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ac645d5d604b392d3b5f1a4cf4ac8377","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2b591bb7-fba4-497a-8fee-bfbe789a9ef0/retrieve","id":"-837349139"},"keywords":["Cooperatives","smallholders","Bolivia","Laos","value chains","commodities"],"sieverID":"50aef2f6-ff30-40fc-b548-11340b193e75","pagecount":"6","content":"Smallholder farmers grow a major share of the food consumed around the world and preserve rich, biodiverse landscapes. 1 But despite their fundamental importance, many small farmers lead lives of deepening vulnerability -caught between subsistence strategies threatened by ecological degradation and commercial food systems that devalue them as cheap labour. Alternative agricultural models are urgently needed. One long-running movement still shows major untapped potential: that of agricultural cooperatives. These can enable smaller food producers to band together and access markets without losing control of their land, livelihoods, or food sovereignty. Cooperatives have been expanded in various developing countries where smallholders face diverse pressures, including from international markets. Today, about a billion people are involved in cooperatives -many of them successful agricultural businesses combining values and principles of fairness and ecological sustainability. 2 But more must be done.• Smallholding family farmers grow most of our food, but do not enjoy the deserved economic fruits of their labour. In today's global \"commodity\"-oriented food systems, other \"value chain\" actors like traders, food processing firms, and retailers capture most of the profits.• Agricultural cooperatives can strengthen small farmers' economic position by bringing them together in a shared enterprise.Emphasizing joint ownership and democratic control, cooperatives can enable small farmers to access markets while mitigating risks.• The cooperative model has yet to realize its full potential for small farmers and agricultural labourers. Needed improvements include expanding the role of cooperatives in value chains and linking them more directly to stable consumer bases.• Policymakers should create an enabling environment for cooperatives with tax and legal incentives, direct subsidies, trainings, awareness-raising efforts, and preferential trade terms for sustainably produced goods (including processed items).The research featured here is focused on Bolivia and Laos.Photo: S. Jaquet export markets bear significant risks, owing especially to speculation-enhanced rollercoaster price dynamics and arguably unfair distribution of risks and profits. The examples of quinoa, a recently popularized \"superfood\", and coffee, a still-growing global mainstay, are illustrative of key issues.In the case of coffee, smallholders constitute over 80% of growers in developing countries, 4 but they are largely left out of the wider value chains (e.g. processing or retail) and resulting profits. 5 The situation has worsened significantly in recent years: coffee prices have fallen by two-thirds, and coffee farmers' earnings have halved in real terms since the 1980s, despite ongoing retail market growth. 6 Overall, the capture of global agricultural value chains by big multinational firmsincluding hedge funds, commodity traders, large-scale food processing firms and retailers, and related conglomerates -has financialized our food systems and relegated smallholders to the role of cheap producers of raw goods. 7 These smallholders' socio-economic vulnerability further increases if they abandon traditional practices of subsistence and crop diversity, which enable them to feed themselves and maintain livelihoods when markets fail.The dependence of smallholder farmers on volatile global crop prices can also have serious ecological consequences on the ground -even, or especially, during market \"booms\". Worldwide price spikes can cause uncontrolled expansion of agricultural frontiers, deforestation, and soil degradation 8 as local smallholder farmers scramble to compete and grab tiny crumbs of the global profit pie. 9Prices for quinoa, grown mainly in Peru and Bolivia, began soaring about a decade ago in response to heightened global demand -especially from Europe and North America. In Bolivia, the so-called quinoa boom spurred a massive increase in production and farmers involved. Between 2004 and 2013, Bolivia's land area under quinoa cultivation nearly quadrupled, from 38,000 to 147,000 hectares. Smallholders were responsible for much of the increase. 10 In 2014, however, quinoa prices began falling about as fast as they had risen.No longer able to break even, much less make a profit, many small producers were forced to quit their farms and take up other jobs -sometimes in neighbouring countries. 11 Coffee-farming families worldwide currently find themselves in a similar situation, with slumping prices -on average earning them less than a cent for every cup sold -that often fail to cover even the costs of production. These \"commodity\" price crises recur time and again. They can push smallholders into persistent poverty, debt, and worse 12 -suicides among smallholder farmers are a tragically common occurrence in both the global South and North. 13 Reducing such vulnerabilities among smallholders while feeding growing populations requires more than technological solutions emphasizing productivity gains. 14 It also demands social and economic solidarity-focused approaches that strengthen small farmers by bringing them together. 15 Agricultural cooperatives -building power, sharing gains Agricultural cooperatives are one such approach. Their aim is to build worker power collectively, pool resources, and better distribute benefits, in line with the broader cooperative movement. 16 Their emphasis on worker ownership of businesses distinguishes them from unions. Founded in 1895, the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) defines cooperatives as people-centred enterprises jointly owned and democratically controlled by and for their members to realize their common socio-economic needs and aspirations. 17 Different types exist. Some focus on obtaining supplies or credit, others on production of goods, marketing and sales, or various combinations. 18 In today's globalized economy, cooperatives offer smallholders a way of banding together and accessing volatile, competitive regional and/or global value chains without losing all their power and autonomy. By enabling smaller -often family-owned -farm units to survive and operate in concert, agricultural cooperatives can realize the benefits of both small-scale cultivation (e.g. maintaining biodiversity) and economies of scale (e.g. reduced costs). This offers farmers a vital alternative to \"surrendering\" and becoming wage labourers on large-scale commercial monocultures or abandoning farming altogether.Pooling of resources. Cooperatives can increase their members' power in specific food sectors by leveraging their combined resources, including land, machinery, goods produced, savings, and more. In Laos, the coffee sector is split between small private growers, large companies, and a handful of new cooperatives. Most small growers must sell their coffee crops to middlemen as relatively cheap red cherries or dried beans. But new cooperative members in Laos successfully expanded their role in the value chain with collective investments: they established their own wet-processing facilities that enable them to sell their combined output to external buyers as higher-quality, higher-priced green coffee. In Bolivia, some of the first cooperatives were founded in the 1970s to enable small farmers to purchase and share expensive assets like tractors. 19   31 Later, when global quinoa prices crashed, cooperatives were able to maintain members' livelihoods by diversifying and increasing their role in value chains. The cooperative SOPROQUI, for example, invested some of its boom-era earnings in equipment to make bread and pastries from quinoa flour, successfully marketing it to local school breakfast programmes, while the \"mother\" cooperative ANAPQUI began making and selling quinoa-based pasta.In Laos, recent CDE research on the state-supported Bolaven Plateau Coffee Producers Cooperative, or CPC, 32 comprising several coffee producer groups in this fertile arabica coffee-growing region, 33 highlights how catering to specialty markets has benefitted cooperative members. Shortly after its foundation, the Laos coffee cooperative obtained fair trade and organic certifications in the European (EU), Asian (IFOAM), and North American (NOP) coffee markets. This, and investment in common coffee-processing facilities, has enabled members to fetch premium prices for their high-quality coffee. 34 In 2019, the government of Laos applied for an official Geographical Indication marker for Bolaven coffee to further raise its profile. CDE researchers (Jaquet et al. 2018) also produced several short films on the project (https://bit.ly/3dDmWQD).Stabilizing farmers' incomes and distributing profits fairly. Overall, operating strategically as a group strengthens cooperative members' economic resilience. Equitable sharing of farm equipment and marketing infrastructure lowers members' upfront and ongoing business costs. And putting everyone's crop yields together in one large pot enhances members' bargaining power vis-à-vis buyers or processing companies. In Bolivia's post-boom period, when global quinoa prices were fluctuating wildly, cooperatives managed to secure consistently higher prices for their members -up to twice as much as market prices offered by local retailers, in some cases. 21 In Laos, cooperatives guarantee a minimum price for the coffee at the beginning of the year -no such guarantee is offered by conventional big buyers.Linking producers to certified markets. Key to cooperatives' success in obtaining better prices has been their strategy of producing goods for certified specialty markets, such as organic or fair trade.Farm goods marketed under internationally recognized certification labels -such as Max Havelaar or Bird Friendly -enjoy increasing popularity. Growing numbers of \"conscious consumers\", especially in the global North, appear willing to pay more for labelled goods that fulfil clear, trustworthy standards of sustainable production. In Bolivia, between 2013 and 2019, market prices for certified organic quinoa compared to conventional quinoa were 17%-46% higher. 22 In Laos, cooperatives selling value-added (e.g. wet-processed or roasted) niche-market coffee can capture as much as 80% of the final product's value. 23 Ecological and social synergies. As these certification examples suggest, cooperatives readily lend themselves to more ecological and socially acceptable modes of food production. In Laos, much of the coffee produced by cooperatives comes from biodiverse systems, in which coffee is cultivated beneath (e.g. fruit) trees and sometimes alongside vegetables. In Bolivia, unique synergies between quinoa cooperatives and traditional community authorities -based on overlapping or complementary social rules and norms -were found to produce more sustainable governance of natural resources 24 : for instance, traditional rules on land inheritance and cooperative rules on plot sizes reinforced each other to prevent uncontrolled growth of cultivation areas. Notably, women workers also tend to fare better in cooperatives than in comparable private enterprises, receiving more training and chances for advancement. 25 Keys to 'sustainable' cooperatives Nevertheless, current cooperative models have yet to reach their full potential for farmers. Several areas merit attention:Improving affordability and local anchoring of certification. Notwithstanding their benefits, dominant certification schemes (e.g. organic) can and should be improved. For one, the higher crop prices they offer farmer cooperatives do not always translate into higher net revenues for producers. The process of obtaining and maintaining labels from external certifiers -who are typically for-profit enterprisescan be long, administratively demanding, and ultimately expensive. This, and the enhanced (e.g. labour) costs of sustainable production itself, can eat away at cooperatives' shared bottom line -and even prevent especially vulnerable farmers from joining such movements at all. 26 Multiplication of sometimes redundant external labels is another problem. 27 In the future, local identity labels with transparent self-defined sustainability criteria and mutual low-cost certification may be a better option for agricultural cooperatives. Steps in this direction have been made with new peer-managed Participatory Guarantee Systems (https://bit.ly/2Rel5bx).Adding value at home and linking directly to stable consumer bases. Despite gains in different areas, too many agricultural cooperatives remain stuck in lower value-added stages of production (e.g. crop growing). They could strengthen their economic sustainability by deliberately capturing more of the value chain and networking with one another. This means significantly branching out and diversifying their activities to take over stages like processing (e.g. drying or roasting), packaging, delivering, and even retail of finished goods -anything that brings them closer to end consumers, also locally. The Bolivian cooperative El Ceibo, for example, currently only exports 30% of its cocoa beans (formerly 100%) because the majority is now sold domestically as finished chocolate. Notably, cooperatives should also actively seek, in advance, to identify and cultivate stable consumer bases for their value-added productswhether roasted coffee, pasta, chocolate, flour, dried fruit, or washed and delivered fresh fruits and vegetables. 28 Public procurement programmes and new regional/ domestic markets appear to bear vital potential for cooperatives in the global South, if properly nurtured and linked.Strengthening egalitarian functioning and governance. Finally, though pledged to democratic principles and worker empowerment, farmer cooperatives can still reproduce social inequalities (e.g. patriarchy, ethnic discrimination) in local settings -just like any other human system or small community -if not embedded in more broadly ambitious rights-based frameworks or shared visions. 29 Further, problems of corruption and competences can also arise. Cooperatives can struggle to find skilled, stable leadership. To address these issues, it is crucial that governments support high-quality education, ongoing rights-based sensitization, and legal/administrative training in rural areas. 30 ","tokenCount":"1996"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"66fb226cd6ea92ca7cef0e8a71d9ebe0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/df9fa487-bc0e-43e7-8a6f-57413cf58bbf/retrieve","id":"609216912"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0abd4c33-2b2d-4ec8-8e06-1c2acb9a465e","pagecount":"17","content":"A better understanding of the factors that contribute to low cassava yields in farmers' fields is required to guide the formulation of cassava intensification programs. Using a boundary line approach, we analysed the contribution of soil fertility, pest and disease infestation and farmers' cultivation practices to the cassava yield gap in Kongo Central (KC) and Tshopo (TSH) provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Data were obtained by monitoring 42 and 37 farmer-managed cassava fields during two cropping cycles in KC and one cropping cycle in TSH, respectively. Each field was visited three times over the cassava growing period for the observations. Logistic model was fitted against the observed maximum cassava root yields and used to calculate the achievable yield per field and for individual factor. At field level, the factor that led to the lowest achievable yield (Y up(i)1 ) was considered as the dominant yield constraint. Cassava yield loss per field was expressed as the increase in the maximal root yield observed per province (Y att -attainable yield) compared to Y up(i)1 . Y att was 21 and 24 t ha −1 in TSH and KC, respectively. With the cassava varieties that farmers are growing in the study areas, pests and diseases played a sparse role in the yield losses. Cassava mosaic was the only visible disease we observed and it was the dominant yield constraint in 3% and 12% of the fields in KC and TSH, respectively. The frequent yield constraints were suboptimal field management and low soil fertility. Cultivation practices and soil parameters led to Y up(i)1 in 47% and 50% of the fields in KC, and in 47% and 41% of those in TSH, respectively. Individual soil parameters were the yield constraint in few fields, suggesting that large-scale programs in terms of lime application or recommendation of the blanket fertilisers would result in sparse efficacy. In KC, yield losses caused by low soil fertility averaged 6.2 t ha −1 and were higher than those caused by suboptimal field management (5.5 t ha −1 ); almost nil for cassava mosaic disease (CMD). In TSH, yield losses caused by low soil fertility (4.5 t ha −1 ) were lower than those caused by suboptimal field management (6.5 t ha −1 ) and CMD (6.1 t ha −1 ). Irrespective of the constraint type, yield loss per field was up to 48% and 64% of the Y att in KC and TSH, respectively. Scenario analysis indicated that the yield losses would remain at about two third of these levels while the dominant constraint was only overcome. We concluded that integrated and site-specific management practices are needed to close the cassava yield gap and maximize the efficacy of cassava intensification programs.Despite several efforts, mainly in terms of dissemination of improved genotypes and integrated pest and disease management, cassava productivity in African smallholder's farming systems is below the optimal level, although some increases in yields have been observed (Rusike et al., 2010;Zinga et al., 2013). Average cassava fresh root yield increased in Africa from 6 to 10 t ha −1 over the last 50 years but it is still much lower than the current average yields of 22 t ha −1 in Asia (FAOStat, 2015). In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), cassava yields under research management fields are most often larger than those under smallholder farmer management fields. In East Africa for instance, Obiero (2004), Ntawuruhunga et al. (2006) and Legg et al. (2006) recorded cassava fresh root yields of 60 t ha −1 under experimental conditions, while Fermont et al. (2010) observed 6-17 t ha −1 of cassava fresh root yields in Kenyan and Ugandan farmer fields. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the yields of cassava genotypes in research-managed systems are at least twice as those in farmer-managed systems (Unpublished data). In this context, reducing the gaps between cassava yields under research-and farmer-managed systems is a crucial concern in Africa, especially as cassava is moving from a subsistence crop to one of the major commercialized crops and appears to be one of the promising crops to mitigate drought resulting from climate change.To reduce the yield gap, a better understanding of the factors contributing to low cassava yields is needed, as this can help to design intensification programs and prioritize the interventions in the context of limited available resources. While there is agreement on low cassava productivity because of poor crop management (e.g., late weed control and cassava planting at low density) and pest and disease infestation (Albuquerque et al., 2014), opinions differ on the response of cassava to inherent soil fertility. Compared with many other crops, cassava is generally perceived as tolerant of low soil fertility (Howeler, 2002). Most farmers believe that cassava can restore the fertility of degraded soils and it does not need external nutrient inputs to soils (Leihner, 2002). This explains why many farmers grow cassava on marginal land or land that is about to be abandoned to natural regeneration (Hillocks, 2002;Saïdou et al., 2004;Adjei-Nsiah et al., 2007). In almost all cases where soil fertility was cited among the limiting factors of cassava productivity, the authors emphasized on soil exchangeable K as cassava removes more K than other crops (Howeler et al., 1987;Howeler et al., 1991;Carsky and Toukourou, 2005). Other soil fertility related constraints, such as imbalanced nutrient contents and high content of undesirable nutrients (e.g., zinc and aluminium) may also reduce cassava productivity (Cassman et al., 2002;Ezui et al., 2016).Boundary line analysis has been used to assess the relative contribution of individual factors to yield gaps of cereals, banana, coffee and cassava (Casanova et al., 1999;Shatar and McBratney, 2004;Fermont et al., 2009;Wairegi et al., 2010;Wang et al., 2015). Boundary line analysis consists to properly describing the maximum yields versus each production factor and then use the calibrated versions of the model to simulate at the plot level and for each factor the upper boundary yields. The factor that leads to the lowest upper boundary yield at plot level is considered as the most yield limiting factor in that plot, according to one of the Liebig Laws. In the case of cassava, Fermont et al. (2009) identified at the plot level only the most limiting factor of cassava yield gap in farmers' fields in Kenya and Uganda. The identified limiting factors varied strongly among sites and years, suggesting that cassava yield limiting factors cannot be generalized across a larger area or over time. For factors changing slowly over time (e.g. soil pH, carbon and nutrient contents) it is useful to identify at the plot level several limiting factors and classify them by their severity (i.e. dominant and latent). This makes sense for two main reasons: (i) a factor that does not change dramatically over time but is the dominant limiting factor during a cropping season was certainly latent limiting factor during the past cropping seasons (no spontaneity phenomena) and (ii) as soon as the dominant limiting factor is overcome another factor (previously latent) will become most limiting.The objective of this study was to analyse the contribution of soil fertility, pest and disease infestation and field management to the cassava yield gap in two provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) (Kongo Central and Tshopo).The study was conducted in Kongo Central and Tshopo provinces of the DR Congo (Fig. 1A). Rainfall is bimodal in the two provinces, allowing two planting seasons a year (Fig. 1D). In Kongo Central, the 1st rainy season is from mid-February to May while the 2nd rainy season starts in mid-October and ends in mid-January. The 1st rainy season is followed by about 5 months of dry season (June to mid-October) and is less suitable for cropping than the 2nd rainy season, which is followed by about 1 month of dry season (mid-January to Mid-February). In Tshopo, rains are suitable for planting from March to November, with some days/weeks of dry season in July or August (Fig. 1D). The 1st and 2nd planting seasons start in March and September, respectively. In Tshopo, the 1st rainy season is more suitable for cropping as it is followed by the shorter dry season. Furthermore, during the 2nd season in Tshopo rains may be excessive from September to November. On average, 36% of the total annual rainfall occurs during these months (Fig. 1D). Total annual rainfall is lower in Kongo Central than in Tshopo (Fig. 1E). In Kongo Central, vegetation, rainfall and soil fertility are decreasing from the north to the south.Data were collected by monitoring 42 and 37 cassava fields of small households during two cropping cycles in Kongo Central and one cropping cycle in Tshopo, respectively (Fig. 1B and C). Households were randomly selected with the aim of having at least three representative fields per agro-ecological area. Based on the presence of a research station and visual observation on the gradient of rainfall, vegetation and soil fertility, we considered in Kongo Central three agroecological areas: Gimbi (research station nearby) were 23 farmer fields were monitored, and Lukula and Muanda (far from the research stations) where 11 and 8 farmer fields were respectively monitored (Fig. 1B). Cassava fields monitored in Tshopo were selected around Yangambi (research station) and in three other areas far from the research station: Bambole, Bamanga and Bakumu (Fig. 1C). The monitored cassava fields in Tshopo (15, 4, 8 and 10 at Yangambi, Bambole, Bamanga and Bakumu, respectively) were planted during the 1st rainy season in 2014. In Central Kongo, the fields monitored at Lukula and Muanda were planted during the 1st rainy season in 2014, while those ) in the sampled soil was obtained by spectrophotometric analysis after chromic acid digestion (Heanes, 1984). Total soil N N content (g kg −1 ) in the sampled soil was obtained by colorimetric analysis after wet acid digestion (Buondonno et al., 1995;Anderson and Ingram, 1993). Exchangeable cations and available P Exchangeable K + , Ca 2+ and Mg 2+ (Cmol+ kg −1 ) and available P (mg kg −1 ) were extracted from the sampled soil using the Mehlich-3 method (Murphy and Riley, 1962 monitored around the Gimbi research station were planted during the 2nd rainy season in 2015.We interviewed the household head and recorded his/her socioeconomic characteristics (e.g., age, gender, educational backgrounds, land tenure and income sources). One of the cassava fields that the household had early planted during the concerned season was visited three times over the growing period for the observations as listed in Table 1. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd visits were conducted between 1 and 2, 4 and 5 and around 12 months after cassava planting, respectively. Periods of field visit were chosen with the aim of: (i) avoiding that farmers forget some of the conducted activities, (ii) sampling soils before eventual fertiliser applications and (iii) coinciding the observation with the periods when major pest and diseases prevail and can be easily observed in the study area (beginning of rainy season and medium cassava growth stage for CMD, towards cassava maturity for Brown Steak). During the 1st visit, the household's socio-economic characteristics and the initial cultivation practices in the selected cassava field (e.g., land preparation, field size, type of association, planting date and mode, eventual fertilizer application, weeding periods and methods, etc.) were recorded. Cultivation practices that could be directly observed (e.g., planting density, patterns and intercrops) were recorded in the field. Those that could not be directly observed (e.g., planting date, eventual fertilizer application or cassava leaf harvest, weeding dates, harvesting of the associated crops) were recorded by interviewing the farmer. During the first visit, 3 squares (5 m × 5 m) were randomly delimited in the cassava field, in which we sampled soil and recorded pest and disease infestation. Soils were randomly taken in five places per square at 0-30 cm depth and mixed into one composite sample per field/household. Pest and disease infestation was scored on all plants of each square, using scoring rate ranged from 1 (no infestation) to 5 (highest infestation). During each of the following visits, all crop management practices that the farmer had conducted since the last visit were recorded. Pest and disease infestation was again scored. At the last field visit, cassava was harvested in the squares and the roots were weighed to calculate the yield.In the present study, we analysed data on cassava yield, soil fertility, cultivation practices and pest and disease infestation. Data on the household's socio-economic characteristics were not analysed as they do not relate directly to yield gap.The contribution of soil fertility, farmers' cultivation practices and pest and disease infestation to the cassava yield gap was analysed using three levels of cassava root yields: the attainable root yield (Y att ), actual root yield (Y obs ) and the upper boundary yields (Y up(i) ). We considered Y att as the highest cassava fresh root yield obtained in the monitored fields within each province (Waddington et al., 2010;Wang et al., 2015). Tittonell and Giller (2013) defined Y att as the maximum yield achieved by implementing the results of local research or the combination of best practices as determined from local research. Therefore, the Y att used in the present study should be lower than that Tittonell and Giller (2013) defined, as it would be rare to have the farmers who apply all the best practices. Actual cassava root yield (Y obs ) of an individual field was the average of cassava root yields measured in the three sampling squares per field. Y obs is lower than or at the most equal to Y att . The way we estimated the upper boundary yield for a factor \"i\" (Y up(i) ) depended on whether the factor is categorical (e.g., tillage and no tillage for land preparation) or continuous (e.g., soil C content or plant population). For categorical factor, Y up(i) for each field that received or benefited from a given level of the factor was the highest yield obtained in any field that received or benefited from that specific factor level within the province. Y up(i) corresponds theoretically to the cassava root that the field could have been yielded if the production would only have been limited by the factor \"i\". For each continuous factor, Y up(i) were calculated by calibrating a boundary curve along the maximum yields obtained by a series of factor values. Boundary curves were calibrated by fitting these maximum yields against continuous values of the factor, using the general logistic model as formulated by Kintché et al. (2015a) (Eq. ( 1)): The candidate factors for yield gap explanation were selected by calculating the correlation coefficient (r) between the actual yields and values of each factor. Factors for which, the correlation coefficient was almost nil were not considered. While some factors were highly correlated (absolute r value > 0.5), only one of them was used in the boundary line analysis and considered as the proxy of the other factors with whom it is correlated.For each field, Y up(i) of different factors were arranged in ascending order as in the following list: {Y up(i)1 , Y up(i)2 , Y up(i)3 , …, Y up(i)n }; where Y up(i)1 is the lowest Y up(i) and Y up(i)n the highest. According to Liebig's Law, the factors that led to Y up(i)1 and Y up(i)2 were respectively considered as the dominant and first latent limiting factor of cassava root productivity at the concerned field. We stopped the iteration at two levels of factor severity because Y up(i)3 were significantly higher than Y up(i)2 (Y up(i)1 and Y up(i)2 were not significantly different; p < 5%). At the provincial level, we calculated the percentage of fields where each factor was the limiting factor and then estimated the distribution of limiting factors across the area.The explained yield gap per field (Y G1 ) was estimated as the increase in the attainable yield (Y att ) compared to the lowest upper boundary yield of the concerned field (Y up(i)1 ); i.e. the gap due to the dominant limiting factor. Y G1 was interpreted as the yield loss caused by the dominant limiting factor in the concerned field (Wang et al., 2015). We compared Y G1 of the fields where soil parameters, farmers' cultivation practices and pest and disease infestation were the dominant yieldconstraint and then measured the magnitude of yield loss attributable to constraint types. The unexplained yield gap (Y G2 ) was estimated as the increase in Y up(i)1 compared to Y obs . High value of Y G2 means that there are other important limiting factors that were not considered in the analysis and/or the model did not perform well in the concerned field as it does not address factor interactions (Shatar and McBratney, 2004).The size of the monitored cassava fields ranged between 0.1 and 0.98 ha in Kongo Central, and between 0.2 and 4.4 ha in Tshopo. About 33% of the fields in Tshopo had a size larger than the maximal size recorded in Kongo Central. Cassava fields monitored during the 1st cropping cycle-2014 in Kongo Central were planted during the first three months of the rainy season (February-April), with 60% of the fields planted in March (Fig. 2A). Early plantings ocurred mainly at Muanda while the latest plantings were more pronounced at Lukula (Table 2A). During the 2nd cropping cycle-2015 in Kongo Central and the 1st planting cycle-2014 in Tshopo, cassava planting started from the 2nd month of the rainy season and was completed after 4 and 5 months in Kongo Central and Tshopo, respectively (Fig. 2A). The latest plantings occurred at Bakumu and Yangambi (Table 2A).Irrespective of the area, cassava plant density varied widely within and among fields (Fig. 2B). Compared to the first sampled square, cassava plant density in the two other squares of the field was more than 25% higher or more than 25% lower, indicating high density heterogeneity within the field (Fig. 2B). Average plant density varied between 2000 and 15,200 plants ha −1 among the fields in Tshopo, and between 2400 and 11,600 plants ha −1 among those in Kongo Central. Cassava plant density was at a lesser extent related to the planting period (Fig. 2C). Half of the fields planted during the 3rd month of the rainy seasons had plant density higher than that of 70% and 80% of the fields planted during the 2nd and 4th months of the rainy seasons, respectively.Improved cassava varieties were more widely cultivated in Kongo Central than in Tshopo (Table 2B). About 60% of the households in Tshopo cultivated exclusively local cassava varieties, compared to less than 10% of the households in Kongo Central. In both Tshopo and Kongo Central, none of the interviewed households cultivated exclusively improved cassava varieties. Among households cultivating both local and improved varieties (40% and 90% in Tshopo and Kongo Central respectively), those in Kongo Central allocated large areas to improved varieties (Table 2C). About 40% of the households cultivating both local and improved cassava varieties in Kongo Central allocated more than 75% of the cultivated area to improved varieties, and this was more pronounced around the Gimbi research station (65% vs. 10-17% for the other areas). In Tshopo, all households cropping both local and improved cassava varieties allocated less than 75% of the cultivated area to improved varieties. In that province, the cultivation of local cassava varieties and the allocation of small areas to improved varieties were more pronounced around the Yangambi research station than at Bamanga and Bambole.Both in Kongo Central and Tshopo, the monitored cassava fields were weeded one, two or three times. In Tshopo, 69% of the fields were weeded three times compared to 20% in Kongo Central (Table 2D). In Tshopo, three weed controls over the cassava growing period was conducted in 89% of the fields around the Yangambi research station, compared to 29-67% of the fields in other areas within the province. One weed control over the growing period was exclusively conducted at Bamanga. In Kongo Central, the proportions of the fields weeded three times did not differ clearly among the agro-ecological areas, but large proportion of the fields around the Gimbi research station were weeded twice (Table 2D). Although a smaller proportion of the fields in Kongo Central were weeded three times, some fields were weeded early as compared to the fields in Tshopo (Fig. 2D). All fields in Kongo Central were weeded for the first time before the 3rd month after planting (MAP) ended. Within the same period in Tshopo, about 10% of the fields (33% and 6% at Bamanga and Yangambi, respectively) were not yet weeded; they were weeded for the first time during the 4th MAP (Table 2E and Fig. 2D). By the end of the 2nd MAP, about 20% of the fields in Kongo Central were weeded for the second time, while within the same duration in Tshopo none of the fields was weeded for the second time (Fig. 2D). In Tshopo, the second weed control was conducted in 40% of the fields during the 3rd MAP and was delayed until 9th MAP in some fields, compared to Kongo Central where all fields were weeded for the second time before the 7th MAP ended. The third weed control was conducted between 4th and 7th MAP in Kongo Central, compared to Tshopo where it was conducted between 5th and 12th MAP (Fig. 2D).Cultivation practices, such as manual weed control, low or no fertilizer application in cassava fields, cassava intercrops, biomass burned before cassava planting, etc., were common practices both in Tshopo and Kongo Central. Weeds were manually controlled in all monitored fields. Biomass was burned before cassava planting in all fields in Tshopo and in 90% of those in Kongo Central. Both in Kongo Central and Tshopo, cassava was intercropped in more than 90% of the fields and planted with no pattern in about 80% of the fields. Farmers applied manure in 12% of the fields at Bakumu (Tshopo) and 11% of those at Gimbi (Kongo Central) (Table 2F), without being able to estimate the applied amounts. In Kongo Central, soil was not tilled in all fields at Gimbi but it was tilled in 25% and 71% of the fields at Lukula and Muanda, respectively. In Tshopo, all fields at Bakumu were not tilled while 5-25% of the fields in other areas were tilled (Table 2G).The cassava fields monitored in Kongo Central were between 15 and 203 m above sea level (masl), thus at lower altitude than those in Tshopo (362-1522 masl). Contrary to the four study areas in Tshopo, soil fertility indicators varied widely among the agro-ecological areas in Kongo Central (Fig. 3). In Kongo Central, except for the silt rate and exchangeable K content, soil parameters differed significantly across the agro-ecological areas. The worst soil fertility indicators were observed at Muanda, except for soil available P that was high but widely variable within the fields. Fields at Muanda had the i) lowest organic C and total N contents, ii) the highest sand rates, and iii) were among the fields that had low pH and exchangeable cation contents. Compared to Lukula, fields at Gimbi were more acidic (low pH and high Al content) but they had the highest C and N contents and the lowest sand rates. For the areas in Tshopo, only soil organic C, exchangeable K and C/N ratio were significantly different (Fig. 3B, E and H). Exchangeable Al in half of the fields at Bambole was higher than 2 Cmol[+] kg −1 , while all fields in the other areas had Al content lower than that value (Fig. 3J).Cassava mosaic disease(CMD) was the main disease observed in the monitored fields. Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD) was only observed in 3 of the 37 fields in Tshopo, with severity scores < 3. CMD infestation was more severe in Tshopo than in Kongo Central. All fields in Tshopo were infested by CMD during the early (1-2 MAP) and medium (4-5 MAP) cassava growth stages. The severity scores ranged between 2 and 4 at early stages, and between 2 and 5 at the medium stages. In Kongo Central, CMD was found in about half of the fields with severity scores < 3 both at the early and medium growth stages.In Tshopo, CMD severity depended on the agro-ecological areas and the planting period (Fig. 4). At the early growth stages, CMD severity scores did not exceed 3 in the fields at Yangambi and Bambole, but it was 4 in 25% and 63% of the fields at Bamanga and Bakumu, respectively (Fig. 4A). The same occurred during the medium growth stages (4-5 MAP), where the severity scores ranged between 2 and 4 at Yangambi and Bambole but between 3 and 5 at Bamanga and Bakumu (Fig. 4B). Cassava fields planted during the 3rd month of the rainy season (May) were less infested by cassava mosaic virus than the fields planted before (April) or after (June/July) this period (Fig. 4C and D). At the early growth stages, CMD severity was at the lowest level (score 2) in 86% of the fields planted in May compared to 9-29% for the fields planted before or after this period (Fig. 4C). At the medium growth stages, similar contrasts in CMD infestation and severity were observed between the fields planted in May versus those planted earlier or later (Fig. 4D). The attainable cassava root yield (Y att ) was 21 and 24 t ha −1 in Tshopo and Kongo Central respectively. The actual root yields (Y obs ) averaged 13 and 14 t ha −1 in Tshopo and Kongo Central respectively and varied widely among the agro-ecological areas within the province (Fig. 5). In Tshopo, the lowest Y obs were obtained at Bambole where the maximum yield was 9 t ha −1 (Fig. 5A). At Bamanga, Bakumu and Yangambi all fields yielded at least 9 t ha −1 . Average actual yield at Yangambi (15 t ha −1 ) was statistically similar to that at Bakumu (13 t ha −1 ) but significantly higher than that at Bamanga (11 t ha −1 ) and Bambole (7 t ha −1 ). In Kongo Central, Y obs varied from 7 to 15 t ha −1 at Lukula, 8 to 22 t ha −1 at Muanda and from 5 to 24 t ha −1 at Gimbi (Fig. 5B). The average actual yields at Gimbi (15 t ha −1 ) and Muanda (14 t ha −1 ) were statistically similar, but significantly higher than that at Lukula (11 t ha −1 ). Cassava root yield varied widely within the field (Data not shown). Root yield measured in some squares was almost twice of that measured in other squares of the same field.Cassava root yield depended on the number of weed control conducted over the growing period and the time between consecutive weed controls (Fig. 6). Fields weeded only once produced significantly lower yields (average of 12 t ha −1 ) than the fields weeded two or three times (16 t ha −1 ) (Fig. 6A) in both provinces. On average, fields weeded thrice did not yield more than those weeded twice. Cassava root yield depended also on the number of weed controls conducted at a given period of the crop cycle. In Kongo Central, fields in which the first weed control was conducted before the end of the 1st MAP yielded significantly higher (15 t ha −1 ) than those fields where the first weed control was conducted after this period (13 t ha −1 ) (Fig. 6B). In Tshopo (Data not shown), fields where the first weed control was conducted during the 1st MAP yielded on average significantly higher than fields weeded for the first time during the 2nd MAP (15 vs. 13 t ha −1 ). Similar contrasts among the cassava root yields were observed for two or three weed controls over the crop cycle. In Tshopo for instance, fields that were weeded thrice before the end of the 6th MAP, yielded on average higher than the fields weeded twice at this moment, although the average yields of the three-time weeded fields did not differ from that of the two-time weeded fields when the weeding period is not considered (Fig. 6A).There were satisfactory relationships between the cassava upper boundary yields (Y up(i) ) and the time that separated planting date from the first or last weed control (Fig. 6C and D). Both in Kongo Central and Tshopo, Y up(i) values were lower than the attainable yield (Y att ) in all fields where the first weed control had been conducted after the 2nd MAP (Fig. 6C). Yet, in some fields where the first weed control had been conducted before the 2nd MAP, Y up(i) values were equal or similar to Y att . Because of the effect of other factors on cassava root yield, most fields yielded lower than the Y att although they had been weeded before the 2nd MAP. Y up(i) values were lower than Y att in all fields where weed control was stopped before the end of the 5th and 6th MAP in Kongo Central and in Tshopo respectively. Some fields weeded after these periods yielded however equal or similar to Y att (Fig. 6D).Cassava root yield depended on the planting period, mainly in Tshopo (Fig. 7A). The average yields in fields planted in May (16 t ha −1 ) was significantly higher than the average yields obtained in fields planted in April (11 t ha −1 ) and June/July (14 t ha −1 ). In Kongo Central, yields did not differ among the fields planted at different times within a season. However, average cassava root yield in the fields planted during the 2nd rainy season-2015 at Gimbi (15 t ha −1 ) was significantly higher than that in the fields planted during the 1st rainy season-2014 at Muanda and Lukula (13 t ha −1 ).The cassava root upper boundary yields within individual squares were related to the plant density (Fig. 7B). The highest cassava root yield per square was about 26 t ha −1 in Tshopo and Kongo Central, and was obtained in some fields with plant density higher than 5000 plants ha −1 . All squares with plant density less than 5000 plants ha −1 yielded lower than the maximal yield. Nonetheless, there were many other squares which yielded lower than the maximal yield, although they had plant density higher than 5000 plants ha −1 as other factors affected the yield.Cassava root yields were affected by soil tillage and to a lesser extent by the presence of intercrops (Fig. 7C). In Tshopo, the tilled fields yielded on average significantly lower (8 t ha −1 ) than the no-tilled fields (13 t ha −1 ). In Kongo Central, average yields did not differ significantly when the soil was tilled or not. In a few sole cassava fields, average yields were slightly higher than those of the intercropped fields (14 vs. 13 t ha −1 in Tshopo and 16 vs. 14 t ha −1 in Kongo Central).In Tshopo, the infestation of cassava mosaic virus during the early growth stages reduced cassava root yield (Fig. 8A). The fields that were infested by CMD with severity scores of 3 or 4 during the first two MAP yielded significantly lower (11-13 t ha −1 ) than those where the severity score was 2 during this stage (15 t ha −1 ). Conversely, CMD infestation during the medium growth stages in Tshopo and during the early and medium growth stages in Kongo Central did not have clear effect on root yields (Fig. 8A and B). In Tshopo, yields were not significantly different between severity levels at 4-5 MAP. The same was true in Kongo Central during all growth stages.Individual soil parameters were poorly correlated with the actual yields (Y obs ). Ratio of the sum of exchangeable Ca and Mg per exchangeable K ((Ca + Mg)/K) had the strongest correlation with Y obs (r = − 0.20), followed by exchangeable Al (r = −0.13) and C/N ratio (r = 0.11). Y obs were correlated with soil available P, exchangeable K and pH with a coefficient of 0.09, 0.03 and 0.006, respectively. Correlation coefficient was 0.05 for soil C or total N and almost nil for the other soil parameters (silt, exchangeable Ca and Mg). The upper boundary yields (Y up(i) ) increased with increasing contents of C, available P, exchangeable K, C/N ratio and pH but decreased with increasing exchangeable Al and the (Ca + Mg)/K ratio (Fig. 9). Both in Kongo Central and Tshopo, the Y up(i) values were lower than the Y att in all fields with a soil C content lower than about 14 g kg _1 (Fig. 9A). Y att was reached in some fields with a soil C content higher than 14 g kg −1 . However, because of the effect of other factors (field management, pest and disease and other soil parameters) on cassava root yield, many fields yielded lower than the attainable yield although soil C content was higher than 14 g kg −1 . This result indicates that the critical soil C contents (i.e. soil C contents with which the attainable yield could not be achieved) were lower than 14 g kg −1 in Kongo Central and Tshopo. The critical values were < 4.6 for soil pH, < 1 g kg −1 for total soil N and < 5 mg kg −1 for available P and they did not differ between the provinces (Fig. 9B, C and D). The critical values of exchangeable K and C/N ratio were slightly lower in the fields in Tshopo than those in Kongo Central (0.08 vs. 0.14 cmol[+] kg −1 for exchangeable K and 12 vs. 14 for C/N ratio) (Fig. 9E and F). In Kongo Central, Y up(i) values were lower than Y att in all fields with exchangeable Al higher than 1.8 cmol[+] kg −1 (Fig. 9G), indicating that the critical levels of exchangeable Al were the contents higher than 1.8 cmol[+] kg −1 . In Tshopo, the boundary line did not reveal critical levels for exchangeable Al, but regular decrease in the upper boundary yields with the increasing soil Al contents (Fig. 9G). In Tshopo, Y up(i) values were lower than Y att in all fields with (Ca + Mg)/K ratio higher than 30, indicating critical levels ≥ 30. In Kongo central, the critical levels of (Ca + Mg)/K were the values ≥ 40 (Fig. 9H).Both suboptimal field management, low soil fertility and cassava mosaic virus infestation limited cassava root productivity. Cultivation practices, soil parameters and CMD infestation led to the lowest upper boundary yields (Y up(i)1 ) in 47%, 41% and 12% of the fields in Tshopo and in 47%, 50% and 3% of those in Kongo Central, respectively. This result indicates that suboptimal field management and low soil fertility were the dominant yield-limiting factors with similar frequencies across the fields. They were more frequent than the CMD infestation. In Tshopo, among the cultivation practices that were the dominant yieldlimiting factors, late or early cassava planting over the rainy seasons was the most widespread (21% of the fields) (Figs. 10 A and 7 A). It was followed by more than two months between the first weed control and cassava planting and soil tillage (9% of the fields for each practice) (Figs. 10 A, 6 C and 7 C). In that province, no single soil parameter was the dominant and widespread yield-limiting factor: 9% of the fields for low soil pH and less than 6% for each of other soil parameters (Figs. 10 A and 9 B). In Kongo Central, the cultivation practices that were the dominant and widespread yield-limiting factors are: (i) more than two months between the first weed control and cassava planting (16%), (ii) less than two weed controls over the growing period (13%) and (iii) no weeding after the 5th month of the cassava cycle (11%) (Figs. 10 B and  6 A-D). Among soil parameters, low C/N ratio was the only one that limited cassava root yield in a large proportion of the fields (21%) (Figs. 10 B and 9 F). In Kongo Central, suboptimal field management was the latent yield-limiting factor in 61% of the fields compared to 37% for low soil fertility. The reverse occurred in Tshopo, where suboptimal field management was the latent yield-limiting factor in 32% of the fields compared to 68% for low soil fertility. Contrary to suboptimal field management and low soil fertility, CMD infestation limited cassava root yield only in some areas within a province (Table 3). In Kongo Central, CMD was the yield-limiting factor only at Muanda, while suboptimal field management and low soil fertility were the yield-limiting factors in all areas. In Tshopo, CMD was the yield-limiting factor at Bakumu and to a lesser extent at Yangambi but suboptimal field management was the yield-limiting factor in all areas and low soil fertility in three of the four areas. The type of the cultivation practices and soil parameters that limited cassava root yield differed also among and within the provinces (Table 3). In Kongo Central, the ratios of C/N and (Ca + Mg)/K were respectively the dominant limiting factor in 42% and 8% of the fields at Lukula but in none of those at Muanda. Soil C or N content was the dominant limiting factor in 14% of the fields at Muanda but in none of those at Lukula and Gimbi. Soil acidity (low pH or high exchangeable Al) was the dominant yield-limiting factor at Gimbi only. Similar contrasts were observed within the study areas in Tshopo both for the dominant and latent limiting factors (Table 3).The explained yield gaps differed among the types of the limiting factors. In the fields where cultivation practices were the dominant liming factors in Kongo Central, the maximum explained yield gap was 9 t ha −1 (Fig. 10D). The explained yield gap was higher than 9 t ha −1 in about 13% of the fields where soil parameters were the dominant liming factors. This indicates that, in Kongo Central, the yield losses caused by low soil fertility in some fields was higher than that caused by suboptimal field management. Yield losses averaged 6.2 and 5.5 t ha −1 in the fields where low soil fertility and suboptimal field management were the dominant limiting factors, respectively (almost nil in few fields where CMD was the dominant limiting factor). In Tshopo, yield losses averaged 6.5, 6.1 and 4.5 t ha −1 in the fields where suboptimal field management, CMD infestation and low soil fertility were the dominant limiting factors, respectively (Fig. 10C). Irrespective of the limiting factor type, the gaps between the attainable yield (Y att ) and the lowest upper boundary yields (Y up(i)1 ), were up to 48% and 64% of Y att (averages of 22% and 25%) in Kongo Central and Tshopo respectively (Fig. 10E and F). The gaps between Y att and Y up(i)2 (i.e. the obtained lowest upper boundary yield without considering in the iteration the dominant limiting factors), were up to 29% of the Y att with an average of 14% in Kongo Central and up to 35% of the Y att with an average of 16% in Tshopo. The average gaps between Y att and Y up(i)2 were about 64% of the average gaps between Y att and Y up(i)1 . This indicates that, because of the factors that are currently latent, the yield loss would remain at about two third of the current level when only the dominant limiting factor was overcome. Average gaps between Y att and Y up(i)3 was about 50% of those between Y att and Y up(i)1 , indicating that the yield loss would remain at about half of the current level when the dominant and the first latent limiting factors were overcome. Unexplained yield gaps were higher in Kongo Central than in Tshopo (Fig. 10G and H). The unexplained yield gaps averaged 4.3 and 2.8 t ha −1 in Kongo central and Tshopo, respectively, and were mainly higher in the fields with low actual yields.Our results indicate that suboptimal field management, low soil fertility and CMD infestation constrained cassava root productivity in the study areas (Fig. 10). Contrary to suboptimal field management and low soil fertility that were the dominant yield-limiting factors in almost all the study areas, CMD was the yield-limiting factor only at Bakumu (Tshopo) and Muanda (Kongo Central). During the past years, suboptimal field management and pest and disease infestation were reported as the widespread and severe cassava productivity constraints but only pest and diseases have received attention in the intervention programs (Briant and Johns, 1940;Fargette and Fauquet, 1988;Chapola, 1981). Suboptimal field management and low soil fertility received little attention since cassava is perceived to be more than other crops tolerant of low soil fertility and erratic rainfall conditions (De Tafur et al., 1997;El-Sharkawy, 2006). The present study indicated that, with the cassava varieties currently growing by farmers in Tshopo and Kongo Central, pests and diseases played a sparse role in the yield losses. The frequent and severe contributors to the yield losses were low soil fertility and suboptimal field management. Fermont et al. (2009) reported similar results in Ugandan and Kenyan farmers' fields. They observed that low soil fertility and weed management constrained more severely the cassava yields than pests and diseases. The cassava root yield losses simulated in the present study were similar with those measured in farmer's fields in DR Congo and elsewhere in Africa (Thresh and Cooter, 2005). Concerning the individual factors, results indicate that late or early planting, and late and sparse field weeding were frequently the yield-limiting factors. This suggests that large-scale programs in terms of cassava planting at the right time and proper weed control may improve cassava productivity in many fields. Conversely, regulating the soil pH by liming may have sparse efficacy since low soil pH constrained cassava root yield in few fields only (Vanlauwe et al., 2010;Vanlauwe et al., 2015). Variable cassava root yield responses to mineral fertilizer have been observed in Africa, China, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam (Ogbe et al., 1993;Howeler, 1991;Lema et al., 2004). Similarly, a large-scale recommendation of the blanket fertilizers would have sparse efficacy because the yield-limiting nutrients were field specific. Ezui et al. (2016) have shown an increased nutrient use efficacy and higher cassava yields emanating from balanced nutrition. In the case of cotton in West Africa, the application of blanket fertilizers led to variable yield increases across farmers' fields and were inefficient over time (Kintché et al., 2010;Kintché et al., 2015b). The fact that the yield-limiting factors differed between and within the provinces (Table 4) reinforces the sparse efficacy that may result from large-scale programs. To mitigate cassava productivity constraints, mainly those related to soil, site-specific programs are needed although the approach may be expensive.Late or early planting was one of the dominant and widespread constraints of cassava root productivity in Tshopo, and this may partially be explained by the relationship observed between planting time and CMD infestation. In Tshopo, cassava fields planted at the onset of the rainy season were more infested by CMD than the fields planted during the third month of the rainy season (Fig. 4C and D). Okogbenin et al. (1998) and Adipala et al. (1998) reported that early planted cassava fields were highly infested by CMD because of the vector abundance (whitefly) at the beginning of the rainy season. The severe CMD infestation observed in the cassava fields planted late (June and July) can be explained by the whitefly moving from the older fields to younger fields due to the whitefly preference for the youngest plants (Leite et al., 2003;Sseruwagi et al., 2003). Although the yield limitation by CMD in Tshopo could be explained by whitefly presence, the common use of contaminated local cassava varieties most likely led to increase CMD incidence. On the other hand, our results indicated that only CMD infestation during the early growth stages reduced the yield (Fig. 7A). This result is in line with that of Briant and Johns (1940) and Fauquet and Fargette (1990) who reported that early CMD symptoms were infestation from planting material and resulted in more yield losses than the late symptoms caused by whiteflies.As in the present study, poor weed control is reported as one of the most widespread cassava yield constraints (e.g., Albuquerque et al., 2014;Weerarathne et al., 2016). Our results contrasted however some previous results on the optimal number of weed control. In Kenyan and Ugandan farmer fields, Fermont et al. (2009) reported increasing cassava root yields with weeding events up to 6, while we observed that three weed controls did not increase cassava root productivity compared to two weed controls. Even if an increasing number of weed control can sustain cassava root productivity, two or three weed controls would be sufficient when properly conducted at the right periods. Results indicate that all fields where the first weed control was conducted after the end of the 2nd MAP or where weed control was stopped before the 5-6th MAP, yielded lower than the attainable yield (Fig. 6C and D). This suggests that, when the field is dominated by weeds that grow slowly, one weed control before the end of the 2nd MAP and another one after the 5-6th MAP may be sufficient to sustain the cassava productivity. For the fields dominated by the weeds that grow rapidly or when rain excess facilitates weed development during the early cassava ages, one additional weed control between the 2nd and 5th MAP may be required. Field weeding after the 5th or 6th MAP is necessary to sustain cassava productivity in Tshopo and Kongo Central because, irrespective of the planting season, the medium plant stages coincide with another rainy season (Fig. 1D). Low cassava planting density is often considered as one of the causes of low root yield observed in farmer fields. The present study does not support that assertion. Plant density was barely the yield constraint and results indicated that some fields with plant density lower than the research recommended density (10,000 plants ha −1 ) achieved the attainable yield (Fig. 7B). The attainable yield was not, at all, been achieved when plant density was lower than half of the research-recommended density. Eke-Okoro et al. ( 2012) reported higher cassava root yields when planted with space of 1 m × 1.5 m (i.e., 6666 plants ha-1 ) than when planted with the research-recommended density (1 m × 1 m). The effect of soil tillage on cassava root yield differed among the provinces (Fig. 7C). In Kongo Central, cassava root yields in the fields where the soil was tilled were similar to those in the fields where the soil was not tilled. In Tshopo, fields where the soil was tilled produced less cassava root than the fields where the soil was not tilled. Ohiri and Ezumah (1990), Hulugalle et al. (1990), Howeler et al. (1993) and Aiyelari et al. (2002) reported no effect of tillage when growing cassava in sandy loam soils, but Lal andDinkins (1979), andEzumah (1983) reported in DR Congo Oxisol low cassava root yields in the tilled soils compared with untilled soils. Our result contrasted however that of Ezumah and Okigbo (1980) who observed that tilled soils produced more cassava root than untilled soils. Tillage effect on cassava root yield depends on soil type, site history and climate conditions during land preparation and cassava planting (Howeler et al., 1993). Moreover, Ofori (1973) and Okigbo (1979) reported that ploughing increased cassava root yield compared to superficial hoeing. This suggests that, since farmer fields we monitored were manually tilled, cassava root development may occur in soil layers deeper than those were reached by hoes, and then led to limited effect on cassava root yield.The choice of the study areas within the province was guided by the presence of research station, as farmers living nearby may practice (by imitation) the best cultivation technologies. This consideration reflected in the practices conducted by farmers around the Gimbi research station. Compared to Muanda and Lukula, large proportion of farmers at Gimbi cultivated or allocated large areas to the improved varieties. Most of them conducted at least two weed controls and some farmers who applied unknown fertilizer amounts were in that area (Table 2). The presence of research station in Yangambi reflected more on good weed control, rather than on the utilization of the improved varieties. Compared to Bamanga and Bakumu, more farmers in Yangambi weeded 3-time their monitored cassava fields and conducted the first weed control before the end of the 2nd MAP (Table 2). However, most farmers in Yangambi cultivated local varieties and allocated small areas to the improved varieties. Both in Kongo Central and Tshopo, the highest cassava root yields were obtained around the research stations but they remained lower than the yields often reported in researchmanaged systems, as none of the farmers conducted properly all the cultivation practices that constrained the productivity. The observed cassava root yields in the present study were however higher than the FAO estimates (FAOStat, 2015).The current study indicated that the attainable yields were obtained in some fields with high soil C/N ratio (Fig. 9F). Fields with high soil C/ N were some of the fields recently cleared of fallows or woodlands, and then should be characterized by higher microbial activity because of the no-mineralised organic matter that entered the soil during fallowing period (Kurzatkowski et al., 2004;Six et al., 2004). Although it was not clearly demonstrated in the case of cassava, soils with good microbial activity seem to sustain the productivity of tuber crops. This is well known in the case of yam and explains the empiric position of yam crop at the beginning of crop rotations. Yam is cropped after about 20-year fallowing and one of the elements often used to identify lands suitable for yam productivity is worm excrements (i.e. soils with intensive microbial activity). Studies from areas where land availability was not a production constraint, reported that cassava was preferentially cultivated after fallow or woodland clearing (Silvestre and Arraudeau, 1983;Fresco, 1986), and this is in line with the hypothesis on positive effects of soil microbial activity on cassava root productivity. However, the place of cassava in the rotation varies among areas and changed over time because of the land pressure due to growing population and the general perception on cassava ability to tolerate more than other crops poor soils (Hillocks, 2002;Saïdou et al., 2004;Adjei-Nsiah et al., 2007;Fermont et al., 2008). Soils with high C/N ratios are considered as less sustainable for cropping because of N immobilisation. In the present study, this phenomenon seems having a neglected effect and this is in line with the fact that cassava crop can tolerate more than many other crops N deficiency (Kaweewong et al., 2013). Therefore, soil N content was barely one of the yield constraints in the monitored fields. Soil exchangeable K constrained cassava root yield, not only because of low contents as often reported (Howeler et al., 1987;Howeler et al., 1991;Carsky and Toukourou, 2005), but also because of imbalanced K versus exchangeable Ca and Mg (Fig. 9 and Table 3). High (Ca + Mg)/K ratio was the yield-limiting factor in 20% and 11% of the fields in Bambole and Gimbi, respectively (Table 3). This suggests that, since cassava removes from the soil more K than Ca and Mg (Putthacharoen et al., 1998), continuous cassava cropping would increase soil (Ca + Mg)/K ratio and then constrain over time the productivity. To sustain long-term cassava root productivity, soil (Ca + Mg)/K ratio should be kept as low as possible and K inputs to the soil is one the realistic alternatives. The critical values of soil exchangeable K and available P observed in the present study were similar with those Howeler (2002) and Fermont et al. (2009) reported. However, the observed critical values of soil pH (< 4.6) and organic carbon (< 14 g kg −1 ) were slightly different from that Fermont et al. (2009) reported (< 5.2 and < 9 g kg −1 for soil pH and C, respectively).The cassava root yield losses were high and scenario analysis indicated that the yield losses would remain high (about two third of the current levels) when only the dominant limiting factor was overcome (Fig. 10E and F). This result suggests that, because of multiple factors that are currently latent, the program aiming to solve only the dominant limiting factor would fail. Even by eliminating the dominant and first limiting factors, yield losses would remain at about half of the current levels and this is in line with low cassava yields usually observed in farmer fields even with improved genotypes. Success in reducing cassava root yield losses would require a combination of the best practices (integrated programs) and they must be site specific. Fermont et al. (2009) reported increasing cassava root yield with increasing combination of the best agronomy practices, but the results varied strongly within sites as the tested management packages were not site specific.The unexplained yield gaps were higher in Kongo Central than in Tshopo (Fig. 10G and H), indicating that the boundary line analysis performed less in Kongo Central as compared to Tshopo. Wairegi et al. (2010) and Wang et al. (2015) reported high unexplained yield gaps in the case of banana and coffee crops. This result suggests that the study may have excluded some severe cassava yield constraints in Kongo Central. El-Sharkawy (2004) reported that, to achieve maximum yields, cassava requires high solar radiation, high mean day temperature, good rainfall distribution during crop establishment and possibly a dry period before harvesting. Moreover, the fact that a boundary line does not consider the interaction between factors is often pointed out as the artefact of the model (Shatar and McBratney, 2004) The present study aimed to increase understanding of the factors that contribute to low cassava yields in farmers' fields to guide the formulation of cassava intensification programs. A contribution of soil fertility, pest and disease infestation and cultivation practices to cassava yield gaps was analysed in farmer-managed fields in two provinces (Kongo Central and Tshopo) of the Democratic Republic of Congo. We found that, with the cassava varieties currently growing by farmers in the study areas, pests and diseases played a sparse role in the yield losses. The frequent and severe contributors to the yield losses were low soil fertility (pH, Al, nutrient contents and ratios) and suboptimal field management (late/early planting, late/sparse weeding and soil tillage). Cassava root yield constraints varied between fields, suggesting that large-scale programs (as did in the past) mainly in terms of lime application or recommendation of the blanket fertilisers would result in sparse efficacy. Compared to the observed maximal yield, the yield losses were high and scenario analysis revealed that, because of the multiple factors that are currently latent, the yield losses would remain at about two third of the current levels when only the dominant constraint was overcome. We concluded that integrated and site-specific programs are needed to close the cassava yield gap and maximize the efficacy of cassava intensification programs.","tokenCount":"9160"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b24cf8027b8d1508924b5cae1f1f59ac","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/34281ca6-cbc5-4ae4-9293-5f74d3e09fb2/retrieve","id":"913137524"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"18df78f3-2ba1-4918-9cff-e6e0c308fcac","pagecount":"11","content":"and environmental projects and activities. Diversity is most for advancing agriculture development, however, modern agriculture has accelerated the replacement of old age crop diversity. Agrobiodiversity index and measures are commonly used and estimated for crop and animal species, landraces and sites. These are useful for locating sites, crops and custodians of agrobiodiversity. Agrobiodiversity includes crop and plant; livestock and fish, insect and microbial genetic resources that are cultivated, semi domesticated or wild. Diversity are necessary for a long-term basis to secure the food and nutrition in the world. Among the three conservation strategies (ex-situ, on-farm and insitu), on-farm conservation strategy is farmer led and least cost strategy to manage total agricultural genetic resources. Within on-farm conservation, there are many approaches and methods being applied in Nepal. Agrobiodiversity in any area should be estimated properly that leads to choose the conservation approaches effectively.The scientific community has developed a wide range of methods of measuring various dimensions of agrobiodiversity, which is often referred as agrobiodiversity index (Boversity International, 2017;Sthapit et al, 2017). Diversity is measured and explained at different levels eg ecosystem, species, landrace and gene levels. Within genotypic diversity, there are functional, molecular, use value and nutritional diversity (Figure 2). Based on the data types, objectives and objects, different measures are used to estimate and compare the diversity (Table 2). These are diversity indices and measures used to quantify the diversity in a particular site. Diversity indices can be used to allow comparisons within and between different populations at species, landraces and genetic levels. Some of these are further used to classify the landraces and species in different categories. For examples, areas and number of household are used in four cell analysis to group available landraces under four cells (patterns of landrace occurrence). Measuring patterns of landrace occurrence is the simplest basis for measuring the population structure of a particular species. Classification of landraces is common and easy based on growing areas and number of growing household. These two measures classify each landrace according to whether or not it is widespread (occurs in more than a few fields) versus localized (restricted to a few fields), and secondly whether it is common (here defined as grown at least on some farms, in large numbers, in above-average field sizes) versus rare (in small fields only).Diversity changes over time and space are also estimated using different diversity measures. Both spatial and temporal changes are important for monitoring and applying appropriate methods of conservation. The average of the squared differences from the mean. the average difference between the arithmetic mean and the value of each observation in a data setThree strategies ie breeding, in-situ and on-farm are considered at local level for overall conservation and utilization of agrobiodiversity. Different methods and approaches for on-farm conservation are given in Figure 2. All or any of these are applied and among them community seed bank is very common for management of crop diversity. In all these approaches, local and native genetic resources are considered. Farmers, communities, farmer groups and local stakeholders need to actively participate.Advantages Many options (simple to complex) to measure and monitor agrobiodiversity Any level (crop, plot, farmer, village, etc) can be considered for estimate Useful to compare diversity among crops, village and districts  ","tokenCount":"539"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7cd8378b78ef3eb50b3486d505747933","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/57a0a837-643f-44f7-b809-af998147ec52/retrieve","id":"446716534"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"37c92f2c-cc15-4c3e-b8d1-9113c4e7d84d","pagecount":"36","content":"The publications in this series cover a wide range of subjects-from computer modeling to experience with water user associations-and vary in content from directly applicable research to more basic studies, on which applied work ultimately depends. Some research reports are narrowly focused, analytical and detailed empirical studies; others are wide-ranging and synthetic overviews of generic problems.Although most of the reports are published by IWMI staff and their collaborators, we welcome contributions from others. Each report is reviewed internally by IWMI staff, and by external reviewers. The reports are published and distributed both in hard copy and electronically (www.iwmi.org) and where possible all data and analyses will be available as separate downloadable files. Reports may be copied freely and cited with due acknowledgment.The continuous monitoring of hydrological and meteorological variables is a prerequisite for informed water resources management. However, in many developing countries, such as Ethiopia, observational networks remain very scarce.Even those in existence are rarely adequately maintained and many have deteriorated over the past decades. One possible way of enhancing monitoring networks is through the active involvement of local stakeholders and communities. This report describes the development of hydrometeorological monitoring networks in three watersheds in the highlands of the Blue Nile River Basin of Ethiopia: Dapo (18 km 2 ), Mizewa (27 km 2 ) and Meja (96 km 2 ). The aim of establishing these networks was to provide high-quality data to inform rainwater management strategies that will help to improve the livelihoods of farmers. In all three watersheds, relevant stakeholders and communities participated in the planning, installation and management of the networks. The networks were designed and installed between May and August, 2011. Both local people and national experts participated in this by providing information on equipment design, methods of installation, and good and potentially poor locations (e.g., in relation to flooding) as well as information on the best sites in terms of access and safety.Manual and automatic data collection commenced immediately after installation of the networks. Local communities were involved in the collection of much of the manual data, obtained daily. More frequent, hourly and even sub-hourly measurements were obtained using automatic instruments. Insights derived from the research were fed back to the communities through 'learning alliances' developed in each of the three watersheds.This participatory approach proved to be beneficial for several reasons. First, it instilled trust and goodwill amongst the communities. Second, it provided the opportunity for local people to gain insights into the hydrological regime of their locality, which in turn contributed to a better understanding of the likely impacts of different rainwater management strategies. Third, it contributed to the establishment of a conducive atmosphere for the flow of knowledge between researchers and the communities, and vice versa.Currently, discussions are ongoing with four universities (Addis Ababa, Ambo, Wollega and Bahir Dar), in conjunction with regional agricultural research centers and the Ministry of Water and Energy (MoWE), to transfer the monitoring networks and maintain community monitoring activities sustainably in the future.The monitoring of hydrological and meteorological variables from watersheds is one of the principal tasks of hydrology and water resources management. Hydrological and meteorological data are the basis of hydrological science (Rodda 1995;Vorosmarty et al. 2001). High-quality hydrological data are also needed to support decisions on rainwater management strategies and water allocation practices (Gomani et al. 2010).Despite the recognized importance of hydrological and meteorological data, collection and sharing of data are not straightforward. Both technical and financial constraints hamper data collection and sharing efforts. Technical constraints relate to the size of the watersheds being monitored, type of monitoring equipment used and availability of skilled labor. National hydrometric networks tend to focus on larger river basins (> 1,000 km 2 ) which, whilst being appropriate for water resources assessment, are inadequate for hydrological research. To gain insights into hydrological processes, monitoring at much greater resolution (i.e., typically catchments < 100 km 2 ) is necessary. Financial constraints relate not only to the capital cost of sophisticated monitoring equipment, but also to the ongoing costs of maintenance, often in remote locations. These problems are exacerbated in developing countries, such as Ethiopia, where both the financial and human capital needed to establish and maintain good monitoring networks are in short supply. V e r y o f t e n , i n v o l v e m e n t o f t h e l o c a l community and other stakeholders is neglected in the establishment of hydrological monitoring networks. Most research institutions engaged in biophysical research tend to pay little attention to the engagement of local communities and other stakeholders in research design and implementation (Kongo et al. 2010). Yet, the involvement of these people in establishing and contributing to such networks, and indeed any management intervention at a watershed scale, is key to their reliability and a prerequisite for longterm sustainability (Gomani et al. 2010).Past studies have reported several constraints to establishing hydrological monitoring systems (Meirovich et al. 1998;Mul 2009). The most commonly reported problems are (i) installation of equipment in catchments where little is known about the catchment characteristics, (ii) theft and vandalism, (iii) post-installation damage due to floods or other natural events, and (iv) institutional and policy barriers that hinder operation and maintenance of monitoring stations.These problems arise, in part, due to the lack of local stakeholder involvement in the establishment and operation of hydrological monitoring systems. Monitoring is usually a task carried out by specialized agencies such as the National Hydrological Services (NHS). These agencies have their own technicians, staff, and procedures for network design and implementation. In addition to a lack of perceived relevance, documented reasons for failure to establish community involvement in monitoring networks are complexity of the technology, conflicting information, institutional factors, lack of flexibility, the transaction costs (both financial and human capital) of involving communities, and incompatibility with other aspects of local farming and livelihood objectives or management (Sturdy et al. 2008).In recent years, there have been some successful examples of data collection at watershed scale, with the involvement of various stakeholders (e.g., Gomani et al. 2010;Kongo et al. 2010;Laurent et al. 2010;Munyaneza et al. 2010;EFLUM 2011;STRI 2011). In places where the hydrological monitoring activities were undertaken, local communities were consulted and involved in both the establishment and maintenance of the networks. These efforts are deemed to have been effective, in part, because a number of different stakeholders were consulted and they contributed in a useful manner to the monitoring activities from the commencement of the work.The study reported here focused on the establishment of monitoring networks in three watersheds in the Blue Nile River Basin of Ethiopia. These networks were established to provide data to assist in the design and implementation of rainwater management strategies. Three districts, which are administrative subdivisions encompassed within regional administrations, were selected to represent different locations and dominant agroecological zones. A watershed was selected from each district to conduct biophysical research. The objectives of establishing monitoring networks in the three watersheds were to:• monitor a wide range of hydrological and meteorological processes, in order to gain an in-depth understanding of the hydrological regime of the watersheds;• establish, in collaboration with various stakeholders, capacity to assess, monitor and manage water and environmental resources in the local communities; and• provide an opportunity for future hydrological research and capacity building.In the current study, several stakeholders were engaged in the collection of both hydrological and meteorological data from 2011. In this report, 'stakeholders' refer to people from the Ministry of Water and Energy (MoWE), National Meteorology Agency (NMA), three universities located in proximity of the watersheds (i.e., Bahir Dar, Ambo and Wollega), regional research institutes and local communities. 'Local communities' are people who live in the watersheds and come from a range of backgrounds: farmers and their households, agricultural extension workers, farmers' representatives, tradespeople, local government officials and administrators, and other professional people as well as those involved in non-farm activities.studies of the establishment of watershed monitoring networks through a community participatory approach. Not much experience exists outside of Europe and North America, in particular (Fagerström et al. 2003;Gomani et al. 2010;Kelkar et al. 2008;Kongo et al. 2010;Nare et al. 2006Nare et al. , 2011;;Sang-Arun et al. 2006; Participatory research focuses on a process of sequential reflection and action, carried out with and by local people. Not only are the knowledge and perspectives of local people acknowledged, but they also form the basis for research and planning (Cornwall and Jewkes 1995). In the available literature, there are only a few case Souchère et al. 2010;Sturdy et al. 2008;Uysal and Atis 2010;Welp 2001).In a few countries, such as Zimbabwe and South Africa, government policies and legislation encourage stakeholder participation in research design and implementation (Nare et al. 2006(Nare et al. , 2011)). Participatory approaches help stakeholders to share their views about the project, describe its relation to their environmental conditions (Sang-Arun et al. 2006;Souchère et al. 2010) and understand the principles of improved water resources management. It also helps to improve farmers' awareness of environmental problems and solutions as well as to link local and scientific knowledge (Fagerström et al. 2003). Communities can be engaged in several ways, ranging from conducting face-to-face discussions to understand stakeholder perceptions, to full engagement in the design and implementation of research projects.Establishment of a hydrological monitoring network in a 2,780-km 2 watershed, located in the tropical climate region of Tanzania, involved local communities in the installation of equipment and data monitoring (Gomani et al. 2010). Monitoring included weather and streamflow data.T h e e s t a b l i s h m e n t o f a h y d r o l o g i c a l monitoring network in the Potshini watershed in Bergville District of South Africa was initiated in early 2004. The work involved smallholder farmers and other stakeholders from the initial preparatory stages to the actual construction of the various structures and instruments as well as their involvement in monitoring activities. The work was conducted in two nested watersheds, with areas of 1.2 km 2 (manually monitored) and 10 km 2 (automatically monitored). The network monitored streamflows, overland flow from experimental runoff plots, sediment load, shallow and deep groundwater bodies, volumetric soil moisture content, crop transpiration rates and meteorological variables (Kongo et al. 2010). Also, in the Bergville District in South Africa, but in the Okhahlamba Local Municipality, a participatory approach was adopted to facilitate farmer-driven gardening experiments. The experiments were conducted in an area of 2.5 km 2 covering 400 homesteads. A range of equipment (i.e., rain gauges, wetting front detectors, nested watermark sensors and capacitance probes) was placed in the gardens of the six farmers that were chosen for the detailed case studies (Sturdy et al. 2008). The farmers recorded daily rainfall, irrigation timing and quantity, and wetting front detector activation events. This information was supplemented with laboratory-generated soil analyses and in-field soil hydraulic characterization tests. Data were used to estimate changes in water balances for different designs of garden beds over the summer. The data were also used to provide farmers with information on the optimal times to irrigate, and the amount of water that should be applied during irrigation events for the various designs of garden beds and irrigation methods chosen for the experiments.The approach allowed farmers to systematically assess the value of the innovations they chose to implement while providing researchers with an avenue for learning about socioeconomic as well as biophysical influences on farmers' decisions. Also, this approach improved farmers' confidence and they were better able to explain innovative approaches to others. Similarly, researchers in the district were able to use farmers' manually collected data and observations to supplement laboratory-generated and electronically-recorded information on soil-water dynamics, in order to better understand water balances. It was reported that farmers who participated in the research and experimental process became proficient in gardening systems (Sturdy et al. 2008).Conducting participatory workshops has been found to be a successful means of capturing perceptions of local communities regarding soil erosion in northern Thailand (Sang-Arun et al. 2006). The use of indigenous knowledge to improve existing practices and design a better water quality monitoring network was found to be successful in the Mzingwe watershed in Zimbabwe (Nare et al. 2006). In another example of participatory monitoring, the sharing of modeling results of surface runoff, soil moisture, lateral runoff and groundwater recharge was found to be an effective means of tracing past developments that have impacted the lives and livelihoods of people in the Lakhwar watershed in Uttarakhand State of India (Kelkar et al. 2008). Krishanan et al. (2009) used the wisdom of well drillers to construct digital groundwater databases across the Indo-Gangetic Basin.The development of a community-based river monitoring system in a sub-humid region of Mexico proved to be useful in monitoring suspended sediment yields (Duvert et al. 2011) ). The study concluded that, to strengthen linkages between local groups, management authorities and researchers, it is necessary to promote the development of community-based monitoring of catchments in Mexico and elsewhere in the world (Duvert et al. 2011).There are issues and constraints as well. Out of the six farmers who were provided with rain gauges and encouraged to conduct their own monitoring and experiments in Bergville District in South Africa, only three were given the entire set of technical instruments. The other three failed to take notes and maintain records. Their failure was attributed to their involvement in other social activities and local employment (Sturdy et al. 2008). Hence, the participatory approach should be viewed as a developing paradigm or method in which there is a need for strong commitment from both researchers and stakeholders, and a need for good regular communication in order to ensure greater acceptance by the stakeholders concerned (Quinn et al. 2003;Sturdy et al. 2008).This study focused on three watersheds that are located in the highlands of the Blue Nile (known locally as the Abbay) River Basin. The Blue Nile River Basin is characterized by considerable spatial and temporal variability in hydro-climatic conditions. Within this wider basin, rainfall varies significantly with altitude and is, to a large extent, controlled by the movement of air masses associated with the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). There is considerable inter-annual variability, but rainfall increases from about 1,000 mm near the Sudanese border to between 1,400 and 1,800 mm over parts of the upper basin, and exceeds 2,000 mm in some places in the south (Awulachew et al. 2010).The three watersheds (Figure 1; Table 1) were selected as sites to study the dominant h y d r o l o g i c a l p r o c e s s e s a n d b i o p h y s i c a l characteristics of the highland areas in the Blue Nile River Basin. The watersheds represent a gradient of farming types, land degradation and varying socioeconomic conditions. The following watersheds were selected for this study:(i) Dapo watershed (18 km 2 ) in Diga District.(ii) Mizewa watershed (27 km 2 ) in Fogera District.(iii) Meja watershed (96 km 2 ) in Jeldu District.The three study watersheds are characterized by high annual rainfall, but with considerable seasonal and inter-annual variability. Each year, the rain falls within a very short period of time (typically 4 months). Communities experience significant water shortages during the dry season as a result of poor and ineffective rainwater management practices (Ayana 2011;Megersa 2011;Taffese 2012). A description of the three watersheds is given below.  topography with gorges and Barley and teff are also valleys. common.Slopes up to 80 degrees are Crop rotation is also practiced under cultivation. Accelerated within the year, with the land soil erosion due to slope left fallow every third year. steepness. Farming system: Mixed crop-livestock system.Dapo watershed (Figure 2) is located in Diga District, which lies in the southwest of the Ethiopian Blue Nile River Basin. It is one of the regions that receives the highest level of rainfall in the Ethiopian Highlands. In some places, mean annual rainfall exceeds 2,000 mm. The altitude in the area varies from 1,200 to 2,342 meters above sea level (masl) and comprises two agroecological zones: the lowlands and midlands (Table 1). The midlands are steep, formerly forested, terrain which is rapidly being cleared of trees. Large areas of forest have been cleared in the last 10 years. Scattered communities tend to cultivate the tops and bottoms of slopes, because the slopes themselves are steep. However, the increasing cultivation of the slopes is leading to problems of soil erosion and loss of soil fertility. In some places, all the topsoil (sandy clay loams and sandy clay) has been lost. Once the productivity declines too far, farmers simply move on and clear more forest. The lowland, bordering the Didessa River, is less steep than the midlands and comprises more rolling terrain. In recent years, there has been a large influx of people into this lowland area.The selected watershed is drained by the Dapo River, which is a perennial river. However, in recent years, scarcity of water for livestock and people during the dry season has become an increasingly common phenomenon. Local experts attribute the water scarcity to: (i) population pressure, (ii) lack of soil conservation measures to reduce erosion, (iii) deforestation, and (iv) overgrazing.Table 2 provides details of the hydrological and meteorological stations installed in the Dapo watershed.There is a large potential for irrigation, particularly on the flatter terrain of the lowland areas. Traditional biological and physical land management interventions (e.g., strip c r o p p i n g , c r o p r o t a t i o n , i n t e r c r o p p i n g , conservation tillage, and mulching or crop residue) are being exercised by a few farmers to improve cropland productivity. However, these attempts are insufficient to overcome the problem of land degradation and loss of soil fertility (Megersa 2011).Mizewa watershed (Figure 3) is located in Fogera District, which lies in the northeast of the Blue Nile River Basin, to the east of Lake Tana. The watershed is drained by the Mizewa River, which is a perennial river and flows approximately from south to north with two main tributaries: (a) the main Mizewa River, which has a drainage area of 19 km 2 ; and (b) the Ginde Newur River, which has a drainage area of 8 km 2 . The principal crop grown in the catchment is maize. In the watershed, most of the communities remain food-insecure and are extremely poor. A few local farmers have protected their farmland using stone bunds and practice contour plowing to reduce upland erosion. However, most farmers do not undertake sustainable agricultural practices, and they lack effective land and rainwater management practices (Taffese 2012). The communities complain of water shortages in the dry season, attributed to upstream pumping of water and the planting of eucalyptus trees.Table 3 provides details of the hydrological and meteorological stations installed in the Mizewa watershed.There are at least three locations within the watershed where water was pumped for irrigation. This was reported to result in the drying of the Ginde Newur tributary in the dry season. The communities also stated that already constructed rainwater harvesting (RWH) ponds were failing for a variety of 'unforeseen' reasons. Meja watershed (Figure 4) is located in Jeldu District, which lies in the south of the Blue Nile River Basin to the northeast of Ambo town. The major river draining the watershed is the Meja River, a tributary of the Guder River, which flows approximately from south to north. The river originates just outside Jeldu in the Ginchi District in a place locally referred to as the Galessa Hills.Most communities live on the ridge tops, but cultivate the steep valley sides. Slopes of up to 80 degrees are being cultivated. The area has been heavily deforested in the last 10 to 20 years and soil erosion is a major problem. Both slope slumping and gullying are common phenomena in the watershed.Table 4 provides details of the hydrological and meteorological stations installed in the Meja watershed.Within the Meja watershed there are not many interventions related to soil water conservation or rainwater management strategies (RMS). Farmers plant eucalyptus trees (currently occupying approximately 10 to 15% of the watershed) along gully lines and on degraded areas to mitigate gulley expansion and generate cash. In the district, some farmers believe that productivity has 'halved' in recent years. People living in the watershed are food-insecure and face seasonal water scarcity. There are some traditional water diversions for irrigating potatoes. However, water scarcity prevails during the dry season, and there are severe problems of land degradation, soil erosion, and low crop and livestock productivity (Ayana 2011).Detailed descriptions of the hydrological features and further physical characteristics of the three study watersheds are presented in Zemadim et al. (2011). In common with most places in Ethiopia, the major soil and water conservation interventions that have been practiced in the watersheds are soil bunds, stone bunds and grass strips. These are intended primarily as conservation structures to reduce soil erosion, although they may also conserve water in-situ (Alem 1999). However, to date, they are limited in extent and have not brought significant change to the livelihoods of the rural communities.  Note: * FG -Flow Gauge, RG -Rain Gauge, SM -Soil Moisture.In this study, two basic approaches were combined in the establishment and operation of the monitoring networks. First, a participatory approach involving both the local community and other stakeholders. Second, a scientific approach entailing the application of scientific and engineering principles in the design, construction and installation of the component structures and equipment that comprise the monitoring networks.The design of the monitoring networks established in the three watersheds was based on expert judgment and experience, as well as lessons learned from literature review of previous projects (Gomani et al. 2010;Laurent et al. 2010;Kongo et al. 2010;Munyaneza et al. 2010;EFLUM 2011;STRI 2011). In addition, local expert knowledge was utilized. Overall, a six-step process was adopted, with the participation of a range of stakeholders at all stages:(i) Inception of the idea and identification of stakeholders.(ii) Designing the networks.(iii) Installing the networks.(iv) Monitoring and maintaining the networks.(v) Collating, quality control, archiving and use of data.(vi) Communication and feedback.During the inception phase of the project, c o n s u l t a t i o n s w e r e h e l d w i t h s e v e r a l stakeholders to determine the detailed design and specific needs of each of the monitoring networks. The primary objectives of the monitoring were identified as: i) determining the magnitude of different hydrological fluxes, ii) 'closing' the water budget for the watersheds, and iii) providing baseline data for modeling. Several stakeholders and different research groups, including regional research organizations (e.g., Amhara Regional Agricultural Research Institute [ARARI] and Ethiopian Institute of Water Resources [EIWR]), were identified, and efforts were made to bring them together to interact and learn from each other. The involvement of local communities was initiated at this stage. In the local communities, district government officials and community elders were initially approached, and the objectives of the research and the monitoring were presented. The nature of the planned research was explained and they were made aware of the objectives. The project team explained the benefits of conducting the research, and how it would benefit the community in terms of local capacity building and an increased understanding of the hydrology of the watershed as well as the contribution the monitoring would make to the wider project. In later discussions, the possibility of engagement and possible community responsibilities (e.g., safeguarding the equipment) were discussed. These discussions usually took place on a Sunday, after the local people returned from church (Figure 5).Establishment of the monitoring networks in the watersheds started with identifying possible locations for monitoring sites. An initial survey was conducted from August 04 to August 11, 2010 (Zemadim et al. 2010), with the local communities. Subsequently, more detailed surveys were conducted, involving stakeholders from government institutions (i.e., MoWE and NMA), to identify the type of monitoring stations and more exact locations for possibly establishing stations. The intention was to ensure that the equipment installed in this project should, in future, contribute to existing national hydrometric networks. Hence, where appropriate, equipment (e.g., rain gauges and flow gauges) was chosen to meet national standards.Several factors were considered in designing the networks. Local and expert experience of the hydrological characteristics of the watersheds, such as high and low flow regimes, precipitation patterns, vegetation types, topographic variations and agronomic conditions, was collected. Similarly, information on elevation range, watershed outlet locations, major tributary lines and local knowledge on flood-prone areas was also obtained.Expert knowledge was important to identify the most appropriate locations for installing the equipment, based on, for example, river morphology, river bank stability, stream crosssection, various land use and land cover conditions, and flow directions. Local knowledge was also used to identify flood markings, and to assist with identifying flood-prone areas and locations used for cattle herding. In addition, advice was obtained from local communities to try and ensure the safety of equipment. To the extent possible, equipment was located in places where regular observations could be made by farmers.The monitoring networks were installed between May and August, 2011. Some of the equipment (e.g., stands for bank-operated cables and bracings for stage boards) was made by local craftsmen and local people assisted with the installation. These people initially assisted by providing labor for installation, but many were later given training on how to be observers for manually read hydrological and meteorological monitoring equipment. Local people also constructed fences to ensure that the equipment was protected from damage by livestock.To facilitate the collection of data with a high temporal resolution, automatic equipment is required. However, there are risks associated with using highly technical equipment in isolated locations in developing countries. For instance, maintenance is not easy and if the equipment fails, for whatever reason, it may be hard to repair. There is, therefore, the risk that data collection may cease for long periods of time. Hence, in such circumstances, building redundancy into monitoring networks is a sensible precaution. Manual gauges provide a backup to the data collected by automatic gauges and help to minimize losses that may occur due to equipment malfunctioning or vandalism. In this project, financial constraints also limited the amount of expensive automatic equipment that could be installed in the study watersheds. Consequently, the networks comprised a mix of highly technical automatic equipment and less sophisticated manually read instruments.The following equipment was installed in each study watershed:• Automatic weather stations (one in each study watershed).• Manual rain gauges (distributed across altitude and space) to record rainfall data and read by local residents.• Pressure transducers to measure river stage (converted to flow using a rating e q u a t i o n , d e t e r m i n e d f r o m c u r r e n t meter measurements), maintained and downloaded by local residents who had studied at university.• Stage boards at the catchment outlet and in the sub-catchments to enable manual measurement of stage, read and collected by local residents.• Soil moisture profiles (determined using a Delta-T probe) arranged in a number of transects perpendicular to the drainage line of the main stream.• Shallow groundwater depth (determined using pressure transducers and manual dip meters), located close to the soil moisture transects.In addition, selected residents were provided with cameras to photograph stage boards and changes in land use in the watershed.To study the water fluxes and water use systems, monitoring stations were installed at locations on rain-fed farmland, irrigated farmland, grazing areas, and inside or near eucalyptus plantations. The location and approximate elevation of all equipment was determined using handheld global positioning system (GPS) units. The locations derived from the GPS units were overlaid on a digital elevation model (DEM), and watershed boundaries and the geographic locations of monitoring stations were mapped (Figures 2 to 4; Tables 2 to 4).The involvement of local people in the installation process helped to build trust with the individuals, who in turn informed their families and friends of the activities being undertaken and helped to create awareness of the project. Local people also benefited from the small payments they were given as compensation for their assistance in the field. The involvement of local artisans and the use of workshops close to the watersheds as well as, where possible, local construction materials, helped to minimize the cost of equipment installation.Details of the type of equipment, methods of installation and measurement techniques for all the monitoring equipment used are presented below.Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) from Campbell Scientific, Inc. 1 , were used to monitor the following variables at a resolution of one hour: rainfall, average air temperature, minimum and maximum air temperature, relative humidity, net radiation, corrected net radiation, solar radiation, wind speed, wind direction, soil temperatures at two depths, and barometric pressure. Data were recorded in a data logger and downloaded approximately monthly using a computer.Ordinary metallic rain gauges (Figure 6(b)) were produced at the NMA workshop (to meet the national standard design) and installed in networks around each catchment to cover a range of altitudes and different agroecological zones. Local community members were trained to read these gauges manually each day (Figure 6(c)). By doing this, local people appreciated how rainfall was recorded.Measurement of stream water level was undertaken manually using Shelley Signs 2 stage boards and automatically using SEBA 3 pressure transducers. The researchers also used staff gauge boards manufactured locally by MoWE. Staff gauges were installed after identifying suitable locations in terms of river bank stability and accessibility (Figure 7(b)). Manual measurements were taken twice daily (at 06:00 and 18:00). Automatic water level measurements were taken hourly. Discharge measurements were made using current meters over a range of flow conditions, to establish rating equations (Figure 7(c)). These were used to convert water level measurements into discharge.Soil moisture was measured using Delta-T profile probes called PR2/64 . These probes measure the soil moisture at six depths down to 100 cm below the ground surface (Figure 6(a)). Plastic access tubes were installed in augered holes and profile probes were inserted into these to take the measurements. In addition to the profile probe, near surface soil moisture was measured using an ML2 5 ThetaProbe sensor, which measures the soil moisture to a depth of 10 cm. Soil 2 See note 1.3 See note 1.4 See note 1.5 See note 1. moisture measurements were taken manually approximately weekly.In the study watersheds, there were no shallow groundwater observation wells. Consequently, it was necessary to auger shallow wells for groundwater-level observation (Figure 8(c)). Measurements were taken both manually and automatically in the augered wells. The wells were located along transects, and strategically installed at sites where they would not interfere with farming activities. Manual groundwater level measurements were taken daily using a dip meter. In selected wells, pressure transducers and SEBA 6 data loggers were used to obtain data every hour.The watershed monitoring networks have been operating since the beginning of August, 2011. Details of the monitoring regime and frequency of data collection are summarized in Table 5. For monitoring activities, the project employed local gauge readers who lived in close proximity to the networks. Five, seven and eight 'gauge readers' were employed for the Dapo, Mizewa and Meja watersheds, respectively. These gauge readers collected data on a daily basis and also provided security to individual pieces of equipment. They were trained by the project team to read water level data from staff gauges and record rainfall using rain gauges (Figures 7(b) and 6(c)).  In addition, they collected soil moisture data and recorded groundwater levels in shallow wells. Each reader was paid a small monthly stipend to compensate for their time.To enhance the amount and quality of data collected in the watersheds by the local community, graduate level researchers from Ambo University, Bahir Dar University and Wollega University were engaged as 'watershed coordinators'. The watershed coordinators spent a great deal of time in the field each week. They were involved in the following activities:• Assisting with the installation of hydrological a n d m e t e o r o l o g i c a l e q u i p m e n t , a n d subsequently attending to routine operation a n d m a i n t e n a n c e r e q u i r e m e n t s o f the instruments.• Supervising the gauge readers, quality control of the data, and converting the hard copy format of the data to soft copy (spreadsheets) which was then forwarded to the IWMI East Africa and Nile Basin office in Addis Ababa.• Participation in the local Innovation Platform (IP) (see section, Communication and Feedback).The watershed coordinators were financially compensated for their efforts and they reported directly to the field hydrologist, who was located at the IWMI office in Addis Ababa.Mechanisms for manual data collection and archiving from each of the study watersheds were based on standard data collection and archiving protocols of MoWE and NMA. For example, MoWE supplied a standard booklet that provides details on manual data collection of stream water level from staff gauges. Similarly, protocols of the NMA were adopted for daily rainfall collection from ordinary rain gauges.Automatic data archiving was based on downloading data recorded in data loggers. Even though some of the automatic gauges had data transmission capabilities, the lack of telecommunications network coverage meant that it was not possible to use these facilities in the study watersheds. Thus, data were downloaded monthly from the loggers. The temporal resolution of the data from automatic sensors ranged from hourly to daily.Once data were collected by local observers, the initial data quality checking (i.e., identification of any possible data gaps and outliers) was undertaken by the watershed coordinators. Regular communication between watershed coordinators and the gauge readers helped to identify erroneous recordings and explain data gaps. The watershed coordinator converted all hard copy data into spreadsheets prior to sending the details to the IWMI office in Addis Ababa each month. Once received by the IWMI office, the data were further quality controlled. This involved the plotting of time series to identify possible outliers that may have been missed by the watershed coordinator. Data collected by the automatic instruments were compared with the manually collected data. In instances where discrepancies were identified, the IWMI field hydrologist discussed the matter with the watershed coordinators to try and resolve them. Finally, a clean 'master' dataset was stored on a computer server to be used in analyses.A l l t h e d a t a c o l l e c t e d , i n c l u d i n g photographs, have been made available to graduate students, researchers and others working directly on the project, and have been shared with NMA and MoWE on a regular basis. In future, data will also be stored on IWMI's Water Data Portal (http://waterdata. iwmi.org) and will be freely available to anyone who wants access to it.Within the current project, data obtained from the three study watersheds were used in conjunction with computer models (e.g., the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT)) to determine water use and water productivity in different parts of the landscape, and to evaluate the possible implications (including downstream impacts) of scaling up possible rainwater management strategies (Schmidt and Zemadim Forthcoming).A participatory learning process must involve a feedback mechanism where continuous updating and responses are integrated into the learning process. Such feedback mechanisms should accommodate the opinions and ideas of the various stakeholders as much as possible (Gomani et al. 2010). As part of the broader CPWF project, Innovation Platforms (IPs) were established in each study landscape to communicate the research findings, and provide a forum for discussion of project concepts and learning. The watershed coordinators were part of the established IPs, and reported on the status and progress of the hydrological and meteorological monitoring activities. This helped to inform the local communities of the main research activities and progress made in data collection. It also helped to provide a greater understanding of the ongoing research and enabled the communities to better appreciate their contribution to the project. In future, IPs will be used to obtain ideas from the communities about what sort of RMS they would like to adopt and this can be integrated into the learning process.In addition, there are plans to organize 'field days' to discuss results with local communities and seek their insights into the implications of the findings, specifically in relation to their farming practices and to the management of land and water resources. Similarly, there is also a plan to organize a field day at each site for university students and national research organizations. This will focus specifically on the instrument networks and their value for hydrological research. The involvement of local communities in monitoring activities and the protocols adopted will also be discussed.The monitoring networks are appreciated by many who are carrying out similar activities, both in Ethiopia and elsewhere. As a result, there have been many requests by national and international institutions, and individual researchers, to utilize the data obtained from the networks. The requests were mainly from those seeking biophysical data. In some instances, proposals have been made to increase the network density through the installation of additional instrumentation and monitoring stations. For example, EIWR has installed three more automatic rain gauges in the Mizewa watershed. This improved data resolution both in time and space and helped to increase the reliability of data recording. It is an indication of the perceived value of the monitoring network and its sustainability.The participatory approach has contributed positively to the establishment and operation of the hydrometeorological monitoring networks in the Ethiopian Highlands. At the beginning of the project, the close cooperation between multiple stakeholders through meetings and visits to field sites helped in the identification of suitable research catchments in the three districts. Later, discussions held with the government, bilateral development institutions and local communities helped to identify appropriate instruments and locations for installation of monitoring networks. The equipment was purchased only after discussion of the requirements with NMA and MoWE, which ensured that it was appropriate for the Ethiopian context. Multiple stakeholders, both technical experts and those with local knowledge, assisted in the installation of equipment and continued to assist with data collection and maintenance of instruments. Summary details of the role of different stakeholders involved in the watershed monitoring programs are presented in Table 6.In the three study watersheds, the discussion held with local officials, village leaders and f a r m e r s h e l p e d t o a v o i d u n n e c e s s a r y misunderstandings about the project. At the beginning of the project, some villagers thought that the research was being conducted with a view to identifying land suitable for purchase by foreign investors; a valid and unsurprising concern in a country where foreign direct investment in land is increasing. Understandably, the villagers were reluctant to cooperate. However, after the initial discussions and once the objectives of the research were explained, farmers participated willingly and, generally, without problems. For the most part, farmers were willing to have instruments installed on their land, and this equipment was well maintained and looked after.However, maintenance of the hydrometric networks was not completely trouble-free. Despite the involvement of local communities, vandalism was an issue. This related primarily to the automatic flow gauging stations, located on road bridges at the outlet of each watershed. In two of the watersheds, these gauges were deliberately damaged and items of equipment were stolen. Initially, in each case, it was assumed that the local community was responsible for the damage caused and the incident was reported to local government officials. Later, discussions were held with the officials and communities, and it transpired that the equipment had not been vandalized by local people. Rather, it was by people from other communities who were unaware of the purpose of the instruments, but who used the roads to commute between towns and villages. All incidents of vandalism occurred on market days, when many people travel on the roads on foot. Also, it was speculated that people under the influence of alcohol on market days may have had a role to play in these incidents. After these incidents of vandalism, the damaged equipment was replaced and local observers took the initiative to guard not only flow gauging stations installed on the bridges but also other monitoring stations that could be seen by outsiders.Another problem, despite efforts to avoid it and advice from MoWE, was flood damage. The three watersheds are located in highland areas with steep slopes. In these areas, rainfall occurs rapidly in short-duration intense storms. It can take less than an hour for flash floods to reach the watershed outlets. Associated with the flood flows are logs and boulders swept along by the river water. These have damaged the gauging stations that were installed on the bridges in all the watersheds (Figure 9(b), (c)). This damage is largely unavoidable.  However, stage boards which were bolted to the concrete of the bridge piers withstood the flooding (Figure 9(d)). Following the damage caused to the flow gauges, observers were requested to make more frequent manual measurements and, consequently, daily and sub-daily readings were obtained throughout the periods that the automatic flow gauges were inoperable. Although not ideal, this highlights the value of having manual measurements in conjunction with those from automatic recorders.Examples of the data gaps that were created due to vandalism and malfunctioning of equipment, and flood damage, and the actions taken to minimize the loss of data are presented in Table 7.A sense of ownership of the monitoring equipment was created amongst the local people. They were the first to report any malfunctioning equipment. This minimized delays in taking appropriate corrective measures. However, the use of local observers for monitoring created another challenge. The involvement of a relatively small number of people, who were financially compensated for their efforts in the collection of data, created some tension with others in the community. However, discussions held with local government officials and village elders together with the community, to some extent, eased these tensions.The main outcomes of using a participatory approach for hydrometeorological monitoring in the three watersheds can be summarized as follows:(i) Identification of appropriate sites for hydrometeorological monitoring.(ii) Reduction in the cost of installation and maintenance of monitoring equipment.(iii) Provision of security for the instrument networks.(iv) A sense of ownership of the monitoring e q u i p m e n t , c r e a t e d w i t h i n t h e l o c a l communities.significant step in bringing about community support for research activities.• There is a need to minimize over-expectation within the community. It is important to be clear what can be expected from the project (i.e., what it will and will not deliver).• It is important that key figures within the local community (i.e., village elders and government officials) appoint people from the community to work on the project (i.e., as local observers). In this case, those who are not selected may feel that they have missed out on an opportunity. However, they cannot attribute the decision of not being selected to the project itself.It is clear that a successful participatory approach requires constant effort and, as such, is associated with high transaction costs. However, these costs can be minimized, if appropriate institutional and social arrangements are put in From this project, some of the lessons learned about the process of participation include the following:• The various government officials at all levels expect recognition and respect. It is important to consult these people or arrange short meetings and brief them regularly on the process and progress of the work undertaken.It is also important to build long and lasting relationships with key individuals in the government institutes.• There is a need to identify key individuals who can influence the community. These individuals tend to gain respect from the community because of their dependable character and innovative ideas and decisionmaking skills. In the local context, these people are referred to as 'community model farmers'. If such people are seen to be in favor of the monitoring networks, it is a place at all levels with the full range of stakeholders. This will also help to ensure that conflict is minimized, and researchers, local people and other stakeholders benefit from the participatory approach. Within the current project, the monitoring activities will continue to the end of 2013, at which point the monitoring activities will be reviewed with the intention of deciding on how best to continue. Project activities could possibly continue as an addition to the national hydrometric network or as study watersheds supported by the local universities. Currently, discussions are ongoing with the three universities located in close proximity to the study watersheds, regional research centers and MoWE on how best to transfer the monitoring networks and maintain community monitoring activities, including the associated costs. It is anticipated that the monitoring stations in the Mizewa watershed may be transferred to Bahir Dar University and ARARI. Similarly, it is anticipated that the monitoring stations in the Meja and Dapo watersheds could be taken over by EIWR of Addis Ababa University in close collaboration with Ambo University, Wollega University and the Hydrology Directorate of MoWE.This report has described a participatory approach for establishing hydrometric networks in rugged and difficult locations in the Ethiopian Highlands. The monitoring networks were installed as part of ongoing research for a development project. The objective of the research was to gain an insight into the hydrological processes that may affect the viability of rainwater management practices. All monitoring networks were installed in areas where there was no hydrological and meteorological infrastructure previously.The four major benefits of the participatory approach can be summarized as shown below:• I n c r e a s e d r e s i l i e n c e a n d e n h a n c e d sustainability of the monitoring networks, as a consequence of several factors: local knowledge was used to ensure that equipment was installed in the best possible locations; a sense of community ownership was created and meant that, to some extent (though not totally), equipment was protected from vandalism; and a combination of measurements were taken from automatic recorders and manually collected data, which meant that there was a 'backup' of many observations.• Greater cost-effectiveness was achieved, because as much equipment as possible was manufactured locally and local observers were used for data collection, which meant that less costly automatic equipment was needed. Also, having local observers on the ground meant that additional information (e.g., taking photographs of land-use change, and recording of activities such as gravel extraction from riverbeds and flooding events) could be collected for only a marginal extra cost.• Recommendations were made for rainwater management interventions that are believed to be both more suitable and more effective as a consequence of the two-way flow of knowledge between researchers and the communities and vice versa.• Increased awareness was created of the importance of the management of water and natural resources within local communities through the established IPs.In conclusion, although problems related to equipment vandalism and flooding remain, the inclusion of local communities and other stakeholders in the data collection efforts has been largely beneficial. The monitoring networks are perceived to be of value by local universities and national research institutes, and will hopefully be integrated into the national hydrometric networks in the long-term. The high transaction costs associated with the approach are warranted by the trust garnered within communities, the assistance that they provided and the increased likelihood that the findings will prove to be useful to the communities. To ensure that the findings are utilized successfully, participation of local communities and a range of stakeholders should continue to be encouraged, and similar approaches should be promoted elsewhere in the country.","tokenCount":"8053"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"73e8600034ceb50effd684d82df49a87","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/26cf0a7f-033e-4a1a-a8cb-2739c67f036a/retrieve","id":"-483791957"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ff5cf80f-4100-47de-bd37-441b68806fa7","pagecount":"17","content":"Dr. Bhandari opened his welcome address by narrating the history of rice production in Bangladesh. During the 1970s, the country was considered a mere bottomless basket. Since then, rice production increased by 3.5 times, transforming the country into a role model on agriculture and development. However, rice farming still faces many challenges, including rice scarcity. Water management is becoming an important issue as well. With these challenges, no \"one-size-fits-all\" solution can be made. Bangladesh needs location-specific ones.IRRI's innovative technologies are part of the solution. Their AWD technique demonstrates a 30% reduction in water use and no yield loss, presenting an increase in profit. However, adoption of this technique has been slow. Dr. Bhandari hoped that this workshop would promote large-scale AWD implementation.Several advantages of using AWD include:• reduces water demand for irrigation;• reduces GHG emissions by 50%;• and presents a low-cost implementation.Dr. Salahuddin added that the primary approach of the project was to work with NW-FAN.Initially, the implementors chose the pump owners they would want to work with. Afterwards, they talked to the chosen pump owners and gave them orientation and training.The trained farmers then disseminated the technology to their fellow farmers. IRRI and the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) helped them in the technology dissemination.With the assistance of Network members, the farmers mapped the types of irrigation being applied and the areas where AWD could be implemented.Dr. Salahuddin added that there are 1,612,613 tube wells around Bangladesh, among which they have identified 1,400,000 wells that could adopt AWD technology. From the policy perspective, the AWD technique can contribute in at least 5 Farmers initially wanted to know whether they were actually reducing water usage or saving electricity or diesel. Whole catchment areas were mapped for potential points of AWD pipe establishment, including the level of land and the area of farm lands. Data were collected and eventually analyzed at the Hazi Danesh Institute.In the first phase, 17 shallow tube well owners started using AWD. In the second phase, 19 shallow tube well owners in 11 upazilas were included, covering 152 acres of land. By the final phase, 50 pump owners in the 11 upazilas were providing water to 800 farmers across 337 acres of land. The major goal was to connect all farmer organizations to mobilize and implement the AWD technique. Mr. Rashid added that this network could potentially turn into a union of AWD farmers. It is equally important to mobilize local governments and district irrigation committees as they provide licensing and other services to tube well owners. Encouraging agricultural entrepreneurs to use AWD technologies for agricultural crops other than rice is also essential.Dr. Salahuddin, Consultant, IRRI Dr. Salahuddin facilitated the video presentation session. Farmers in the video testified to the benefits of AWD technology, including reduction of water input. IRRI trained farmers on the use of irrigation devices and the technique, but what was especially important for the success of the project was the collaboration between farmers and pump owners.Dr. Salahuddin, Consultant, IRRI Dr. Salahuddin opened the floor to farmers and pump owners for them to share their experiences on the benefits of AWD and what they wanted IRRI to know going forward.Md. Motiar Rahman, a pump owner from Rangpur RDRS, shared that farmers were initially reluctant to use the technique. However, once they saw the benefits, they felt that it was a sustainable farming technique for generations to come.Md. Shajahan Ali, a farmer from Rangpur RDRS, shared that his yield has doubled since he started using AWD. His tiller has increased, and now he uses less water for irrigation, saving around 300 taka. Since using the magic pipe, he does not need to weed his fields as often as before. Pump owners and other farmers in the nearby villages saw his success with the AWD technique and were encouraged to adopt it.Kishory Mohan Roy, a pump owner from Rajarhat RDRS, said that 18-20 farmers from his village attended the meeting on AWD. The 18 farmers who decided to use AWD received a total of 16 magic pipes. They were initially confused as to why they had fewer pipes than other farmers, but then learned they had enough based on the landform. They were surprised at the increased tiller and yield while their water dependence decreased. The farmers tracked their progress and frequency of irrigation and compared their results with those who did not adopt the AWD technique. They found that they irrigated 6-7 fewer times and saved on diesel fuel needed to run irrigation pumps. Roy promoted AWD and convinced two more farmers to adopt it.Md. Kazi Jikrul, a pump owner, shared that farmers were initially hesitant to adopt the technology. When farmers learned that they would save on irrigation costs using AWD, they collaborated with pump owners to map out pump locations and install magic pipes.Dr. Samsuzzam gave a background on FAN and how it was conceptualized for North Bengal as a platform for organizations to work together. To confront \"monga,\" BRRI and IRRI took the lead to provide the expertise in the platform. He went on to introduce the work NIDS has been doing in Rangpur, especially in supporting this project.Dr. Samsuzzam highlighted the key benefits of AWD projects. Rangpur and Dinajpur farmers who have adopted this practice has seen high tillering. In some cases, farmers had experienced a 10-11 percent yield increase. They have reduced their frequency of irrigation, which has lowered the burning of diesel in pumps. AWD then lowers their dependence on water. On scientific terms, tiller has increased the overall rice yield. Moreover, alternate periods of drying had lowered the use of fertilizer as rice plants absorb nutrients better when paddies are not flooded.He added that AWD worked this time around under IRRI due to FAN collaboration. Knowing the benefits of the technology, he said that they should look for a way forward to sustain its benefits and ensure long-term partnership. One sustainable solution is incentivizing pump owners and the farmers. As stated in the Article 8 of their National Agriculture Policy, AWD was tried and tested already, generating fruitful results. They should ensure its popularization then. To allow more farmers to adopt AWD, Dr. Samsuzzam suggested to cap the amount of irrigation water. He cited the case of Rajshahi, where a prepaid card system is practiced to avoid the overuse of water by the farmers. He advised that they could adopt the system in the north west and license the irrigation system to ensure more stakeholders would join to save water.Dr. Salahuddin, Consultant, IRRI Dr. Salahuddin opened the floor for FAN members attending the workshop to share their feedback on AWD and their experiences.Underground water levels are decreasing every day. To keep them stable, farmers should reduce at least 30 percent of their water uptake. Farmers who practice AWD need 36 percent less water for irrigation, making it a viable solution. Furthermore, using less water is beneficial because some nutrients become available when the land is dry. Less fertilizer is required, and more tiller is produced. Overall, using less water is beneficial to produce and maintain underground water levels.To make AWD more effective, implementation of the technology should be specific. It is necessary to know the main stakeholders, farmer demands, coping systems, and the location. Clarifying AWD with pump owners is critical to ensure farmers disseminate the technology in a sustainable manner.Alauddin Ali, Udayankur Seba Sangstha, Nilphamari When we organized, there were several challenges. First of all, people wanted to use their traditional ways of farming and put too much water, as much as 3000 liters for 1 kilogram of rice. They believed that putting more fertilizer and pesticides would be better for their yields. However, if they keep going in this manner, they will not have drinking water. Farmers also do not want to reduce their water use because they are paying for a certain amount anyway.Better communication and mobility are now allowing people from one part of the country to know what is happening in another part of the country in terms of water and agricultural problems. The challenge is to change people's behaviors in the villages.To prevent farmers from blaming AWD for pests and crop losses, which occur naturally, it is important to have multiple stakeholders, such as pump owners, supporting the technology.The difference between the first time AWD was implemented and the attempt now is our approach. Now, we included more stakeholders. Alongside this, farmers were trained on the technology, generating much better results.Dr. Saiful Huda, Professor, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University AWD works well but the implementation and strategy have some issues. There is a law stating that by 2030, 20% of farmers will use the AWD technique, which will increase tiller, reduce irrigation and pests. We need a positive approach and more funding going forward.Abdul Al Mamun, Director, RDA, Bogra Mr. Mamun strongly believes that social engineering is a crucial method for dissemination of AWD technology. He added that mechanization of farming is essential in saving water.We should be concerned with how much groundwater is being recharged and how much water can be saved. Each district of Bangladesh is different and so are their agricultural needs. We need multiple technologies alongside AWD for a sustainable solution.When we lack data, securing funding for projects that would benefit agriculture is difficult. We need more information on the emission reduction potential of our projects, as well as their capacity to decrease pesticide and fertilizer use, to attract international funders. We need a cost-benefit analysis and coordination among local level stakeholders and the government. A long-term plan needs to be worked out rather than a project-based implementation of AWD.We must develop a mechanism to encourage farmers and pump owners to adopt AWD.Groundwater is a national asset; use should be rationed. Industry uses significant amounts of groundwater alongside agriculture. However, AWD cannot be used everywhere in an upazila. Third party independent evaluation is crucial to assess the effectiveness of AWD. We need more clarification on the benefits of the technology as economic incentives are the most attractive to farmers. Volumetric pricing over area pricing of water for irrigation is important in preventing overuse.AWD is a proven technology, yet our farmers are not willing to adopt it. A conflict of interest between farmers and pump owners has created a barrier. We have to find a mechanism to sustain AWD. Creating a pump rental system in which farmers pay for the amount of water they use with their own electricity or diesel can be a solution.Due to conflict of interest, a community-based approach to implement AWD will be more sustainable.A total of 31,200 AWD pumps have been distributed by BADC since 2009-2018. To encourage more farmers and pump owners to collaborate, they held motivational training sessions on AWD techniques. She also highlighted that land use patterns are not similar in all the areas of Bangladesh; therefore, the AWD technique has some limitations. A monitoring committee that will supervise the proper implementation of AWD technique in the field is necessary.Land leveling using a remote sensing system is important to distribute water evenly in the field, preventing accumulation in certain areas.Dr. Khaled Kamal, Chief Information Officer, AIS When a project is implemented, people tend to work with AWD, but once it is over, farmers do not continue the practice. Pump owners do not cooperate and farmers do not see the benefit. Community mobilization is then crucial to ensure the benefit of the technology persist even after the project ends.Muyeed wanted to know if there was GHG quantification on AWD versus non AWD systems in Bangladesh. He was particularly interested in methane and nitrous oxide emission and carbon sequestration levels. If so, this information should be made accessible to people.Dr. Sander addressed the queries of Dr. Muyeed. He said that there have been hundreds of studies on emissions around the world. However, there are only two in Bangladesh. They need more data. Nonetheless, it is clear how much they can save with AWD: roughly 50%. Dr. Md. Nasiruzzaman appreciated the statements made by the participants and the experience shared by farmers and pump owners. He added that reducing the amount of water used is important because groundwater levels are decreasing while salinity intrusion and vulnerability to earthquakes are increasing. Those who use groundwater will have to move when it runs low. Farmers still use too much water because they have to pay for a certain amount to pump owners up front; financially, it does not make sense to reduce consumption. If farmers had a prepaid meter system to access water instead, they would have to think more deeply about the amount they would need to farm their land.Right now, 50,000 farmers are targeted to adopt AWD, but this is not enough. More should be taught. If they learn it once, they can take that knowledge wherever they go. Why farmers do not continue or adopt the AWD technique should be researched and each Upazila Committee and pump owner should be trained on AWD and its importance. Lastly, excess use of fertilizer is another issue. Quoting granular and pill urea amounts is important in preventing too much consumption.Dr. Md. Enamul Kabir, Executive Director, RDRS Dr. Enamul Kabir started his speech by thanking all the discussants and panel members for all the great inputs and knowledge sharing. He presented his speech from the perspective of water, sanitation and hygiene as he has a long track of working in this sector. He mentioned two things, one of which is the necessity of available data. Even if it is one of the significant resources in decision making, they often lack accessible and quality data.Dr. Kabir also shared that BMDA has been performing a major role in irrigation as reflected in the 11 million tube wells that were set up in the villages. The United Nations Children's Fund had first pointed out the problem of depleting groundwater supply. Compounding this problem is the high volume of water being wasted.Aside from this challenge, he discussed about his one research where he studied 16 upazila and how many areas in them were suffering from groundwater depletion. He found out that only two upazilas were challenged with groundwater recharge problem; others were having automatic recharges. Building from these results, he thought that water recharge problem could have been controlled already if they were consuming water appropriately.He also acknowledged that Bangladesh would face the severe impacts of climate change. Emitting relatively small amounts of carbon dioxide, the country must then focus its emission reduction efforts on methane. It can be the reason why Bangladesh can be tagged as a methane contributor worldwide. Dr. Kabir reiterated the critical role of water saving technologies to address this problem.Before ending his speech, Dr. Kabir noted that various challenges and opportunities may still hamper their large-scale implementation efforts. In the next phase, they should work with more stakeholders such as upazila committees, unions, and standing committees, among others, to sustain the whole ecosystem and the human lives within it.Chowdhury, the former Agriculture Minister, any further establishment of deep tube wells was stopped. Mr. Hossain thought that this was a wrong step and only kept them from utilizing their water supply. He cited the large amounts of water from the Himalayas that are not being used by farmers in Rangpur district. The supply could have helped in increasing the groundwater levels instead of just allowing it to flow to the sea.Illegal shallow machine connection is another severe problem in different areas. The numerous illegal connections pressure the water underground. It decreases the water supply and affects soil heath.Mr. Hossain also shared an incident of women's deaths due to illegal wiring (\"Phata Tar\") of shallow machines. During his visit to the women, he was informed that only 2 pumps were set legally while 6 pumps around the original shallow machines were illegally connected. In many cases, people cut the connection of legal pumps and close their outlets. As a response, he discussed the situation with the local chairman and asked for the detection of illegal connectors and forbid them. However, this situation may continue if proper steps are not taken.Mr. Hossain mentioned holistic approaches that integrate soil types in different regions. It is also important to consider soil health improvement practices. Farmers must build this kind of mindset to protect their lands and improve soil quality. To complement this mindset, he shared various low-water hungry crops invented by BRRI and other organizations, which could be used to reduce the water usage.Nonetheless, among many problems, groundwater recharge would emerge as a severe issue in the future. Rainwater harvesting techniques will be crucial in supplying water in the farms. There are various rural-based techniques that can also be scaled to recharge groundwater. To supplement these water-saving techniques, carbon and methane emissions from the croplands must be quantified. Finally, he recommended to recruit young farmers to implement the new techniques.Dr. Saleemul Huq, Director, ICCCAD Dr.Saleemul Huq thanked all the participants, including the chief guest, special guest and guest of honor, for their valuable inputs. He stated that Bangladesh may be one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world, but it does not share the same risks as other countries. \"Medicines are not the same for all diseases,\" Dr. Huq said as he emphasized country-specific initiatives for their agriculture sector. A few initiatives he noted were the development of rice varieties that require less water and technological solutions for a sustainable agriculture.He brought up GOBESHONA network, which has been generating researches on climate engineering, social science, and climate change adaptation and mitigation, among others, over the last 5 years. Around 2500 articles are currently available at the Network. It also conducts an annual international climate change conference every January, where many researchers in and out the country are provided platforms to present their work. Two major objectives of the Network were to improve the accessibility of technical knowledge to the general public and the sustainability of projects.Dr. Salahuddin from IRRI would hold a session on AWD technique next January. He proposed to explore climate financing opportunities from global donors and see if they could quantify the methane gas emissions to \"sell\" in the global market. He also suggested to the Government of Bangladesh to revisit and revise, if necessary, the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP).Dr. Huq said that steps would be taken to include AWD and methane gas emission plans in the revised BCCSAP to accelerate broader implementation. He finally stated that unless we adopt a coordinated plan, it would be hard to reach a goal. It is then crucial to follow a coordinated approach in the climate change sector to obtain sustainability in farming.Bjoern Ole Sander thanked everyone for their kind participation in making the workshop successful. On behalf of IRRI, Dr. Sander expressed his gratitude to the chief guests, panel members, partners, government organizations and the farmers for their significant contribution in the implementation of the project.","tokenCount":"3153"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"ca1586b6c9cc1057299c69a2c6236ace","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/674efe9d-f54d-4be5-804b-21f2f6f04d93/retrieve","id":"766314587"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"db9a557f-e4d3-4596-aee9-7ca870ddc0de","pagecount":"34","content":"The One Health approach recognizes the interconnections between the health of people, animals, and their shared environment. This initiative will generate evidence and develop tools enabling the redesign of food systems to improve human health based on One Health principles.• Increased frequency and severity of infectious diseases (including Covid-19) as people encroach on wildlife habitats and livestock and fish production systems intensify. • Animal production systems are reservoirs of zoonotic pathogens, which are responsible for 60% of human communicable disease cases• Antimicrobial Resistance AMR causes 700,000 deaths annually and is projected to kill 10 million each year by 2050 • Foodborne disease takes a toll comparable to that of tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV/AIDS, but receives a small fraction of the investment from international donors • Solving these challenges requires a One Health approach• Leverages unique CGIAR capacity on One Health in food systemsProtect human health through the improvement of the detection, prevention, and control of zoonoses, foodborne diseases and AMR in LMICs, by:• Generating evidence to enable risk-based prioritization of geographies, pathogens, AMR genes, and exposure pathways, for surveillance, risk mitigation, incentivization of stakeholders, and regulatory enforcement.• Evaluating impacts of technologies, tools, and approaches to identify and control zoonoses and AMR, and improve food safety and water quality.• Integrating innovations into government partners' policies and programs and disseminate knowledge for further scaling. Reduce the burden of foodborne disease with a focus on animal-source and other perishable foods, including in informal and traditional food systems, through simple technologies and non-punitive governance approaches implemented along food value chains from production to consumption.1. Support of value chain actors to improve food safety through training, certification and promotion of consumer demand, and of governments in the development of feasible, non-punitive approaches to regulatory enforcement.2. Simple, context-specific physical (e.g. color-coded surfaces and containers for raw and cooked foods) and behavioral technologies (e.g. nudges) to facilitate food safety practices by food system actors throughout the value chain.Pre-empt emergence and spread of zoonoses with epidemic and pandemic potential at the interface of wildlife, livestock, and people through surveillance, identification of high-risk behaviors and geographies; reduce incidence of zoonotic pathogens associated with poverty.Reduce selection and spread of AMR from livestock, fish and crop production systems through reduced and bettertargeted AMU, surveillance of AMU and AMR in animals and animal-source foods, improved manure management, and a better understanding of the environment as a reservoir for AMR.1. Evidence on how livestock and fish production and farm profits are affected by reducing antimicrobial use while implementing alternative herd and fish health approaches.2. ICT-based tools to enable farmers, agrovet dealers, and/or veterinarians to address livestock diseases without the use of antimicrobials.Improve land use and water management for the reduction of health risks, with a focus on pollution from agriculture and aquaculture, including zoonotic pathogens and antimicrobial residues and genes, and high-risk wildlife-livestock-human interfaces.Test effects of capacity building, incentives, and monitoring on behavior of value chain actors and government personnel providing support or oversight for relevant sectors through randomized evaluations. Model economic impacts of epidemics and control measures.","tokenCount":"505"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"867f3b3e6a158effffa69cb0a87d4bfe","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/42ec4244-55f4-4a55-aa75-5da581afab08/retrieve","id":"-793409990"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1d3be0af-a054-4d81-b73e-029861da3d1f","pagecount":"80","content":"Previously published material. The \"Micronesian files\" section of the Library of the College of the Marshall Islands (CMI) comprises the most comprehensive central source of useful publications in RMI. The Ministry of Resources and Development (R&D) and its Economic Policy, Planning, and Statistical Office (EPPSO), along with the USDA Land Grant Program Library and the personal library of the consultants were also important sources. Various reports published in the local newspaper, the Marshall Islands Journal (MIJ), and on the Internet also provided relevant material. Interviews with pertinent government officials, heads of NGOs, copra makers, farmers and retailers of local produce. Email contact with knowledgeable people. For some people, even local ones, this proved to be an efficient means of communicating.This report has been commissioned by the CTA to enhance its monitoring of information needs in ACP countries. CTA does not guarantee the accuracy of data included in this report, nor does it accept responsibility for any use made thereof. The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of CTA. CTA reserves the right to select projects and recommendations that fall within its mandate.   This study was undertaken to assist the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) and its various national and regional partners in providing the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) better access to sources of information for agricultural development.Prodigious agricultural efforts in the Marshalls have neither met aspirations nor been cost effective. It is therefore notable to have been chosen as a state of interest to ACP/CTA.The report presents a general overview of the Marshall Islands with emphasis on the current status of agriculture, fisheries, and communications. Environmental and socio-economic conditions that restrict agricultural potential are described and a limited range of opportunities for agricultural information initiatives that CTA services may be able to provide is suggested. Potential institutional beneficiaries are identified and their requests for information noted.to identify agricultural information needs of key actors / beneficiaries for CTA products and services; to identify needs of potential actors / beneficiaries of CTA activities and services in terms of building capacity for information and communication management; to identify potential partners / beneficiaries for CTA activities and services; to develop some baseline data to facilitate subsequent monitoring activities.1. The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) came into being in 1983 through the Lomé Convention between the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States and the European Union (EU) Member States.2. CTA's tasks concern developing and providing services:to help improve information access regarding agriculture and rural development; to strengthen the capacity of ACP countries; to produce, acquire, exchange and utilize information in this area.3. CTA works primarily through intermediary organizations and partners to promote agriculture and rural development. Through partnerships, CTA hopes to increase the number of ACP organizations capable of generating and managing information and developing their own information and communication management strategies. The identification of appropriate partners is therefore of primordial importance.4. Traditionally, the Pacific and Caribbean regions have not received sufficient attention in CTA's programme and activities. Six new Pacific member states have recently been admitted and not much is known about them. CTA needs to develop an intervention strategy and provide relevant assistance to these new member states, in part by elaborating criteria for decision-making with regard to the choice of partner organisations and beneficiaries. In addition, various national and regional partners with whom CTA has had a long-standing relationship have requested the current study in the expectation that it may assist them in providing better targeted assistance to their beneficiaries.5. The objectives of this study are:to identify agricultural information needs of key actors / beneficiaries for CTA products and services; to identify needs of potential actors / beneficiaries of CTA activities and services in terms of building capacity for information and communication management; to identify potential partners / beneficiaries for CTA activities and services; to develop some baseline data to facilitate subsequent monitoring activities.6. The study should assist CTA, its three operational departments, and its local representatives to improve and better target interventions and activities aimed at their potential partners and beneficiaries (i.e., women, youth, private sector and civil society organizations). This study also should give provide an informed picture of their needs and thus aid in the elaboration of a strategy and framework of action.7. The study should specify which organizations and institutions have specific needs for CTA's products and services thereby enabling improvement in the delivery of same. In addition, the study should identify and/or update priority agricultural information themes that will feed into a possible future Pacific priority-setting exercise.8. Information in this report was drawn primarily from the following sources:Previously published material. The majority of this was found within the Micronesian files of the Library of the College of the Marshall Islands (CMI). Other sources of material were through the Secretary of Resources and Development, the USDA Land Grant Program Library and the personal library of the consultants. Various reports regularly appeared in the local newspaper. Internet searches for relevant material were also done. Both recent and older reports were utilized; some information was included to indicate trends. Face-to-face interviews with pertinent local people. Road travel to the other end of the atoll was necessary for some of the interviews.Email contact with knowledgeable people. For some people, even local ones, this proved to be a more efficient means of communicating.A thorough survey of small businesses, restaurants, and roadsides produce stands on Majuro. Over one hundred such retailers were surveyed. 9. The work was done from Majuro but also draws upon the experiences of all the members of the team when they lived or worked on, or visited the various outer atolls. For much of the year, winds are fairly strong from the East quadrant and can carry salt-laden spray from breaking waves up to 50 meters inland along leeward lagoon shorelines and even further inland along windward, ocean shores. Tropical cyclones occasionally strike the atolls, damaging crops and fresh water supplies. Powerful typhoons have washed over entire islets and islands. During El Nino periods the atolls may experience severe droughts, with stunting or death of some vegetation and survival-threatening intrusion of saltwater into an island's freshwater lens. 20. The southern atolls are wetter (4500 mm average rainfall) and have richer soils and vegetation. Because of extremely low rainfall on the northern atolls (1800 mm average), agriculture potential is very limited or non-existent (Fosberg 1949: 92). On northern Bikar Atoll, coconut trees grow but do not produce normal nuts during dry periods (Weins 1962).The northernmost atoll of Bokak is so hard that even turtles cannot nest there 1 .21. The population of the rural atolls of the Marshalls, currently estimated at 18,000 persons, is heavily dependent upon subsistence agriculture. According to the most recent survey (1988 National Census), 83.6% of these households reported they are engaged in subsistence agriculture, 84.3% in copra production, and approximately 68% kept chickens and pigs for their own consumption, with 57% involved in making handicrafts (MIOI 1991). (See Table 1, Annex 2.1.1.) In the more rural areas of urbanized Majuro, a substantial portion of households is involved in some level of subsistence or semi-subsistence agriculture and some keep pigs and chickens.22. Copra had been the major industry of the Marshall Islands since the 1860s but began a precipitous decline in the 1980s that has heavily impacted household economies in the outer atolls. Nevertheless, copra producers remain the largest single occupation group in the RMI in 1999 -with 24% of all non-public sector people employed in copra making (MIJ: June 11, 2004).23. The typical landholding (weto) is a narrow strip, averaging about 100 meters wide and stretching from the lagoon to ocean shores of the island. With the exception of an area near the dwelling where edible crops grow, most rural wetos are planted with coconut palms. Even in the urban sections of Majuro, a few productive coconut palms, pandanus and breadfruit trees may be found between houses and businesses.24. Most agricultural activity in the Marshalls takes place on the outer atolls. There it is concentrated in the leeward areas of the family dwelling, typically requiring only casual tending of plants such as banana, papaya and pumpkin rather than intensive cultivation of garden plots. Breadfruit trees are found further inland where they may tap the freshwater lens while pandanus thrives even very close to the lagoon shore. Pigs and chickens are generally allowed to range freely. Commercial agriculture on large plots of land is unknown in RMI except on an experimental farm funded by the Republic of China (ROC) in Laura Village on Majuro Atoll.25. Land in the Marshalls is poor and unsuitable for normative farming. The soil is largely derived from coral and coralline material, providing an unusual chemical mix, extremely alkaline and often extremely high in phosphorus, low in nitrogen and almost entirely lacking in potassium and iron (Stone et al 2000: 1, 9). 'Arable land' is estimated to be 3000 hectares.(See 1 It is, however, a marvelous haven for sea birds, and has received special protection as such in the past and recommendations for World Heritage protection as a total reserve. (Thomas et al 1989) 27. There is growing concern in the outer atolls that land is being lost to erosion at an accelerating rate. The perception is that the rate of flow of currents through and around the atolls is increasing, along with the size and frequency of very large ocean waves, and that these two factors combine to erode shoreline, resulting in a net loss of agricultural land. At Katiej Island, alongside a major pass on Ailingaplap Atoll, dozens of coconut palm and pandanus trees, along with a mighty 100+ year old lukwej or beautyleaf tree (Calophyllum inophyllum) have been lost over the past 20 years from shoreline erosion. The airfield serving Loen Island at Namu Atoll was abandoned several years ago due to erosion. The airfield at Ailuk Atoll was similarly endangered but was saved by construction of a US$80,000 seawall. Other examples abound.28. Subsistence. Subsistence crops consumed on the rural atolls are estimated to account for US$2.7 million in value annually (US$1100 per household) and livestock for US$0.2 million (US$82 per household). Many families in Majuro tend at least some traditional crops and livestock for their own consumption, with an estimated valuation of US$0.5 million annually. Dollar value of all subsistence agricultural activity in RMI is therefore estimated to be US$3.4 million annually or about 3% of GDP. (See Table 3, Annex 2.1.4.) 29. Copra/Commercial. Between 1999 and 2003, gross income from copra production averaged 0.7% of GDP or US$0.85 million annually (US$375 per household), more than US$2 million less than the inflation adjusted 1964-1998 average, due primarily to falling prices. 30. Commercial: retail. About 75 Majuro households currently grow garden vegetables, a portion of which are marketed. Estimated valuation for this category is US$0.2 million annually (<0.2% GDP). The Republic of China (Taiwan) funds and operates the Taiwan Technical Mission at Laura, which in 2003 produced close to 13,600 kg. of produce, approximately two-thirds of which was for market. This venture is highly dependent on foreign aid and far from being self-supporting. The Taiwan farm sells about US$0.2 million (<0.2% GDP) in commercial agricultural product annually. (See Table 6, Annex 2.1.5.)31. Most major crops are ones that are well suited to the atoll environment with a long history of being grown successfully in the Marshall Islands (Ae'a 1863;Okobe 1941:6;Spoehr 1949: 28;Pollock 1996:3). Over the centuries, attempts have been made to introduce many different crops into the Marshalls. A few of these have grown reasonably well. Types and quantities of crops and livestock consumed and estimates of their cash values on the outer atolls and urban areas in 2003 may be found in Table 5, Annex 2.1.5. 32. While husbandry of domestic ducks, geese, turkeys, goats, and other livestock species have been attempted, only pigs and chickens have proved viable. For the most part, these are raised in a haphazard manner as the primary source of meat on festival occasions and are allowed complete freedom to roam as they please (Mason 1952: 6;Robinson 1973: 498). Free-ranging pigs have been the demise of many private attempts to garden. Commercial chicken production, for either meat or eggs, thus far has not been profitable because it requires importation of costly imported feed. 2 A few small piggeries exist in Majuro, including one at the Laura Farm.33. Because of cultural values, food produced on the outer atolls is rarely sold locally, though a pig may sometimes be purchased for a special occasion. Outer atoll crops are rarely marketed at the urban atolls because of seemingly insurmountable problems in transportation and lack of a reliable mechanism for payment. (See Annex 2.2.3: Access to Urban Markets for Outer Atoll Products.) Urban relatives sometimes request that a pig, a bunch of bananas, a cluster of pandanus, lobsters, crabs or other shellfish be sent to them depending on availability of transportation. These are not tendered for a particular cash value but are 'paid for' under the cultural tradition of reciprocity among Marshallese.34. The principal methods of marketing foods produced locally in Majuro are at roadside stands, 'take-out' stores, major retailers, the Laura Farm, and at the monthly Farmers' Market. (See Annex 2.1.4 for a description of these various enterprises.) 35. Copra from the outer atolls is shipped to Majuro for processing by the Tobolar Copra Processing Authority, which has the exclusive right to purchase copra in RMI. Raw copra is converted to oil and shipped aboard tankers to foreign ports. Copra cake, a by-product, is also sometimes exported. A portion of copra cake production is purchased locally as fertilizer.36. Total estimated annual value of agricultural activity in RMI is approximately US$4.66 million, of which consumption of subsistence crops and livestock accounts for 73% (3% GDP), copra production for 18% (0.7% GDP), and commercial agriculture for 9% (0.4% GDP). (See Table 3, Annex 2.1.4.) 37. Outer atoll copra production averaged 3600 metric tonnes over the five years 1999-2003 and 4800 metric tonnes over the previous 35 years, with average inflation-adjusted prices ranging from a low of US$.24 per kg (1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003) to US$0.62 per kg . Per capita income from copra in the outer atolls declined 80% between these two periods, from $267 to $59. (See Table 7 and Figure 1, Annex 2.1.6.) Since 1987, the Government of RMI has subsidized the price of copra. In some years this subsidy has comprised well over half of the cash value paid for all copra in RMI.38. As the price of copra drops, production tends to decline and reliance on subsistence agriculture to increase. To compensate for lowered copra income, current consumption of subsistence crops is estimated to have increased by 35% over the period 1992-96. The capacity to tap into subsistence resources has enabled outer atoll dwellers to maintain normative calorific intake despite loss of cash income as copra price has decreased (Bolt 1997: 6;Sisifa 2002: 8).39. The principal government agency involved in agriculture is the Division of Agriculture (DoA) under the Ministry of Resources and Development (R&D). DoA's goal is to 'optimize the generation of food crops, food security, helping the population to achieve an adequate diet, and provide income for farmers.' With a staff of only six, most of its activities are in Majuro. DoA's FY2003 budget was less than US$200,000, comprising 30% of R&D's budget, the smallest of any government Ministry (EPPSO 2003: 4 th Quarter Stats Bulletin). 40. Formerly, DoA's extension agents occasionally made visits to the outer atolls to promote new crops and techniques. The size and significance of DoA has gradually diminished over the years, due perhaps to lack of successful outcomes for its programs, but also to the widely held perception that the Taiwan Technical Mission and the Enewetak Food and Agriculture Program. are better qualified to fulfil most agricultural needs in RMI. R&D was the only agency identified during the course of this study with a previous relationship with CTA. 41. Early in the 1990s, the Taiwan Technical Mission (TTM) established an experimental farm known locally as \"the Laura Farm\" on Majuro Atoll as part of its assistance program for RMI. The purpose of the Farm is to determine what specific vegetable crops and livestock are suitable for the Marshalls and to train farmers in how to cultivate and manage them. It maintains a small piggery to improve breeding stocks and sells piglets locally. A chickenfarming project for egg production was abandoned in 2003 as unsustainable. TTM holds training sessions several times a year at the Laura Farm for Marshallese interested in home gardening. It also sponsors extension services to the public high schools on Wotje and Jaluit Atolls, and to Kili Island. About 2/3 of its agricultural products are sold through retail stores in Majuro, the remainder being distributed as gifts. (See Table 6, Annex 2.1.5 for list of crops grown at TTM.) 42. The Enewetak Food and Agriculture Program was established in 1993 by USDA/Land Grant to restore Enewetak Island, which had been cleared of all vegetation in the 1940s when it was appropriated as the base camp for the nuclear testing program there, to its natural condition. The US Department of the Interior took over management and funding responsibilities in 1997 with a budget of about US$0.5 million. The Program, having employed a full time atoll agriculturalist since 1996, is scheduled to close in August 2005, its goals having been achieved. Principal research benefits to agricultural enhancement on other outer atolls are organic composting techniques and cultivation of varieties of breadfruit and pandanus that bear throughout the year.International Airport and at Ebeye, does limited inspection of ships and has done some pest monitoring and control working in cooperation with SPC. 46. The notion that information and communication management (ICM) systems may play a key strategic role in enhancing performance was not unknown to the heads of most agencies surveyed. There was uncertainly, however, about how an ICM system suited to their needs should be designed and implemented. At present, collaboration and coordination among agencies engaged in agriculture is very informal. Neither personnel nor structures are in place through which the ICM concept could readily function effectively.Environment 47. The exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of RMI is 2.13 million sq km, 11,770 times larger than its land area (181 sq km). Most local fishing, however, is done in the lagoons (10,300 sq km) and within a few kilometers of the atolls' ocean reefs. Foreign fishing vessels are licensed by RMI to fish within its EEZ, however, but are prohibited by law from fishing within 8 km of atolls. Traditional taboos restrict or prohibit fishing on certain reef areas of most atolls.46. Nearly 90% of outer atoll households engage in subsistence fishing. In general, men do most of the fishing while women may harvest shellfish, octopus and other reef-bound species. A smaller portion of urban households, perhaps 20-25%, also do some subsistence fishing. Fish and marine animals from the lagoons and the ocean provide about 90% of protein in the subsistence food diet of the outer atolls (Shaw 1994:19).47. Licensed foreign fishing vessels engage in long-line, purse-line, and pole and line fishing for yellowfin, bigeye, and skipjack tuna. Licenses issued for shark long-lining were revoked recently due to allegations of poaching near outer atoll reefs and other violations, survey data indicating that stocks are declining. Various attempts, both privately and government funded, have been made to establish local commercial deep sea fishing fleets over the past 15 years but none have succeeded.48. The most common local fishing methods are gill/throw-netting, bottom fishing, ocean and lagoon reef pole and line, spearfishing and trolling. There is limited harvesting of octopus and lobster, mostly for personal consumption. Sportsfishing clubs are active on Majuro and Kwajalein Atolls. No local fishing licenses are required for RMI residents.49. There is a private hatchery/farm for baby giant clams for the aquarium market in Majuro. A small, privately owned black lip pearl farm has been in operation at Arno Atoll for several years. Shark fin is purchased by a Majuro buyer and on at least one outer atoll. A feasibility study for growing seaweed has been proposed for Majuro Atoll. Limited collection and export of live reef rock has also occurred from time to time. 50. Of seven outer atoll fish bases built with Japanese funding, six supply limited quantities of fresh reef fish to Majuro and Kwajalein Atolls and to Kili Island. The base on Arno Atoll sells significant product to Majuro because of its proximity. Due to local concerns about overfishing at Arno, Japan has funded a stock assessment program there.51. Fisheries initiatives on the outer atolls include commercial lobster gathering, beche-demer processing, smoked-dried fish production, black lip pearl farms and giant clam mariculture. Trochus shell has been harvested for short periods in the 1980s and 1990s but lack of effective means for controlling quantities taken has resulted in serious stock depletion at all but two of the seven atolls where the resource exists. (See Tables 9 and 10, Annex 2.1.6.) Marketing 52. Foreign vessels catch more than 90% of the total fish tonnage caught in RMI. This fish is exported to Japan and Southeast Asia for processing.53. On Majuro and Kwajalein, local commercial fishermen usually have existing arrangements with various retail stores or restaurants to purchase their catches.54. Contribution of all types of fisheries activity in RMI is estimated to have averaged US$6.2 million between 1996 and 2001 (5.5% of GDP) (see Table 4, Annex 2.1.4), with foreign fleet licensing and transshipment fees contributing an average of US$3.3 million to this total. The balance consists of subsistence/local commercial fisheries, valued at US$2.9 million. (Note that amounts given in paragraph 17 for licensing and transshipment fees are averaged over the period 1998-2004.) 55. Subsistence fishing on the outer atolls is estimated to yield 3000 metric tonnes annually, valued at US$2 million (US$800 per household); fishing for household consumption in the urban atolls of Majuro and Kwajalein has an estimated value of US$0.6 million (US$125 per household) from 225 metric tonnes of catch. The value of limited local commercial fishing at the urban atolls and at several outer atoll 'fish bases\" has not been surveyed but is estimated to generate US$0.3 million annually.56. Licensing fees for foreign fishing vessels are based on species and quantities of fish caught in a given year and therefore vary widely according to fishing conditions in RMI's EEZ. Between 1998 and 2001, average of fees paid for fishing rights was US$2.3 million and average tonnage caught was 48,860. (See Tables 8 and 9, Annex 2.1.6.) Majuro Atoll has served as a transhipment port for Asian purse seiners since 1998 on a per use fee basis. Annual fee payments to RMI for both these licensed categories are estimated to have averaged US$4.2 million over 1998-2004. 57. Export value of ornamental and aquarium fish averaged US$0.5 million in the early 1990s, but increasing market competition, problems with reliability of air transport and retirement of the principal involved have diminished production significantly. 58. A fish loining plant established in Majuro in 1999 generated US$2.5 million annually in export value and employed over 500 local workers but closed early in 2005 due lack of profitability.is the primary agency tasked with management of fisheries and related enterprises and is the licensing agency for foreign vessels. It is charged with the implementation and enforcement of regulations, provides training for observers aboard foreign fishing boats, and supervises management of several outer atoll fish bases. 60. The RMI Environmental Protection Authority is also charged with coastal management and enforcement of environmental regulations.Environment 61. Early settlers of the Marshalls converted portions of indigenous forest to subsistence agroforests of important introduced food trees such as breadfruit. Traditional agroforestry practices in the Marshalls achieved an ecological balance with their low coral island environments. One of the most important functions of this agroforestry has been in controlling salt spray intrusion and soil erosion along shorelines. Population growth in the urban atolls has dramatically affected the mutually supportive relationship between atoll environment and traditional agroforestry.62. Nearly all outer atoll men engage in building houses and some, canoes. All women do some weaving, most make handicrafts, and some concoct local medicines. Recently, some outer atoll men have become involved in handicraft production.63. In the urban atolls, large areas of vegetation have been cleared to provide for dense home and business construction, roads and public buildings. On Ebeye Island, where Marshallese workers at the Kwajalein test site are housed, only a few scattered coconut palms remain standing. Military activity during World War II, and later nuclear testing, has altered the variety of plant life on large areas of some atolls.64. Coconut palms are by far the most prevalent tree species in RMI. Large areas of land were cleared during German and Japanese administrations to plant coconut palms because of the once-high value of the copra they yielded. Areas of outer atolls and islands under coconut plantation range from 42.1% to 99.8% with an overall average of 65.5%. (See Table 2, Annex 2.1.2.) 65. There is negligible logging in RMI. Certain species of existing trees are utilized for house framing and canoe construction and to make local medicines. Some varieties of leaves and fibers are used to make mats, baskets, medicines and handicrafts. Dead or fallen branches are used for firewood in the outer atolls.No official estimate for value of overall forestry products exists. Over the 10-year period 1991-2000, handicraft production contributed an average of 0.4% to GDP. In the past few years, it is believed that handicrafts may account for up to US$0.7 million or 0.6% GDP. Increase in handicraft production began in response to copra price decline and continues to grow rapidly as efficient marketing strategies developed by Majuro/outer atoll women's groups improve. Agencies 67. The Agriculture Division of the Ministry of R&D ostensibly has responsibility for forestry projects in RMI. The USDA Forestry Service, in cooperation with the Agriculture Division, recently began sponsoring several small projects in urban forestry, community nurseries and documentation of pandanus species. Women United Together Marshall Islands (WUTMI), a long established NGO that coordinates most of the 300 other NGOs, mainly women's groups in the outer islands, helps with the promotion and marketing of handicrafts. 73. Since there are only three post offices in RMI, two in Majuro and one at Ebeye, Kwajalein, mail service to the outer atolls is informal. Typically, a letter or parcel is given to a passenger boarding a plane or ship to hand-deliver to the addressee at his destination. CMI will send letters and packages as 'airfreight' (US$.50 per pound, minimum charge of US$5) to its agents on the outer atolls, who are then supposed to deliver same to addressees. Mail sent via 'airfreight' from the outer atolls is held at the AMI office at the airport until addressee claims it or someone is tasked to take it to the Post Office.74. Lack of postal service and data communications to the outer atolls, in addition to problematic voice communication, are serious impediments to general development there.75. Nearly all useful knowledge about agriculture has long been and still is learned by children working on family land under the tutelage of their elders. Division of Agriculture currently produces no public information in either written or broadcast form.76. The Marshalls Islands Journal (MIJ), an independent weekly newspaper published in Majuro, often contains articles about fisheries in RMI and less frequently, about agriculture.77. Some pamphlets and books on agricultural topics, mainly dealing with coconut production, have been produced over the years in Marshallese but these are 'out of print' and could be found only in the files of CMI Library or serendipitously in certain offices.78. A few government entities, the Ministry of Health, the RMI Environmental Protection Authority and the College of the Marshall Islands, have at various times produced their own newsletters that sometimes include agriculture-related topics.79. According to the 1999 census, 87% of households owned AM radio receivers. 82. HF-SSB and CB radios provide a vital link between people living in the outer atolls and the urban centers. (See Annex 2.3.2 for details).83. Twenty percent of outer atoll households reported that they had a 'two-way' radio in the 1999 census. All but a few percent of these were CB units (no license required) costing less than US$200, while HF-SSB radios installed may cost more than US$2000.  2003: 12;per. comm. Kuniyuki) The University of the South Pacific has its own private satellite system for providing lectures to students, as well as its own email service.86. In the mid-nineties, the Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) for keeping track of fishing boats was introduced to RMI. The system is comprised of an integrated GPS satellite transceiver using Inmarsat, by which the position of a ship can be determined at any time by polling the transceiver. Either local (RMI Sea Patrol) or international (Forum Fisheries Agency, FFA, in Honiara) agencies can do this polling (per comm. M. Ferris, FFA).87. VMS has the potential to facilitate enforcement of marine regulations. Ships have poached extensively within the restricted limits around the various atolls. The impact on local food supply and land-protecting reef integrity is unknown. Even VMS, if fully enforced, would likely not totally protect the high value marine resources found near the atolls.88. In the process of compiling this report, an impressive amount of written information was found. Unlike other areas described by Walton (2000: 201), the bulk of the information written on agriculture and related matters in RMI has already been classified and stored in the Library of the College of the Marshall Islands, where it is accessible to researchers. Much of the written material is of little relevance to RMI, however, and some of it is utterly inappropriate. CMI currently is striving to maintain its accreditation. Should it be unable to do so, US funding will be lost and CMI may be forced to close.89. None of the administrative agencies surveyed maintains a coherent library for ready public access, though department heads will try to provide information requested to researchers. Ordinary people in the Marshalls, however, are not accustomed to seek information about agriculture or fisheries from libraries, but rather rely upon the advice of persons or institutions with acknowledged status and expertise. 90. Information disseminated must be relevant, accurate, consistent, useful, and in the Marshallese language. Much of the information presented over the years has not been relevant to the special needs of the tropical atoll environment and therefore of little or no use. Too many proposals for agricultural initiatives in the past have often not been sufficiently tested but nonetheless have been acted upon with disappointing and sometimes undesirable consequences. Inconsistent advice has generated uncertainty and confusion. Other consequences of inappropriate information have been environmental damage and the introduction of unwanted species.is essential. There is concern about how to control or exterminate invasive species of insects and plants that are attacking local crops and animals. The atolls had been relatively well insulated from invasives until recent years, but increasing commerce from foreign ports, coupled with lack of effective quarantine controls, have resulted in the introduction of numerous new species. Their impacts on breadfruit and poultry production and on edible land crab populations on many atolls have ranged from mild to debilitating. Having little or no previous experience with invasive species, Marshallese have been slow to appreciate their threat, but awareness is growing, as are requests for information about how to deal with them. Since no personnel from Division of Agriculture or EPA are normally present on the outer atolls, these agencies usually are unaware of what invasive species exist there or of the damage they may be doing. No well-defined system for communicating with these Majurobased agencies from the outer atolls has been established.92. Because people do not fully understand the importance of quarantine, they often try to circumvent inspection. The most effective way of educating people about its importance is through public radio programming, distribution of pamphlets and inclusion of the subject in school curricula.93. Outer atoll people are concerned about the consequences of apparently accelerating erosion of the shorelines of their islands and would like information about what kinds of trees or shrubs could be planted to prevent or contain this.94. Too often, proposals for new products or for exploitation of existing ones have been made but with no consideration given to marketing strategies.95. Information about new ways to utilize native species, lesser known products, and recently introduced crops would be helpful. People surveyed were intrigued by the thought that some native plants familiar to them, especially those requiring little or no maintenance, could provide an easy food source. These include not just food crops but marketable marine products as well. There is limited interest in how to prepare new kinds of food for personal consumption. Instruction on how better utilize such products is often given through agriculture workshops, with separate nutrition workshops on how to prepare them for eating, but this knowledge is rarely communicated to the general public.96. Many of the persons interviewed asserted that ways to protect the local environment and preserve traditional knowledge should be not be neglected in any information disseminated or programs undertaken.97. Agriculture programming should be sensitive to certain cultural themes about what sort of food, including some garden vegetables, is considered inappropriate for humans to eat, a notion repeated by various people interviewed. This aversion may be rooted in the tradition of making medicines from certain undergrowth plants having an undesirable taste and/or that plants growing close to the ground are regarded as food for animals only.98. Given the distances between atolls and difficulty in distributing written materials there, the government AM broadcast radio station V7AB is perhaps the most effective medium in RMI for enhancing public knowledge of agricultural and fisheries-related questions. 101. Collaboration and coordination among agencies and other entities engaged in agriculture are informal or personal. The notion that information and communications management systems may play a key strategic role in enhancing performance was not unknown to the heads of most agencies surveyed. There was uncertainty, however, about the need and about how a suitable ICM system could be designed and implemented. At present, the technical expertise required to create such a system is not readily accessible locally and neither personnel nor structures are in place through which the ICM concept could readily function effectively.102. Not only is the existing network of HF-SSB radios cumbersome to use, but also there are no clear protocols in place, either in Majuro or on the outer atolls, for relaying critical information on agriculture or fisheries between the two locations. Foreign vessels have often been observed fishing well within the coastal limit but no local action has been taken because no one knows who should call Majuro with such information or to whom in Majuro the information should be transmitted. RMI needs to establish a more effective system for communication between the outer atolls and agencies in Majuro.103. The primary capacity concern of many interviewed, similarly to previous studies, was the need for reliable transportation of goods, which would enable outer atolls to access markets in Majuro and Kwajalein.104. Many of the capacity building needs addressed in other regions of the world, such as how to maintain equipment and develop strategies, seemed of little concern among those surveyed since they believed sufficient knowledge is already available locally.105. The outer atoll people of the Marshalls continue to prosper relative to the millennial past, still gathering what is needed from their improbable islands and surrounding waters in an equilibrium with natural limitations. Atoll dwellers were not practitioners of 'agriculture' as such, but did eke from the land what food it was capable of yielding, artfully preserving seasonal crops of breadfruit and pandanus. Marshallese concentrated their resources on seafaring, building ingenious outrigger canoes from the scant materials available and navigating them over long distances, feats for which they are now famed. With these highly honed skills, they fished the lagoons and ocean and had relatively easy access to islands where they could find supplemental food. It was aboard their voyaging canoes that they sometimes migrated, seasonally, to friendly atolls where food was more plentiful. Chiefs could lead fleets to wage war, expeditions often motivated, in part at least, by the desire to acquire food security as tribute.106. The question of whether the practice of agriculture as it is normatively understood could generate benefits in RMI commensurate with effort required given soil condition, precarious freshwater supply, salt air content, lack of mechanization and access to markets, coupled with a strong tradition of gathering rather than planting food, would candidly be answered in the negative by most long-term observers.to ways of improving their living conditions, particularly since they have recently learned of the material conveniences of other societies and desire some of those amenities for themselves. However, a recurrent theme in most of the interviews conducted was that traditional farming could be relied upon to yield productive results. There is a common perception that application of new techniques or introduction of new species, though promoted with high promise, almost always has failed. At present in RMI, there is scepticism about proposals to enhance agricultural productivity since great effort and expense, along with memorable frustration, have been devoted to this goal over years past with negligible benefit.108. Those living on the outer atolls have a real need for enhancing food security since income from copra has declined so significantly in recent years. Population there has more than doubled since the post-World War II years, and though standard of living has improved on certain dimensions, per capita income has declined. Thus far, the only reasonably successful remedy for this problem has been to continue to apply traditional agricultural wisdom and subsidize copra at the minimal politically acceptable level.109. An important and often overlooked reservoir of agricultural information is the local knowledge and cultural wisdom that has been passed down through generations. Solutions to most problems are widely known but sometimes are considered so obvious and mundane that when questioned about them by foreigners, a local person may have a hard time appreciating the import of what is being asked.110. Importation of foreign foods to the Marshall Islands began with the copra industry. Native taro, breadfruit and pandanus were gradually neglected over time as reliance on imports grew. Twenty years of decline in the price of copra has raised questions about alternative sources of value to the outer atoll economy. Tourism is being highly promoted by the government. More intense cultivation of native crops would regenerate surplus yields lost from neglect, storms, droughts and erosion and help mitigate future losses during periods of ecological crisis.110. Protect, support and enhance established agriculture: rather than experiment with new techniques or attempt to grow new crops, many people surveyed stated they would like to learn more about proven traditional practices and how they might be improved. Given frustrations with a manifold of former initiatives and concern about the diminishing value of copra, expansion of existing subsistence agricultural resources as a policy goal could have measurable success.111. Create and distribute instructional materials that are relevant, consistent and useful. Practical instructional material written in Marshallese was repeatedly mentioned by persons interviewed as being of value in educating people about agriculture, particularly in the outer islands. Pamphlets, posters, and cookbooks were the primary media suggested. Their rationale was that without electricity and not much written material, whatever is provided is kept by the people and widely read, at least over a certain time interval.112. Utilize AM broadcast radio to disseminate information. Given the distances between Majuro and the outer atolls and the lack of postal service and libraries there, the most effective means of disseminating information about agriculture and fisheries is via the government radio station, V7AB. Since this station is the only one in RMI that reaches all the atolls, most people listen to it closely.113. Assist agencies in establishing standardized data categories for agriculture and fisheries and in improving data collection techniques. EPPSO, R&D and MIMRA could benefit from developing standardized categories of agricultural, fisheries, and forestry data that would be the most useful to researchers and policy-makers. Optimal formats for describing these activities and recommendations about how these types of data could best be collected and summarized would be helpful.114. Assist Ministry of R&D in developing an appropriate ICM system that will enable agencies it supervises (Division of Agriculture, Quarantine Division and MIMRA) to communicate and share information more efficiently and to interface more effectively with other related entities (NGOs, Taiwan Technical Mission, CMI Library, Ministry of Education, etc.).The These operational departments are supported by Planning Corporate Services (P&CS) which is charged with the methodological underpinning of their work and monitoring the ACP environment in order to identify emerging issues and trends and make proposals for their translation into programmes and activities. This current exercise, therefore, falls within the mandate of P&CS.CTA works primarily through intermediary organizations and partners (non-governmental organisations, farmers' organisations, regional organisations, …) to promote agriculture and rural development. Through partnerships, CTA hopes to increase the number of ACP organisations capable of generating and managing information and developing their own information and communication management strategies. The identification of appropriate partners is therefore of primordial importance.The \"Evaluation of the Implementation of the Mid-Term Plan (1997 -2000)\" emphasised the need for CTA to develop a more pro-active approach and elaborate criteria for decision-making with regard to the choice of partner organisations and beneficiaries. Based on this evaluation, the \"Strategic Plan and Framework for Action -2001 -2005\" identifies strategic issues for CTA being: improved targeting (including partnerships and beneficiaries), geographical coverage, decentralisation, regionalisation and thematic orientation. The Plan also expresses concern about: the extent to which CTA's activities are relevant to and reach the poor, gender awareness and how to identify potential partners especially in the independent sectors.Besides partner identification and selection issues, the observation has also been made that, traditionally, the Pacific and Caribbean regions have not received sufficient attention in CTA's programme and activities. This is, for example, highlighted in the statistics on the number of individuals and organisations which receiving CTA publications or participating in workshops and training courses. Furthermore, the admission of 6 new Pacific member states under the Cotonou Agreement means not much known about them, hence the need to develop CTA intervention strategy and provide more targeted assistance.Finally, various national and regional partners with whom CTA has had a long-standing relationship have requested the current study in order to provide more targeted assistance to their beneficiaries.The objectives of the study are as follows:to identify agricultural information needs of key actors / beneficiaries for CTA products and services; to identify needs of potential actors / beneficiaries of CTA activities and services in terms of building capacity for information and communication management; to identify potential partners / beneficiaries for CTA activities and services; to develop some baseline data to facilitate subsequent monitoring activities.The study should assist the three operational departments of the CTA as well as its local representatives to improve and better target interventions and activities aimed at potential partners and beneficiaries (including women, youth, private sector and civil society organisations); to have a more informed picture of their needs and aid in the elaboration of a strategy and framework of action. The study should also highlight where there are specific needs for CTA's products and services thereby enabling improvement in the delivery of the same.The consultant will use a combination of qualitative and quantitative rapid appraisal methods including: the desk review of available literature and information sources including the findings of programme evaluations; the conduct of face-to-face interviews with relevant stakeholders / concerned parties; the limited use of questionnaires.The rapid appraisal approach will allow a general overview of the key issues and company / organisational profiles on a per country 5 basis and may give rise to more in-depth studies as and when needed in the future.One main report per country not exceeding 20 pages according to the following It is also expected that the results of this study will lead to identification / update of some priority agricultural information themes which will feed into a possible priority-setting exercise in the Pacific in 2004.The country reports will not exceed 20 pages (excluding annexes). The annexes should include a list of acronyms, of persons/institutions interviewed with addresses, phone, fax numbers, e-mail addresses (if any) as well as bibliography.Draft final report is to be submitted within two months after contract signature by CTA Final report due two weeks after receipt of comments from CTA.The overall coordination will be carried out by Ms Christine Webster, Deputy Head, Planning and Corporate Services CTA, assisted by Mrs Lola Visser-Mabogunje, Project Assistant.Mr. Peter Walton will ensure the regional coordination and lead a team of local consultants to be identified per country: In consultation with the Regional Coordinator, draft questionnaires Provide relevant background documents to the Team Draft budget and discuss contractual obligations with the Team Overall responsibility for the supervision and implementation of the studies Appoint the Regional Coordinator and the ACP Local Consultants Bear the agreed costs of expenditure in respect of the evaluation (economy class tickets for approved visits to CTA's Headquarters, hotel accommodation and subsistence allowances during briefing meeting, or during agreed and specified field visits) In conjunction with the Regional Coordinator, prepare the overall report taking into account the findings and recommendations of all the Pacific country reports (table of contents to be agreed by 31/01/04). ____________________________The last survey of agricultural population was conducted during the 1988 census and is believed to be reasonably representative of current conditions. Only purely 'outer atoll' households were surveyed.  1991;Local Government Development Plans (1991/1992-1995/1996); tabulated by VVTS. n/a = percentage not availableEstimating land use, agricultural area, etc., in RMI is complicated by the lack of an accurate current survey. Inconsistent criteria about how rural areas of urban atolls are defined and whether habitable areas of nuclear-affected atolls are included in calculations does not present a consistent picture of land use, as the following quotes and table reveal:Estimated land use indicates that 9,300 hectares are planted with coconuts and other atoll crops and 4,730 hectares are not planted due to non-use (e.g. fallow), use for airstrips and other infrastructure, or unsuitability for agriculture. The amount of agriculture land available per rural household falls within the average range of 2.6 to 5.9 ha and an overall average of 3.8 hectares (Bolt 1997: 3).The agricultural area of all the inhabited atolls/islands is estimated at just under 8,200 ha. or 53% of the dry land figure. The outer atolls (excluding Majuro and Kwajalein) account for almost 7,800 ha., or 95% of the total. Agricultural area per outer atoll household averages 4.9 ha. with 3.8 ha. as average for all inhabited atolls/islands (Shaw 1994: 8,9). Agricultural activity in RMI can be differentiated into three basic classes that overlap somewhat. These are, in order of economic importance: Subsistence: Households gathering food for their own consumption.Copra/Commercial: Households producing copra for sale; all households making copra are members of the set of subsistence households. Commercial: A small number of urban atoll households that sell the surplus portion of food produced on their land; the Taiwan Technical Mission farm is the only organization in RMI that grows and sells a measurable amount of produce although its primary function is to demonstrate to others how to grow those crops.Subsistence agriculture, including livestock, comprises 73% of the value of total agricultural product in RMI. Copra production accounts for 18% with other commercial agricultural produce valued at 9%. Subsistence agriculture in the outer atolls constitutes 80% of total agricultural valuation if copra production is included. (See Table 3, Annex 2.1.4.)Reliable estimates of the value of domestic products are very hard to find. Many of the numbers in Table 4, such as values given for copra, are grossly in error when compared to actual Tobolar figures. Livestock values are much higher than researchers such as Shaw, who actually spent time on outer atolls conducting his survey for ADB, have found. Calculations of such quantities in RMI often rely on old or forgotten data sources; new numbers are merely punched in each year without checking them against present reality.  The following description of how locally produced agriculture products in Majuro are marketed is included because it indicates the scale of commercial agricultural activity in RMI:i. Roadside stands. These are undoubtedly one of the most efficient means of marketing farmers' produce. Along the main road of Majuro, farmers simply set up a small table (often nothing more than an old sheet of plywood set on top of a five-gallon bucket) and there place small quantities of local produce, such as drinking coconuts, breadfruit, and pandanus. No one actually tends the goods but when a car stops, the driver seeks out the seller and buys the goods. There are no set hours, no set days and the stands will appear and disappear according to availability of crops or the desire of the farmers to earn some extra money. Usually all produce is sold out by the end of the day. ii. Small retailers. There are numerous small retailers who operate what are called \"take-outs\".Many of these are small roadside buildings with a limited selection of canned and other goods.Our team surveyed the majority of these. About 25% of these stores sold food grown from their own land and a few sold products from some of the outer atolls. Again, what is sold and when is often dependent upon the when crops are available and the desire of the farmers for extra income. iii. Larger retailers. Larger merchants, such as Robert Reimers Enterprises and Payless Market, like to carry produce from farmers, keeping their mark ups less than normal to help out the farmers. Inventories of locally grown foods for sale by major retailers are not consistent, largely depending on what excess produce farmers may have at any given time.iv. Taiwan Technical Mission (\"Laura Farm\"). This experimental agricultural enterprise is funded by the Republic of China (Taiwan) and produces about 11 varieties of vegetables and fruit. About 2/3 of production is sold the retailers or individuals in Majuro. v. Farmer's market. A monthly farmers market is held on the grounds of the Majuro Atoll Local Government building. Often by noon, food offered has sold out. Expanding the market to more than one day per month is being discussed (per. comm. J. Rellong). vi. Commercial buyers, local market. Some Majuro restaurants have standing orders for produce from the Laura Farm. Tobolar uses some of its coconut oil to make body lotion for local consumption. The Ministry of R&D is working on marketing local produce to personnel living at USAKA. vii. Commercial buyers, export market. Robert Reimers Enterprises prepares pandanus juice for sale to visitors at its hotel. The major exporter of agricultural products is Tobolar, the copra processing plant, which buys all copra from the outer atolls, then processes it into copra oil and cake for export. viii. Special order. Often if a person stops at a roadside stand and asks for a readily product that is not set out (such as sprouted coconut), the farmer will, on the spot, go and get some. Most of the roadside sellers interviewed indicated that they will take special orders for their goods. Some were even willing to deliver into town.   Copra: Copra remains the only and the most important agricultural export product of RMI despite its plunge in value in recent years. Table 6 below shows the relationships between population size, production in metric tonnes and price, gross outer atoll income from copra and per capita income from copra since 1964. 'Population: atolls producing copra' does not include Bikini, Enewetak, Majuro, Kwajalein and Rongelap Atolls and Kili Island since negligible or no copra produced on them. Dollar amounts have been adjusted for inflation to US$2003 in Table 7 and US$2001 in Figure 1.  $500 $600 1 9 5 5 1 9 6 0 1 9 6 5 1 9 7 0 1 9 7 5 1 9 8 0 1 9 8 5 1 9 9 0 1 9 9 5 2 0 0 0 In 1999, an estimated 20% of the population was living below the US$1 per day poverty line (Prokop 2003: 33).        This division is meaningful because it reflects distinctive differences in their internal economies and standards of living. Because the 'nuclear-affected' atolls receive special compensation from the US for damages from its testing program, they are economically closer to the urban atolls than to the 'outer atolls'. Figure 2 compares the percentages of households with selected amenities in these three economies in 1999.There is a significant urban market for surplus agricultural production on the outer atolls, especially for seasonal crops such as breadfruit and pandanus. Lack of suitable transportation, telecommunications, postal and financial services on the outer atolls, however, have defeated efforts to access them successfully. A recent ADB study, though focusing on marine resources, analyzed the problem of marketing them to the urban atolls. The analysis is equally applicable to agricultural products.It is unfortunate that projects that can succeed in Majuro are unrealistic to undertake in the outer atolls. The reality exists, however, that some projects requiring relatively sophisticated technology, such as those based on ornamental fish or live clams, can survive and even prosper in Majuro but will not work in the outer atolls. That these activities are able to succeed in a more urban setting despite the limited natural resources available has as much or more to do with access to necessary services as it does to the specific commodities they produce. In addition to generally reliable electric power and other basic utilities cited in the resource evaluation section of this report, transportation costs at rates the market can absorb (air freight in particular), international telecommunications, and easy access to postal services and commercial banking enable the products to be efficiently produced and effectively marketed.The foregoing is perhaps easy to comprehend and understand. It may not be so easy, however, to understand that even relatively non-perishable products in the outer atolls are not a secure basis for economic development under current conditions. The larger part of the problems associated with utilization of resources in the outer atolls are the very ones that have been solved in Majuro: access to markets through reliable cost-effective transportation, access to telecommunications that would enable timely marketing and follow-up, postal services that could enable ordering of spare parts and supplies as well as serve as a marketing channel, and an assured secure and prompt system of payment to producers through banking services, to name a few (McCoy and Hart 2002).Population shifts in the Marshalls have been mostly to urbanized Majuro and Ebeye, Kwajalein, because of enhanced economic conditions and social services at those locations relative to the other atolls. The nuclear testing program and contamination that followed forced residents of Bikini, Enewetak and Rongelap to other locations, some of which Marshallese had traditionally considered uninhabitable. Most Bikinians now live on Kili Island and in Majuro. About 900 Enewetakese have returned to reside at two islands on their atoll deemed safe for habitation. Rongelapese were evacuated from their atoll to an island in Kwajalein in 1987 but are expected to return to parts of Rongelap in a few years when a new village infrastructure is completed.Under the Compact of Free Association, Marshallese are allowed to enter the United States without visas to live, work, or study for as long as they choose without restriction. Estimates of the number of Marshall Islanders currently residing in the US range from 15,000 to 17,000 persons. There are no statistics on how many Marshallese leave each year to reside in the US. A common assumption is that emigration will continue but thus far there is no data on its rate.  The only local newspaper is the independent weekly, the Marshall Islands Journal, having an average distribution of about 2,500 copies per issue, with 87% of sales on Majuro, 13% on Ebeye and the remainder sold in Honolulu or as foreign subscriptions.The newspaper is not sold on the outer atolls but some individuals send copies to relatives there, with an estimated readership there of less than 8% of households. Estimated average readership runs nine times the number of copies sold or 22,500 persons (EPPSO 2002: 191). In recent years, many government agencies have chosen to disseminate information through the Marshall Islands Journal rather than to publish  NTA provides voice communications to the main outer atoll villages the through a network of HF-SSB radios. Establishing voice communication through this system is usually cumbersome and time-consuming. If an urban party wishes to speak to someone on the outer atolls, he usually pays in advance for an announcement (US$1 each) over V7AB for the person to contact NTA Majuro via HF-SSB at a particular time. If the urban party has no telephone, he waits at the NTA office for the caller. An outer atoll party wishing to speak to an urban one may do so through HF-SSB only if the urban party has a telephone. International calls can be relayed to the outer islands via the HF-SSB network. The Ministries of Health and Education maintain HF-SSB radios at most outer atoll schools and dispensaries that are linked to their Majuro offices. There are a small, unknown number of privately owned HF-SSB radios on the outer atolls, usually belonging to businessmen who typically have a partner radio/operator, usually a relative, through whom they can conduct urban-rural voice conversations. CB radios have become common on the outer atolls, especially the larger ones, with 20% of households estimated to have them. They are used for intra-atoll communications and to relay messages received over HF-SSB from Majuro and Ebeye to those on the outer atolls who do not have access to HF-SSB.Computers are numerous on the urban atolls. In 2002, 425 units were in use in education 20 used by health services, other government agencies owned 461 PCs, and 238 were privately owned for a total of 1143 (EPPSO 2003: 192). The public secondary schools of generator-electrified locations at Jaluit and Wotje Atolls and the Likiep Atoll solar power system provide instruction in them. Use of computers on other outer atolls is extremely limited and there are no known Internet users there.NTA currently claims 825 subscribers to its Internet service (per. comm. A. Muller). It maintains 'Internet cafés' at its facilities in Majuro and Ebeye, Kwajalein. Standard Internet access is US$10 per month and US$0.06 per minute of use (NTA 2004: 9), but is notoriously slow at about 46 KBS. High Speed Internet service is also offered for US$2,000 per month for 128 KBS, US$3,000 per month for 256 KBS and US$5,000 for 512 KBS. The College of the Marshall Islands (CMI) utilizes PeaceSat for Internet access. The University of the South Pacific (USP) has its own satellite system.","tokenCount":"9828"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f542f7fd189ac7a7a04e907b759fa054","source":"gardian_index","url":"http://awm-solutions.iwmi.org/Data/Sites/3/Documents/PDF/publication-outputs/learning-and-discussion-briefs/supporting-smallholder-private-pump-irrigation-in-ssa.pdf","id":"-89315422"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5311e1a6-23d8-47b4-b3ba-b0e7ada7d264","pagecount":"9","content":"Smallholder private irrigation in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) provides millions of poor farmers with additional income when they need it most. Those with access to irrigation have substantially higher incomes and better food security than those who solely depend on rainfed production. In particular, vegetable cultivation during the dry season sold on the local market is very profitable. Consequently, smallholders increasingly engage in dry season, high value crop production using motorized pumps to draw water from a variety of sources (rivers, reservoirs, lakes, ponds, canals and groundwater).While smallholder private irrigation has existed for decades, particularly in South Asia, it received enormous impetus from the availability of small, cheap motorized pumps manufactured in China and, increasingly, in India. As a result, the sector is growing, financed primarily by smallholder farmers with little or no outside support. We estimate that the sector employs more than a million smallholders in SSA 1 . In Ghana alone, our surveys suggest that about half a million smallholder farmers are engaged in irrigated vegetable cultivation, which is 50 times more than farmers in public irrigation schemes. And the scope for further growth and poverty reduction potential is substantial.While small private irrigation is spreading spontaneously, is relatively low-cost and has positive impacts on smallholders' incomes, its unchecked and dispersed proliferation can result in equity, environmental and efficiency challenges. Generally wealthier farmers have better access to information and technology than their poorer counterparts who face several hurdles including absence of, or lack of, access to proper financing tools, lack of information to move into new crops/cropping systems (e.g., shifting to high value, dry season crops), and limited access to necessary information to make the right investment and marketing choices. Our research shows that this is particularly true for women farmers.Further, unchecked proliferation of pumps can lead to a decline in water quantity, unauthorized use of protected lands, loss of soil fertility, and pollution due to over, or inappropriate, application of agro-chemicals. In some cases conflicts between different water users occur due to competition between public and private schemes and/or upstream and downstream users. These risks are aggravated by the individualistic nature of smallholder private irrigation, which makes it more difficult to control and regulate.Lastly, there is room for improvement along the value chain. The equipment supply chain is poorly developed, the quality of available pumps questionable and choice in specifications very limited. Moreover, output markets are often dominated by middlemen and are prone to cartel forming due to a lack of supporting institutional frameworks.With appropriate support, smallholder private irrigation using motorized pumps can fully realize its poverty reduction potential while avoiding adverse social and environmental impacts.Supporting smallholder private pump irrigation means leveraging farmers' initiatives and their own investments, so that it becomes accessible to a broader range of smallholders, in particular women, while minimizing resource conflicts and environmental concerns. Millions of smallholder families throughout SSA stand to benefit.• Substantial increases in farm incomes will lead to poverty reduction for millions of smallholders in SSA • Achieving the potential market of a few million motorized pumps in SSA will benefit those involved in the equipment supply chain: manufacturers, retailers and local dealers • Technological innovation in motorized pumping-particularly in the area of alternative energy pumping-will benefit other smallholders in the future.To address the opportunity while addressing efficiency constraints and minimizing adverse social and environmental impacts, the project is exploring the following strategies:1) Enhance knowledge flows 2) Improve the value chain 3) Ensure technology access for all 4) Rethink energy policies 5) Adopt a watershed approach In other cases they take the equipment available in the nearest store and pay a price that exceeds the quality they get; they purchase pumps that are ill-suited to the size of their land and end up with high operation and maintenance costs. Action points:• Train local dealers and farmers on technical aspects, brands and price ranges of pumps.• Train dealers in better marketing and after-sales service provision. Support dealers in setting up demonstration plots where farmers can try out a variety of technologies before buying. • Build on the existing NGO network and marketing skills to market a broader range of technologies. • Develop illustrated, local language manuals on pump characteristics, irrigation use, maintenance, and repair. • Support governments and national institutions in collecting and improving datasets and their dissemination.Import duties and taxes (both formal and informal) can substantially add to local pump prices, sometimes up to 40%. Where pumps are exempt from duties or taxes, exemption procedures are sometimes unknown, long and/or cumbersome. Spare parts are often not included in exemptions. In many countries pump markets are poorly developed and immature and many low quality pumps enter the market. There is no quality control, and price-quality configurations differ by an order of magnitude without obvious reasons other than the lack of competition between dealers.• Review import duties and exempt small pumps from sales taxes. Simplify exemption procedures.• Develop pump registries: a registry of pump dealers can help farmers locate nearest shops, get an idea of prices and available options in the market. It can be a tool to disseminate relevant information on innovations, new developments and technical events. A pump registry can also serve as a mechanism to establish warranty systems and after sales services. • Provide credit to dealers, sometimes available from wholesalers and manufacturers as an incentive for dealers to keep larger and more varied stock.Awareness of and interest in motor pumps is high. However, for many smallholders the purchase price and running costs remain the biggest obstacles. Micro-credit facilities and financing options are absent or non-accessible. Nearly all pumps are financed from personal savings. Hence, only betteroff farmers can afford to buy pumps, and female ownership of motor pumps is very low due to lack of access to appropriate credit facilities.Case study example, Zambia: One of the major obstacles to smallholder private irrigation is the high cost of equipment. Most irrigation equipment is imported because local manufacturing capacity is limited. Duties, taxes and high transport costs add to the price of small pumps putting them out of reach of small farmers. High transaction costs prevent new importers from entering the market. In 2009 the Zambian government exempted agricultural equipment from VAT and import duty. However, importers and dealers lack information on exemption procedures and pump prices vary by an order of magnitude depending on location and dealer.Case study example, Tanzania: Small private irrigation in Tanzania, primarily for horticulture and flowers, is growing. It provides a vital additional income to smallholders in the dry-season. Based on surveys among 335 farmers we estimate that watering by hand is the most common (88%) irrigation technology, followed by motor pumps (10%) and treadle pumps (2%). All smallholder farmers indicated their preference for motorized pumping but were held back by the high upfront costs and lack of finance at the beginning of the season. This constraint was particularly felt by women.Action points:• Explore and pilot financial instruments specifically designed for the purchase of pumping equipment and other necessary inputs. • Pilot an \"irrigation service providers\" concept where entrepreneurs (either pump owners or people without their own farmland) go from farm to farm with small motor pumps to provide the service of irrigating smallholders' lands for a fixed fee per hour, day or season. • Explore and pilot different rental arrangements, based on existing pump sharing systems (e.g., around small reservoirs in Burkina Faso).Energy costs are already high and rising oil prices reduce the economic viability of motor pumps for smallholders. Small motor pumps tend to be energy inefficient.Greenhouse gas emissions from motorized pumping in SSA are negligible now (see below), but this could change depending on the number of motor pumps, the type of energy used to run the pumps, as well as through increased use of fertilizers and market transport.A study on the potential impacts of motor pump adoption in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia suggests that in contrast to India the emissions from irrigation pumps are not likely to become a significant proportion of carbon dioxide emissions in each of the five countries. The emissions from pumps in 2010 were significantly less than 1% of each country's current agricultural sector emissions. Even with the development of a hypothetical scenario in which every smallholder uses a pump, the resulting carbon dioxide emissions are still less than 1% of current agricultural sector emissions. Although the impact on carbon dioxide emissions is small, cross checking the water abstraction rates for these pump numbers suggests that the limited amount of water resources (using the renewable national water resources as an indicator) is more likely to become a problem, especially at the local level. Suggestions to improve these estimates are to ensure better monitoring of pump adoption rates, and consideration of ways to improve pump efficiency and affordable alternative energy solutions (e.g., solar, wind). This would benefit both the farmer and the environment. A shift to other energy sources, such as electricity derived by coal or hydropower, could change (up or down) the estimated carbon dioxide emissions.• Stimulate development and use of alternative energy sources: pilot and evaluate affordable solar voltaic and solar thermal systems in farmers' fields. Evaluate cost aspects and test financing options. • Develop energy efficient pumps suitable for small landholdings.• Stimulate innovation by competitions among local inventors, or local universities.• Assess broader rural development benefits when considering electrification of pumps in electrification plans.Taking water from its natural course for irrigation nearly always has impacts on downstream users and the environment. But many small dispersed points of water extraction are more difficult to control and regulate than a few large users. The risks of conflicts over resources and environmental problems are aggravated by the individualistic nature in which smallholder private irrigation spreads.Regulation is often absent or difficult to enforce.In a study of four watersheds, improved access to pumps was associated with positive livelihood impacts (equity, gender and poverty reduction). However, these issues need to be balanced with environmental concerns related to water quality, quantity and the natural resource base. In all cases, understanding and strengthening existing formal and informal institutional networks to manage the positive and negative externalities could present real opportunities to safeguard resources and ensure local mechanisms to balance benefits and manage trade-offs.The watershed is already affected by poor water quality from agricultural intensification with local, periodic water scarcity which reduces people's livelihood and income opportunities. Thus, more pumps and extractions must be balanced with institutional space to negotiate trade-offs. Action points:• Consider multiple-versus single-AWM interventions (e.g., combining water management measures with changes in cropping patterns, fertilizer use and/or marketing and infrastructural support). • Examine the existing formal and informal institutional networks active in the watershed and opportunities to bridge institutional gaps. • Assess water resources availability, address possible environmental impacts and its consequences on incomes and livelihoods of agricultural and non-agricultural communities. • Recognize and support social structures that can address potential emerging resource conflicts.Within this solution pathway, an important opportunity for investors lies in supporting functioning stakeholder management forums that are established and managed in coordination with relevant national policies and private enterprise developments. The project has identified a local demand for such forums, with many informal structures upon which to build, and existing national policies to support the process. The challenge is to appropriately synergize the demand with the existing formal and inform al institutions.","tokenCount":"1887"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a5c4cf5d7db39f4b4e2e8a0b775e8d1b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/531480f7-4b4c-4865-b2c9-04a55b3bba8a/retrieve","id":"-936422823"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"91491def-c3a4-4e01-a58d-316dbb864976","pagecount":"19","content":"During 2023, researchers from Work Package 2 (WP2) of the Sustainable Healthy Diets through Food Systems Transformation (SHiFT) initiative conducted three linked surveys to learn more about micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that currently supply foods within urban, peri-urban, and rural locations in Viet Nam and devise ways to foster their supply of sustainable nutritious foods (SNFs). The surveys had three linked goals-to better characterize the business environment in which MSMEs operate; to understand any constraints they face in selling more SNFs; and to help inform interventions with scaling potential that could increase the availability of SNFs for consumers.The first survey consisted of a listing exercise (or the \"short audit\"), the second survey was a longer survey targeting outlets from the listing that had a higher chance of being MSMEs and could potentially modify their food offerings, and the third survey was targeted at suppliers of those MSMEs, with the objective of identifying any potential constraints at the supplier level for expanding the offering of SNFs. The sample for the third survey was derived from the MSME sample. Ceballos et al. (2023) describe in detail the data collection efforts conducted, including sampling strategies, overall sample composition, and implementation of the three surveys. This document presents selected results from these three surveys, with a focus on the second MSME survey. The next section describes the typology of outlets enumerated in the different surveys, and the final outlet groupings used in the analyses in this note. The MSME survey results section discusses the main findings from the MSME survey in terms of general ownership characteristics, employment patterns, business skills and access to finance, food offerings, and nutrition knowledge and interest in offering more SNFs to clients, distinguishing across outlet groups and vendor clusters. The Supplier survey results section presents the main findings from the supplier survey, in terms of food offerings, the composition of their client portfolio, their level of formalization, business skills, and credit use, and their interest in selling more nutritious foods. The final section summarizes the findings and concludes.MSME Survey. 2 It is important to note that these outlet types overall represent more than 94 percent of the outlets listed during the short audit, and thus capture almost all of the food environment in the sampled wards of these districts. Around 40 percent of outlets interviewed during the MSME survey are tabletop food and beverage stalls, with other important categories being tabletop food stalls inside a toad market (14 percent), convenience stores that are not part of a chain (12 percent), and restaurants that are not part of a chain (11 percent). On the other hand, only seven bubble tea stores were interviewed during this survey, representing less than half a percentage point of the total sample.Source: Authors' calculations from the Short Audit and MSME surveys conducted in Viet Nam by the SHiFT initiative. In column 1, the sum across outlet types is not equal to the 'Total' row, since a few outlets in the Short Audit were categorized as belonging to two different outlet types and are thus included in two different rows. Overall, the numbers differ slightly from those in Ceballos et al. (2023) since some outlet types captured during the Short Audit were updated after visiting them a second time for the MSME survey.For clarity of exposition, we group these outlet types into four groups, as indicated in the last column of Table 1. Vendors, generally defined, comprise almost two thirds of the outlets selling food in the selected wards. However, these are usually specialized, selling only a narrow set of related foods, so we rely on cluster analysis to divide them into identifiable groups. To do this, we first calculate the number of food items sold (as captured in the short audit) across five aggregate food groups, each including a set of food groups defined in the short audit as follows:-Fruits and vegetables, legumes, roots, and tubers: Roots and tubers; Fruits; Vegetables; Legumes -Meats: Fish and shellfish; Poultry; Meat -Eggs and dairy: Eggs; Dairy; Oils and fats -Grains and nuts: Grains and baked goods; nuts and seeds -Packaged goods and beverages: Packaged snacks; Ready-made foods; Beverages; Sweets/ice cream Next, we calculate the share of food items sold across the five aggregates for each individual outlet. We do so to avoid size effects (in terms of the total number of items sold within a category) from influencing the clustering. Finally, four vendor clusters are identified through a K-means partition-clustering algorithm; the number of clusters was chosen to balance the within cluster variation, which declines with the number of clusters, and the between cluster variation, which increases with the number of clusters. The K-means analysis only considers vendors and includes all available outlets in that group interviewed during the short audit.Table 2 presents the results of the cluster analysis, showing the minimum, average, and maximum share of a given food aggregate sold among all vendors assigned to each of the four clusters in the first column.The names in the first column are intended to characterize the three distinct groups that arise from the data: vendors selling mostly fruits and vegetables, legumes, roots, and tubers (heretofore referred to as \"F&V vendors\"), vendors selling mostly Meats (\"Meat vendors\"), and vendors selling mostly packaged goods and beverages (\"Packaged foods vendors\"). A fourth cluster, \"Other vendors\", comprises vendors with varied food offerings across the food group aggregates, including many selling mostly eggs and dairy or grains and nuts. A 5 th vendor cluster, \"Prepared food vendors\", is manually defined to include all remaining vendors who do not sell any food items in the food aggregates above and sell at least one prepared food item. Overall, F&V vendors represent a large fraction (40 percent) of vendors in the food environment, with prepared food vendors second in importance representing almost a quarter of the interviewed vendors. Table 3 shows the total number of outlets in each outlet group (top panel) and vendor cluster (bottom panel), in both the Short Audit and the MSME survey. The MSME survey -the main object of interest of this document-includes 1,627 outlets, including 184 restaurants, 130 coffee shops and bubble tea stores, 296 convenience stores and specialized food stores, and 1,017 vendors, of which 441 specialized in F&V and 233 in prepared food. This distribution, however, looks quite different by district. The density of outlets is much higher in Dông Da -the urban district-than in the other two districts, with almost two thirds of the outlets in the MSME survey located there. In Môc Châu, the rural district, we find considerably more stores (i.e. convenience stores and food stores) than in the other two districts, while in Dông Anh, the peri-urban district, we find much fewer restaurants than in the other districts, and the food environment seems to be dominated by vendors (comprising almost 90 percent of the total outlets). In Dông Da, we find most of the coffee shops (i.e. coffee/fresh juice shop and bubble tea stores) and an overall more balanced distribution across outlet groups. In terms of vendor clusters, while Môc Châu and Dông Anh show a prevalence of F&V vendors (at around 60 percent), in Dông Da these represent only 30 percent of vendors, with prepared-food vendors slightly more common (but still at 30 percent) and packaged goods vendors third in importance, representing 20 percent of all vendors.Henceforth, the analysis follows the same categorization of outlets shown in Table 3. Note that the summary statistics presented for the vendor clusters (bottom panel) are simply a disaggregation of the one presented for the Vendors group (last row in the top panel). We refrain from disaggregating the analyses by district, except where important patterns are noteworthy.     Table 6 focuses on general outlet characteristics. Column 1 shows the percentage of outlets that report having some cold storage infrastructure (including either a refrigerator, a freezer, refrigerated shelving, or a walk-in cool room). Not surprisingly, restaurants and coffee shops are much more likely to have cold storage than stores or vendors. Vendors are the least likely to have cold storage, though they are more likely to have it if selling packaged or prepared foods. Column 2 shows the average percentage of customers that are adolescents, as reported by each outlet. Only a small fraction of outlets' customers are adolescents, at 12 percent, with a slightly higher percentage among stores and prepared foods vendors (close to 20 percent).Column 3 in turn presents the percentage of outlets that allow customers to buy goods on credit, at a surprising 62 percent overall, and highest among stores and vendors. Column 4 shows the percentage of outlets reporting having a delivery option in the short audit, either by phone (column 5) or by app (column 6). As expected, restaurants and coffee shops have the highest rates offering delivery, but still only around half of the interviewed outlets do. Somewhat surprisingly, 18 percent of prepared-foods vendors offer delivery options to their client. Most outlets have a phone delivery option, and a lower though significant fraction offers delivery through apps (except for vendors). Finally, columns 7 through 10 report the level of payment digitalization of interviewed outlets, in terms of the percentage of outlets that accept credit cards and mobile money, and the average percentage of customers who use either of these options. While credit card penetration is extremely low overall, almost two thirds of outlets accept mobile money for payment, and almost a quarter of customers make use of this option. 3 These rates are highest among restaurants and coffee shops and lowest among vendors. Table 7 shows the level of formalization and financial skills of interviewed outlets. Only 17 percent of outlets have a tax registration number (column 1). Formalization is highest among coffee shops and stores, though still at only about 40 percent, and lowest among vendors (6 percent). That said, vendors within wet markets pay fees to the market and therefore are formal in some sense, which is not the same as tax registration. Columns 2 through 6 indicate the percentage of outlets that declare signing written contracts with employees, recording sales and purchases, knowing the costs of their main products sold, reviewing the business' financial performance, and saving for emergencies. Overall, financial skills (as captured through these dimensions) are quite low, e.g. only 13 percent of outlets record their transactions, around one third review financial performance, around 30 percent are unaware of the cost of their main products, and 40 percent save for emergencies.The last three columns in the table show measures of credit access. The fraction of outlets having an outstanding loan with either a formal or an informal source is very low, at 5 percent in both cases. However, around 40 percent of outlets (slightly higher among vendors) can finance their working capital by purchasing on credit from their supplier, indicative that they can use the value chain to finance their stock, if not the capital they might need for the business. To give a sense of the size and financial standing of outlets, columns 1 through 3 in Table 8 show, respectively, the median monthly revenues, costs, and profits among all outlets in a given group. We interpret revenues as a proxy of an outlet's financial size. Overall, the median outlet reports monthly revenues of 30 million dong, or around 1,250 U.S. dollars, a level of revenues representative of the typical MSME in our sample. The median restaurant, however, is double that size at 60 million dong, and, the median meat vendor has the largest monthly revenues, at just over 100 million dong. The smallest revenues are among packaged goods vendors, who only reported 6 million dong of revenues at the median.Costs and profits follow relatively similar patterns. Reported costs imply that stores, coffee shops, and vendors report monthly profits between 7 and 9 million dong, and restaurants and meat vendors report profits close to 12-15 million dong. In terms of profit margin (column 4), however, meat vendors report the lowest margins, at 17 percent of their costs, while stores and packaged goods vendors report the highest margins, at 85 and 238 percent of their costs, respectively. Columns 5 and 6 give a sense of variability in terms of both size and profitability, by showing the difference between the 75 th and 25 th percentiles for both revenues and profits. Meat vendors seem to show the largest dispersion, implying the presence of very large and very small outlets in that cluster. In comparison, coffee shops are more homogeneous in size, with a relatively low dispersion in revenues and profits. Finally, column 7 shows the percentage of outlets within each group that reported being profitable, as in their revenues being equal or higher than their costs. Overall, almost 90 percent of outlets seem to be profitable, with coffee shops showing the largest percentage of non-profitable outlets (at 18 percent). It is important to note, though, that owners' labor was not considered in the calculation of costs; the profits, then, should be thought of as the returns to the owner's labor and capital, which may be quite low in some cases relative to prevailing wage rates. Next, we illustrate the relationship of outlets with their suppliers. Table 9 presents the different sources from which food outlets purchase their main SNF offerings. 4 Overall, wholesalers are an important food source for retailers in northern Viet Nam, with 55 percent of outlets declaring purchasing at least one of their food offerings from there. The next most common source is purchasing directly from producers, at 27 percent; however, this figure is higher among vendors (31 percent), and lowest among coffee shops (13 percent). Many source foods directly from markets (21 percent), particularly restaurants (26 percent) and coffee shops (50 percent). If we combine collectors and distributors, we find 26 percent reporting obtaining foods that way; this percentage is higher among coffee shops and stores, who report buying from these sources in 44 and 47 percent of cases, respectively. In sum, we find that the way SNFs are sourced is complex; from an intervention perspective, it might be difficult to encourage businesses higher up the value chain to sell more SNFs, as some of them are simply producers, and a relatively large proportion of food outlets are buying directly from the market rather than from wholesalers, collectors, or distributors. Source: Authors' calculations from the MSME survey conducted in Viet Nam by the SHiFT initiative. Dropped \"other\" category as it was only 1 percent of responses, for expositional purposes; therefore, row percentages may not sum to 100 percent.Table 10, in turn, shows the strength of ties between outlets in the food environment and their suppliers, by describing the different services that outlets report obtaining from their suppliers. The main service received from suppliers is transport, with 47 percent of outlets overall mentioning it, though this service is most important among restaurants, coffee shops, and stores. This finding relates to the results in Table 9, which suggests that those outlets source more products from collectors and distributors. The second service in importance is purchasing goods on credit, as discussed above in the section on access to credit, followed by quality control services, with, respectively, 40 and 38 percent of outlets reporting receiving this service from at least one of their suppliers. 5 Around a quarter of the interviewed outlets report receiving market information from suppliers, and a very small fraction receive processing or storage services. 43 percent of outlets report receiving no service from their suppliers. It is worth noting that, while differences between outlet groups exist, these are usually small. Finally, the MSME survey inquired about aspects of respondents' nutritional knowledge and their interest in offering more nutritious foods to their clients. Columns 1 through 4 in Table 11 report the percentage of respondents in each outlet group that answered correctly a multiple-choice question on which food option was high in Sodium, Vitamin A, Iron, or Calcium content. While nutritional knowledge on the highsodium food is relatively good, less than half of overall respondents were able to correctly answer the knowledge questions on the other nutrients, and this percentage was lowest among vendors. Column 5 indicates the percentage of respondents who answered being altogether unaware of what a given nutrient was, with 9 percent of outlets doing so, again mostly driven by vendors. When asked whether they would be interested in offering more nutritious foods to their customers (column 6), almost half of the sample agreed, particularly among restaurants and coffee shops, but still with a relatively high percentage among other outlet groups. Interestingly, little to no challenges were reported for selling more nutritious foods, with only one out of 5 outlets reporting perceiving low demand for nutritious foods (column 7) or high price being a constraint for demand (column 8), only 12 percent reporting any sourcing challenges (column 9), and 40 percent indicating no challenge at all (column 10). These findings indicate that, despite showing low levels of nutritional knowledge, outlets in the food environment are overall receptive to the idea of expanding its offerings of more nutritious foods, and few perceive obstacles in doing so. The supplier survey enumerated 268 businesses based on referrals from the MSME survey. 6 Respondents were asked to characterize their businesses as either producers, collectors, distributors, wholesalers, processors, or retailers. Almost all respondents gave two or even three answers, and almost every respondent characterized their business as a \"wholesaler\" (261 of 268). Meanwhile, only 5 called themselves a distributor, while many called themselves retailers (203 of 268). We therefore examined the data to develop a more precise categorization of suppliers. First, we note that processors play a differential role in agri-food value chains, as they add value to food rather than just moving and/or storing it. Thus, we use any business declaring themselves a processor as a first category. Second, we classify any remaining businesses declaring themselves as producers or collectors as a second category, since these are businesses closer to agricultural production. Third, we define exclusive wholesalers, who are businesses exclusively identifying themselves as wholesalers (or wholesalers and distributors). Finally, we create a \"retailers plus\" category, which are businesses on the retail end of the value chain. The revised categorization is illustrated in Figure 1, together with the percentage of businesses in the sample belonging to each category. The two main categories are producers/collectors (39 percent of businesses) and retailer plus (34 percent), followed by processors (19 percent) and, finally, by exclusive wholesalers (at only 8 percent).Source: Authors' calculations from the Supplier survey conducted in Viet Nam by the SHiFT initiative. The survey recorded the 'business type' as a multiple-response question, resulting in suppliers reporting more than one business type in the data. Businesses were thus recategorized as described in the text.Next, we describe the client profiles of interviewed suppliers in Table 12, by presenting the share of businesses in a given category that declared selling to different outlet types (as defined in the previous section). Perhaps not surprisingly, a majority of suppliers sell to restaurants or food vendors (57 and 66 percent, respectively). This is of course influenced by the way the supplier sample was generated (largely from restaurants or food vendors). A smaller share of suppliers sell to convenience stores or other food stores (39 percent), though that share is higher among producer/collectors and exclusive wholesalers (51 and 61 percent, respectively). Fewer businesses sell to supermarkets, chain stores, or restaurants; and only producer/collectors or processors tend to sell to other businesses that do not sell directly to consumers (i.e. other suppliers). Finally, a remarkable share of suppliers sell directly to consumers-with around three quarters of producer/collectors or processors selling directly to this segment.  Source: Authors' calculations from the Supplier survey conducted in Viet Nam by the SHiFT initiative. The survey recorded the 'outlet types' to which a given supplier sells foods as a multiple-response question, with most suppliers reporting selling to more than one outlet type in the data. Therefore, row percentages do not sum to 100 percent.Table 13 explores the foods offered by each of the supplier categories. Notably, suppliers seem to be largely specialized, where only a very small percentage supplies food items in a given food group. Moreover, we observe some important differences between the food groups offered by different supplier categories. Naturally, producers/collectors are most likely to supply farm products such as eggs, fruits, vegetables, legumes, and poultry. Processors in our sample concentrate on supplying meat (49 percent) and poultry (20 percent), together with (probably animal-sourced) oils and fats. Wholesalers provide a more varied selection, although they seem to be an important source for dairy products (29 percent) and nuts and seeds (19 percent). The retailer plus category is perhaps the most balanced of the four groups, selling a bit of all 11 food groups enumerated. These data reflects the diversity and specialization of suppliers in the Viet Nam food environment, with specific types catering to particular market segments in their food offerings. Table 14 provides an overview of financial indicators and business practices across different supplier types. On average, 26 percent of the overall suppliers possess a tax registration number, which is higher than the rates found in the MSME survey (17 percent). Exclusive wholesalers seem to show the highest levels of formalization (44 percent), with producers/collectors showing the lowest (15 percent). Formal contracts with employees are relatively rare, at 14 percent overall, though again a much higher percentage of exclusive wholesalers report doing this (42 percent). In contrast to the data from the MSME survey (Table 7), the majority of suppliers keep financial records (57 percent) and a larger percentage relies on either formal (20 percent) or informal (14 percent) credit.Columns 6-9 of the table provide insights into the financial standing of businesses in the different supplier categories. The overall median revenue across all suppliers in our sample is 180 million dong, or approximately $7,380 per month. Exclusive wholesalers, however, are considerably larger in this regard, with median revenues more than twice that amount (at 416 million dong), with processors coming closely behind (300 million dong). These figures are lower among producer/collectors and retailers, but still larger than the businesses interviewed in the MSME survey in terms of revenue. In terms of profitability, we estimate that 78 percent of the overall suppliers were profitable in the month previous to the survey, with median profits across supplier categories ranging from 12 million dong (around $500), among \"retailers plus\", to 30 million dong (around $1250), among exclusive wholesalers. These figures are again higher than those found among businesses in the MSME survey (Table 8). Finally, during the supplier survey we asked the same questions as in the MSME survey regarding their interest to offer more nutritious foods to their clients. Column 1 in Table 15 shows that only about a quarter of the overall supplier sample showed any willingness to expand their SNFs offering, a much lower percentage than among outlets in the MSME survey (closer to 50 percent, see Table 11). Among suppliers, retailers (those closest to end consumers) show the largest interest in doing so (29 percent), followed by producers/collectors (20 percent), despite the latter selling mostly nutritious foods as seen in Table 13. Among those who are interested, the most significant challenge seems to be a perception of low demand, reported by 33 percent of suppliers overall. High prices and sourcing issues were also noted as secondary constraints by 19 percent of interested suppliers, and, notably, storage issues were mentioned by the few exclusive wholesalers interested in selling more SNFs. These findings indicate a sharp contrast between willingness to offer more nutritious foods between suppliers and MSME outlets, potentially due to having a higher degree of separation with end consumers, to having starker perceptions about a weaker demand for these products, or to being more aware of the specific storage or cold-chain challenges faced in providing these products. This is an interesting avenue for future research. This document presents the main findings from the MSME survey and the linked supplier survey conducted during 2023 in Viet Nam, as part of the WP2 activities for the SHiFT initiative. The MSME survey included a random sample of outlets in the food environment more likely to offer SNFs, while the supplier survey focused on suppliers of the same outlets interviewed during the MSME survey.For the purposes of the MSME survey analyses, we aggregate outlet types into four groups: Restaurants, coffee shops, stores, and vendors. Since vendors comprise almost two thirds of the outlets selling food in the selected wards, we conduct a K-means partition-clustering exercise to identify four distinct clusters: F&V vendors, meat vendors, packaged goods and beverages vendors, and others; in addition to a fifth group defined ad-hoc that includes all remaining vendors selling prepared foods. Overall, F&V vendors represent a large fraction (40 percent) of the vendors in the food environment (and almost 25 percent of the overall outlets), with prepared food vendors second in importance representing almost a quarter of the interviewed vendors.Overall, outlets in the Viet Nam food environment show low levels of formalization, financial skills, and credit use, though most outlets report being profitable. Despite the lack of formal credit use, however, we observe high rates of buying on credit from suppliers. Payment digitalization is relatively high among the MSME sample as well, and it may have increased since the survey took place given current trends. Outlets selling foods do not seem to be an important source of employment (with an average of around one employee per outlet, excluding owners) and youth employment is quite low and mostly associated to part-time jobs. This feature of the food environment is an important finding in relation to the broad CGIAR goal of promoting youth employment, as it does not appear such objectives can be achieved by focusing on MSMEs that face consumers alone, at least in Viet Nam.We also observe important differences between outlet groups in the MSME survey. Restaurants are larger in terms of revenues, show considerably higher levels of employment, and have owners that are mostly male and with a higher level of education. Vendors, representing the large majority of outlets offering foods, are considerably smaller (except for meat vendors, who are typically even larger than the average restaurant) and show lower levels of education and financial skills. Coffee shops and stores are somewhere in between these two extremes. In terms of the vendor clusters, F&V vendors are mostly female-owned, smaller, with lower levels of education and lower levels of formality. Meat vendors, in contrast, are much larger in terms of revenues, show higher levels of formality, use more credit (mostly informal), and seem to have better business skills.Importantly, we find nutritional knowledge to be low, especially among vendors, with a considerable fraction of respondents declaring not knowing what the inquired nutrients were. However, we find substantial interest in selling more nutritious foods to their customers, with little to no reported challenges for doing so. These findings open the door for potential interventions that target nutritional knowledge and encourage expanding the offer of more nutritious foods.The document concludes with the synthesis of key insights from the supplier survey, which complements the MSME survey by investigating suppliers to the MSMEs. Almost all the 268 enumerated suppliers from the survey self-identified as wholesalers, with a significant number also recognizing themselves as retailers. To better understand their roles, we redefined categories, distinguishing processors for their value addition and grouping the rest of the sample into producers/collectors, exclusive wholesalers, and retailer plus categories.We find substantial similarities between the suppliers and the outlets enumerated in the MSME survey, though suppliers tend to be larger and slightly more formalized on average. A large share of interviewed suppliers sell directly to consumers as well as to other businesses, and offer a large variety of different SNFs, though seem to be quite specialized. In terms of their financial skills, suppliers are much more likely than MSMEs to keep records and slightly more likely to be formal. Their revenues and profits are both larger as well. However, the survey also points to limited credit usage, indicating a potential area to strengthen supplier operations through, for instance, providing them with support in finding credit. Finally, and in contrast to MSME outlets, many suppliers declare not being interested in selling more SNFs, pointing at a perceived lack of demand and potentially sourcing and storage issues in doing so. This aspect of the value chain might represent a constraint for retailers willing to supply more SNFs ahead of potential interventions. ","tokenCount":"4753"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7ca2ff8b91e3d0fb015f43834c3f776a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/495b2f43-ae99-4547-9543-4cf4cda4c8b6/retrieve","id":"-739762885"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ffa59909-16ad-4ebf-b98e-50a6a0f6b02e","pagecount":"2","content":"• A PPP approach to overall project implementation • Applying PPP methods to provide demand-driven support services to project partners, farmers and seed enterprises • Capacity criteria for reference-based recruitment • Targeted technical and business training for the production, processing and marketing of seed • Identification of market opportunities, distribution outlets and B2B linkages • Continuous on-site support/mentoring.Networking and market linkages• Seed business entrepreneurs trained • Twenty companies that produce and sell forage seeds established• Ten successful and sustainable seed enterprises established• Large number of poor livestock keepers trained in seed and forage production• One business incubator created• Various PPP approaches piloted to start scaling up forage seed system models.Piloting climate-adaptive forage seed systems in Ethiopia • At least 100 additional seed businesses trained and mentored• At least 60 additional successful forage seed businesses established• At least 20 new or existing seed cooperatives producing seeds and forage seeds for their portfolio of crop seeds• By year five, at least 150 tonnes of forage seed per year produced by seed companies• At least 150,000 poor livestock-keeping households trained in seed and forage production• At least 100,000 poor livestock keepers having bought seed and produced forage• At least 1,250,000 livestock-keeping household members having provided their livestock with improved feed• Improvements in seed quality brought about by a certification program• At least 50% of livestock-keeping women trained in forage seed production and marketing.Pilot project outcomes so far:• Forage seed system/demand scoping study and policy brief prepared• Thirty seed entrepreneurs identified, trained and started forage seed production, processing and selling• Twelve enterprises sold ten varieties of improved forage seeds for USD 200,000 during 2014/2015• Training-of-trainers workshops provided to 153 extension experts who trained 2,000 development (extension) agents• A total of 5,000 farmers trained by project partners  ","tokenCount":"292"}

data/part_1/0186565976.json

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c5bb734033637293b94106fa810c3a21","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/a83dedb0-c271-49ae-87ea-7c9eb4199015/content","id":"890960200"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3f419317-46ca-4be8-9b71-be5b215a0957","pagecount":"53","content":"La publicacion de este documento foe financiado gracias al apoyo de la Secretaria General del PL-480 Titulo ill.Figura 1. Mapa del Departamento de Chuquisaca, Bolivia, mostrando las localidades donde se realiz6 el sondeo.Figura 2. Precipitaci6n mensual media en dos localidades del norte de Chuquisaca. (17 afios).Figura 3. Precipitaci6n total anual en Tarabuco en el periodo de 1975 a 1993Figura 4. Efecto de altitud sobre el nivel del mar, y el riesgo de heladas y sequia sobre los cultivos sembrados en el norte de Chuquisaca.Figura 5. Causas de! problema de erosion hidrica en las areas trigueras de las Provincias de Y amparaez y Zudafiez, Chuquisaca.Figura 6. Causas del problema de estres hidrico en el cultivo de trigo 28 en las Provincias de Y amparaez y Zudaiiez, Chuquisaca.Figura 7. Causas del problema de estres nutricional de! cultivo de trigo en las Provincias de Y amparaez y Zudafiez, Chuquisaca.Figura 8. Causas de! problema de baja poblaci6n de plantas en el cultivo de trigo en las Provincias de Y amparaez y Zudafiez, Chuquisaca.Figura 9. Causas bi6ticas del problema de dafio por helada en el cultivo de trigo en las Provincias de Y amparaez y Zudafiez, Chuquisaca.CHUQUISACA, BOLIVIA.En 1993 hubo 21.500 ha de trigo sembradas en el Departamento de Chuquisaca, lo cual dio una producci6n de 15.100 TM (INE, 1996). En los ultimos allos el Departamento ha sido el segundo en area sembrada y producci6n de trigo, superado solamente por el Departamento de Santa Cruz.El rendimiento promedio reflejado en los datos de producci6n de 1993, es de apenas 700 kg/ha. Esto demuestra que hay grandes Jimitaciones a la productividad, y sugiere que el impacto de la investigaci6n agricola no ha sido muy marcado.Es importante que los servic1os de investigaci6n agricola entiendan la problematica de! agricultor y definan cuales son los problemas que ofrecen oportunidades a la investigaci6n agricola. Aunque hay limitaciones politicas y sociol6gicas en la producci6n y productividad de! cultivo, estas no ofrecen oportunidades a los investigadores, aunque deberian tomarlos en cuenta en el analisis de tecnologias propuestas. En el caso especifico de limitaci6nes de indole politico, los investigadores pueden ayudar a resolverlos asegurando que la infonnaci6n de! impacto de estas limitaciones en la productividad de! trigo llegue a los encargados de la politica agricola.El Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo (CIMMYT) estableci6 un proyecto de agronomia de trigo a principios de 1994, con financiarniento de PL-480 Titulo 111/USAID-B. Ademas, durante 1994 se prepar6 un Plan Quinquenal de Producci6n de Trigo en Chuquisaca, el cual se inicio al final de! allo. Para asegurar el exito de estos dos proyectos, fue importante establecer los problemasl de los productores de trigo y las causas de estos problemas, detenninando las prioridades entre problemas y definiendo oportunidades para la investigaci6n y posibles soluciones a las problematicas prioritarias. Armados con esta informacion, los investigadores estaran en posicion de organizar un programa de investigacion eficiente.El sondeo se hizo durante el periodo de! 24 al 29 de abril, 1994, usando metodos establecidos de diagnostico rural rapido (Tripp y Woolley, 1989), para integrar conversaciones semi-estructuradas con productores, observaciones en el campo y revision de datos secundarios, para identificar los problemas principales limitando la productividad de! cultivo de trigo dentro de 1.1n concepto del sistema de produccion. El grupo de entrevistadores incluyo investigadores, transferencistas y estudiantes de! Programa de Cereales de IBTA, junto con dos investigadores de CIMMYT (Anexo 1).Por razones sociologicas, se decidio contactarse con los agricultores antes del sondeo para planear las entrevistas, y, debido a esto el Ing. Luis Zegada organizo con anterioridad las entrevistas con los dirigentes de los sindicatos en las diferentes comunidades. Se planeo tener una reunion con la comunidad en general, seguida por entrevistas a los agricultores en sus respectivos lotes.Informantes calificados proporcionaron la informacion basica para definir las areas para las encuestas. Aunque la Provincia Oropeza, alrededor de la ciudad de Sucre, tiene la mayor area sembrada al cultivo de trigo en el departamento, la mayoria del cultivo esta en parcelas muy pequeii.as y en condiciones precarias y dispersas. Basada en esta situacion se decidio confinar la encuesta a las Provincias de Y amparaez, Zudaii.ez y Tomina, las que siguen a la Provincia Oropeza en area de trigo sembrada, ademas de la Pampa Lequezana del Departamento de Potosi, colindante con el norte del Departamento de Chuquisaca. Al final se tuvieron que suspender las encuestas en la Provincia Tomina y en la Pampa Lequezana debido al bloqueo de caminos. Las entrevistas se realizaron en tres zonas del Departamento (Figura 1) en las siguientes comunidades y provincias: Cada dia se formaron tres o cuatro grupos ( dependiendo de! numero de entrevistadores ese dia) para entrevistar a los agricultores. Los grupos estaban compuestos de dos a tres personas y cada grupo us6 un listado de temas de una sola hoja para guiar sus conversaciones con los agricultores. Generalmente mientras una persona conversaba con el agricultor, la otra tomaba notas. Ademas se tomo nota de las caracteristicas principales de los lotes donde se hizo la entrevista (Anexo 3). Finalmente, se revisaba entre los entrevistadores que se hubieran cubierto todos los puntos, y se hicieron preguntas adicionales para aclarar alguna informacion donde fuera necesario. Las entrevistas se enfocaron en entender que factores motivan la toma de decisiones de! agricultor. Aunque el sondeo se enfoco mas hacia el cultivo de trigo, se pretendi6 cubrir todos los aspectos dentro de! sistema de producci6n que interactuan con este.En general se tuvo una entrevista con toda la comunidad, y luego se procedi6 a visitar algunos campos y a entrevistar a los productores. Debido al problema de! inminente bloqueo de carninos, se cancelaron las visitas a Tomina y a la Pampa Lequezana, y se adelanto la visita a la zona de Y amparaez. Como no estaban preparadas las visitas para ese dia, los grupos solamente entrevistaron agricultores que se encontraban en sus campos.Cada tarde despues de las entrevistas el grupo se reunio para discutir los resultados de las encuestas de! dia. Durante estas discusiones se preparo un resumen de las entrevistas. Ademas se identificaron las areas donde hubo necesidad de mayor conocimiento de los sistemas productivos de los agricultores y otros aspectos que necesitaban mas clarificaci6n. Estos puntos se enfatizaron en las encuestas de los siguientes dias. Finalmente se prepar6 un listado de los problemas identificados por los agricultores o los entrevistadores durante el dia. Este form6 la base para la discusi6n final de los problemas en el area triguera del Departamento de Chuquisaca.Los agricultores reportaron las unidades de peso en terminos locales 1 , las cuales fueron convertidas a unidades mas utilizadas por los investigadores. En el texto se ha mantenido el uso de la medida del quintal ( qq = I 00 libras = 45.4 kg.) dado su uso extensivo en la zona andina.Durante los tres dias se entrevistaron 3 8 agricultores. En cada lote se tomaron muestras de suelo para el analisis de las propiedades quimicas del terreno, ademas se hizo un estimado del rendimiento y se tom6 notas sobre variabilidad, pureza varietal, poblaci6n de plantas, y la pendiente del terreno.El clima de la zona es monz6nica seca a semiarida, con lluvias concentradas entre noviembre y marzo, periodo en el cual cae el 80% de la precipitaci6n anual (Figura 2). La precipitaci6n anual media en el area triguera es alrededor de 550 a 600 mm, aunque los ultimos aiios han sido relativamente secos (Figura 3).Los promedios mensuales de los principales datos meteorol6gicos de dos localidades representativas de la zona encuestada, Tarabuco y Redenci6n Pampa, se adjuntan en el Anexo 3. 300\"-+--+-+-t-+-+-+-+-t-+-+-+-+-t-+-+-+-+' 1975 1978 1981 1984 1987 1990 Ano Figura 3. Precipitaci6n total anual en Tarabuco en el periodo de 1975 a 1993 Sondeo de Prot!uctores de Trigo -Chuquisaca 7Segiln la clasificaci6n de la F AO, los suelos de la region son principalmente luvisoles cr6rnicos, con predorninio de litosoles. Los suelos de los valles son principalmente cambisoles. En grandes areas hay la presencia de un fragipan superficial (10-40 cm.). Segiln la clasificaci6n taxon6rnica de la USDA, los suelos son principalmente Typic ustorthents, ustochrepts y durustalfs.Durante el sondeo se tomaron muestras de suelo de los totes visitados para hacer el analisis quirnico y textural (Anexo 3). La gran mayoria de los suelos son francos y franco-arenosos, casi neutros, y generalmente con niveles muy bajos de materia orgilnica (media= 1.0%) y f6sforo (media = 4 ppm). Los niveles de potasio (media = 0.94 meq/lOOg) y calcio (media = 11.26 meq/1 OOg) fueron adecuados en todos los casos. En algunos suelos los niveles de magnesia fueron bajos ( < 0.5 meq) yen la mayoria de los suelos la relaci6n Ca:Mg fue muy amplia (media= 8.5).Los agricultores tenian multiples terrninos para describir sus suelos, complicando el entendirniento por el hecho de que algunos usaban terminologia quechua, y otros terrninologia castellana. Estos terminos se referian a la aptitud productiva de los terrenos, pero a texturas ligeramente diferentes en las diferentes zonas.Tu'u Jallpa = Arenoso -Francos -Limo -Arenoso Chuawa Jallpa = Limo arcilloso Huasa Toq'o = Franco -Arcilloso, limoso poca profundidad (Capa de Llink'i) Laka Jallpa = Franco -Arcilloso, limoso, profundo Sumaj Jallpa = Alli Jallpa = Barria! = Buena tierra, profunda, productora, negra (no necesariamente arcillosa) Llink'i T'uru = Fragipan = Arcilla dura = Barro de arcilla Chajhua Jallpa = Suelo ripioso, no cultivable Laja = Suelo con piedras grandes Yana Jallpa = Suelo negro Gredoso = ArcillosoUn aspecto importante en su pos1c10n: si el suelo se encuentra en una \"hondonada\", mantiene mas humedad, o en una \"Joma\", retiene menos humedad.El agricultor tiende a usar sus mejores suelos para la siembra de papa. Evita Jos suelos muy pesados ( arcillosos) y los suelos muy arenosos y \"amarillos\". El suelo preferido para la papa es el \"Barrial\". A pesar de esto, el pequeiio agricultor sin mucho terreno pone la papa en el suelo de que dispone, no importando la textura.Existe una tendencia en distribuir los cultivos entre los varios campos que puede tener el agricultor. No pone toda su papa ni todo su maiz en el mismo campo, aunque los confine a campos que tienen menor riesgo de heladas. Esta distribuci6n reduce el riesgo de heladas y granizo.El sistema de produccion Cultivos Los principales cultivos en las areas encuestadas son Papa, Maiz, Trigo y Cebada, aunque el orden de importancia de estos difiere de zona a zona. La precipitaci6n media anual es mayor de 500 mm en toda la zona, aunque este aiio ha sido muy seco, con una precipitaci6n total menor a 400 mm en muchas partes. A pesar de esto, es la precipitaci6n media, o esperada, (y el riego cuando hay disponibilidad) lo que define los cultivos que siembra un agricultor, asi que creemos que los patrones que se observan corresponden a condiciones normales y no a las de este aiio solamente.La importancia de los cultivos en las cuatro areas se presenta en el Cuadro 1. Ademas de los cuatro cultivos principales, se observaron areas pequeiias de haba, quinua y arveja. Los cambios en la importancia de los cultivos observados entre agricultores y localidades dentro de estas areas fueron resumidos segiin las condiciones climaticas y geograficas. Un diagrama de este resumen aparece en la Figura 4. Cuadro 1. Orden de importancia de los cuatro cultivos principales en cuatro areas de Chuquisaca.  Ademits de las condiciones fisiognificas y climitticas, la presencia de proyectos de fomento u organizacion en las areas tiene un efecto sobre los patrones de cultivo. La preponderancia de cebada en Tarabuco parece estar mas asociada a un programa de fomento de la Cerveceria Boliviana Nacional (CBN) que de las condiciones climitticas en si. En otras areas, por ejemplo la Pampa Lupiara en el mismo Canton Tarabuco y no muy alejado de la pampa de Tarabuco, donde hay tambien riesgo de heladas, el trigo es el cultivo principal debido a que la Cerveceria no extendio agresivamente su programa a esta area, y que ACLO, una ONG, tiene un programa de apoyo para la produccion de semilla de trigo para Santa Cruz. Dado que los dos cereales, trigo y cebada, producen bien en la zona alta, futuros cambios en la estructura de precios, y credito efectivo ( semilla, fertilizante, etc.) proveido . por los programas de apoyo, tendril un efecto muy grande sobre la distribucion e importancia relativa de los dos cultivos.El area de papa que siembra el agricultor depende de su disponibilidad de capital, y sus apreciaciones sobre como van a ser las lluvias del ciclo. Si el ciclo empieza seco, reducen su siembra de papa, debido a que su inversion en este cultivo es mayor.Ademits de los cultivos principales existen areas menores de otros cultivos para el consumo de la familia. Estas incluyen haba, quinua, arveja, otros tuberculos, y, en la zona alta, maiz (es un cultivo principal en la zona baja).El Destino del Producto El destino prioritario de la cosecha de todos los cultivos es siempre para autoconsumo, seguido por la retenci6n de semilla, y la venta de! excedente. El autoconsumo de cebada es la pequeiia cantidad que asignan los agricultores para la alimentaci6n de sus animales. La cantidad de un cultivo vendido depende de la cantidad sembrada y cosechada pudiendo exceder a la cantidad consumida por la familia. Aim asi, la prioridad de! agricultor es de cubrir primero sus necesidades de consumo, y s61o vender el excedente.En Pampa Lupiara y Trigo Loma (Redenci6n Pampa) los agricultores manifestaron que venden el excedente de su cebada a la CBN, aunque no estan dentro de su programa.Los agricultores de Pampa Lupiara que siembran trigo para la producci6n de semilla para Santa Cruz, siembran tambien pequefias areas de las variedades tradicionales (con la calidad deseada) para cubrir sus necesidades de consumo y paja para forraje.Aunque el agricultor piensa rotar sus cultivos en un campo, no parece una rotaci6n fija, y las decisiones de distribuci6n de los cultivos se toman cada afio dependiendo en sus apreciaciones de c6mo va a ser el ciclo de lluvias, su disponibilidad de capital, y, en menor grado, de la cantidad de la cosecha que tiene almacenada del afio anterior.La papa tiende a ser la \"cabeza de la rotaci6n\", y los insumos, especialmente fertilizante, son aplicados preferentemente a este cultivo. A pesar de esto, norrnalmente la papa esta sembrada en un area mucho menor que la que se asigna a los cereales, asi que la rotaci6n es complicada. El agricultor describe sus rotaciones como si la papa ocupara una proporci6n de terreno igual a la de los otros cultivos, lo cual deja la impresi6n de que el area sembrada con papa es mayor de lo que es en realidad.Despues de sembrar la papa en un campo existe la tendencia (en varios casos) de seguir con cereal es hasta que \"no se dan\", regresando a papa o descanso cuando los cereales han aprovechado toda la fertilidad residual de! cultivo de la papa. La practica de dejar en descanso el terreno tambien se esta disminuyendo debido a la presi6n causada por el minifundio. Algunos agricultores manifestaron que solamente las personas con mas de 10 ha pueden ten er terreno en descanso. Animal es En general los agricultores dicen que sus animales mas importantes son las ovejas, seguidos de los bovinos (normalmente bueyes), burros, cerdos y aves. En dos comunidades los bovinos son los mas importantes para los agricultores porque se quedan en la finca durante todo el afio, y su estiercol queda disponible para los cultivos. En la mayoria de los otros casos, los bueyes son llevados al monte, a estancias alejadas de la finca, donde hay alimentaci6n, pero donde no se puede aprovechar el estiercol.Los cerdos y aves son de importancia secundaria, pero importantes dentro de! sistema porque consumen cebada.Hay una tendencia a la reducci6n de los animales, especialmente los de tracci6n y carga, reemplazandolos por tractores y carniones. Ademils por los largos aiios de sequia se estil reduciendo el numero de animales ( especialmente ovinos) por falta de area de pastoreo y forraje.Todo el estiercol es aplicado a la papa, excepto por pequefias cantidades que se aplican a otros tuberculos y el haba. Eventualmente, puede \"sobrar\" un poco de estiercol en algunos afios en la zona baja, y en ese caso lo aplican al maiz.En promedio, los agricultores aplican alrededor de 7.500 kg/ha de estiercol a la papa, aunque hubo un rango amplio en los niveles aplicados, desde 500 kg/ha hasta 15. 000 kg/ha. La mayoria de los agricultores manifestaron que la cantidad de estiercol que tienen no es suficiente. Algunos compran estiercol si es que pueden, y la mayoria lo mezclan con abono quimico. No se capt6 informaci6n sobre la cantidad de fertilizante quimico que se usa en todas las areas, pero fue notoria la diferencia en uso entre diferentes areas. En el area de Pampa Yampara y Pampa Lupiara, 85% de los agricultores mezclaron abono quirnico con el estiercol, y aplican en promedio de 87-100-2 (N-P 2 0 5 -K20 kg/ha) mientras queen Redenci6n Pampa y Yacambe este afio un 38% de los agricultores utilizaron, en promedio, 27-31-0, aunque la mayoria de los agricultores dicen que aplican abono quimico a la papa cuando pueden.La paja de la cebada es mas palatable para los animales, asi que cuando guardan forraje para sus propios animales, los agricultores guardan preferentemente paja de cebada. En la Provincia de Y amparaez hay una demanda para la compra de paja, y los compradores pagan igual para trigo y para cebada, asi que los vendedores venden primero el trigo y guardan la cebada para sus animales. El mercado de forraje es para las explotaciones lecheras de Y otala, donde se mezcla la paja de trigo o cebada con otros forrajes.La paja de cebada se destina enteramente para forraje, la cual es utilizada dentro de la finca o vendida. En cambio la paja de trigo se usa principalmente para forraje ( consumo y venta), pero tambien para adobe y techado, y cama para los animales en el corral. En solo dos casos, los agricultores regresaban el rastrojo al campo en una especie de compost.En la region de Redenci6n Pampa la mayoria de los agricultores dejan la paja en la era, donde los animales la pueden comer, utilizando lo que sobra de los animales para otros fines.El rastrojo que queda en el campo es pastoreado por las ovejas. Por observaci6n, estos pastorean preferentemente la carretilla (Medicago spp ). Segtin los agricultores, luego comen la hoja caida de trigo o cebada, y finalmente, si no hay otra cosa, comen la base de los tallos.Hay muy pocas diferencias entre el manejo del trigo y el manejo de la cebada. En la mayoria de las localidades la unica diferencia es en la fecha de siembra, dado que la cebada se siembra mas tarde que el trigo. Ademas, en Y acambe y Pampa Lupiara donde se fertiliza el trigo, no se fertiliza la cebada.En el Canton Tarabuco los productores no hacen una preparacion del suelo para el trigo o la cebada. Siembran al voleo sobre la superficie sin labrar y luego tapan con una rastreadora. En el canton Y amparaez la metodologia es similar aunque varios agricultores usan la \"melgueada'', donde marcan el campo en franjas antes de la siembra o despues de la tapada, usando el arado y haciendo surcos especiales de 0. 8 a 1. 2 m. Las razones para la melgueada no son claras, y diferentes agricultores dan diferentes razones, incluyendo:-A yuda para distribuir la semilla Drenaje y control de erosion Captacion de agua, etc.En contraste con el resto de! Canton, en la comunidad de Alcantari del Canton Y amparaez, se acostumbra una preparacion de la tierra con una pasada de! arado. No se logro entender porque se labra mas el suelo en esta localidad.En el Canton Mojocoya, normalmente se labra mas el suelo que en las otras localidades. Solamente en la comunidad La Poza se encontro que despues del cultivo de la papa el agricultor no prepara el suelo. En todas las otras situaciones el agricultor usa una rastreada (yunta o tractor) o una cruzada de yunta antes de sembrar. De nuevo, algunos agricultores melguean antes de la siembra y algunos despues de la tapada. Ahi tambien los agricultores mencionan que cuando hay un problema de malezas gramineas (grama = Cynodon dactylon, o pasto blanco = Pennisetum villosum), hacen mas labranzas antes de la siembra. Como hubo en general mas incidencia de infestaciones de gramineas en Mojocoya que en los otros Cantones visitados, esto podria explicar las diferencias en labranza.Hay pocos tractores en la region, pero existe un incremento en la demanda de ellos. Los factores que inciden en si un agricultor usa o no un tractor son:-El suelo no es muy pedregoso Hay dinero disponible Hay tractor disponible La pendiente no es exagerada Variedades Trigo El listado de las variedades encontradas se muestra en el Cuadro 2, junto con una indicaci6n de su frecuencia en las diferentes areas visitadas. Es de interes notar que no se encontraron trigos duros (T. durum) en esta parte de Chuquisaca, en contraste con Cochabamba. De estas variedades, Saguayo, Tarata 80, Chane, Redenci6n y Agua Dulce son (en orden de lanzamiento) variedades semienanas \"modemas\". Las otras variedades son tradicionales y altas, generalmente de procedencia desconocida.Es evidente en el Cuadro 2 que existen diferencias en la adopci6n de variedades nuevas en las diferentes areas. Mientras que en Laja, Pampa Lupiara y, a menor grado, Redenci6n Pampa las variedades nuevas son las mas importantes, en las otras areas de Tarabuco y Y amparaez no han incursionado variedades \"modemas\".Hubo una gran diferencia en las variedades de cebada sembradas en la Provincia de Y amparaez y las sembradas en la zona de Redenci6n Pampa (donde no hay mucha cebada). En Yamparaez la gran mayoria de los agricultores siembran Zapata o IBTA 80 (tambien conocida como Grignon por los productores, el nombre original de la variedad en Francia, y el nombre que fue utilizado en Peru). Solo dos agricultores siembran una variedad criolla, la cual debe ser susceptible a roya amarilla, y no es aceptada por la Cerveceria. En Redenci6n Pampa se siembra San Benito, y una buena proporci6n de la variedad criolla distica llamada Cebada Negra o Grano Negro. Esta se usa solamente para forraje. Cantidad de Semilla En todas las areas encuestadas (menos las comunidades de Pampa Yampara, Quirawani y Alcantari) los agricultores siembran 2 qq/ha, tanto de trigo como de cebada. En las tres comunidades diferentes mencionadas, por alguna raz6n hay una variabilidad grande en la cantidad de semilla utilizttda desde 0.5 qq/ha hasta 4 qq/ha. Ninguno de los 4 agricultores en estas comunidades siembran una cantidad parecida a 2 qq/ha. A pesar de discutir mucho este punto con estos agricultores, no fue posible entender porque en esta zona las densidades de siembra son tan diferentes en comparaci6n con otras regiones, aunque aseguran que sus densidades de siembra son adecuadas (hasta el punto de apostar con los investigadores que su metodo saldra mejor que una parcela sembrada por los tecnicos con la densidad recomendada!).Todos los agricultores siembran el trigo y la cebada al voleo.En general los agricultores guardan y usan su propia semilla, tanto de trigo como de cebada.En Tarabuco, antes la Cerveceria daba la semilla, pero ahora han dejado esta practica. Dada la sequia este ailo, varies agricultores manifestaron que este ailo la Cerveceria va a tener que proporcionarles la semilla de nuevo, porque muches agricultores no van a cosechar ni lo que invirtieron como semilla.Las ONG en la zona han jugado un papel importante en la diseminaci6n de las nuevas variedades. En Yacarnbe (Mojocoya), Agua Dulce y Chane fueron traidas por CARITAS y Redenci6n por PROAGRO. A la vez, en Pampa Lupiara, la semilla•de Agua Dulce provino de ACLO, quien organiza a los agricultores en la producci6n de semilla para Santa Cruz.Los niveles de fertilizaci6n en trigo difieren entre comunidades y parece ser que esto se debe tambien a la influencia de las ONG trabajando en la zona, e, inicialmente por lo menos, en el apoyo y credito que dan. Toda la fertilizaci6n se realiza al voleo en el memento de la siembra.En la provincia de Yamparaez, nadie fertiliza el trigo (ni la cebada) excepto por los agricultores de Pampa Lupiara que trabajan con ACLO y producen semilla para Santa Cruz, quienes usan 2 qq/ha de 18-46-0 y 1 qq/ha de urea. Este nivel de fertilizaci6n ( 41-46-0) esta muy cerca a la recomendaci6n general del Programa de Trigo de IBT A de 40-40-0.En las tres comunidades entrevistadas en Redenci6n Pampa, muy pocos agricultores fertilizan el trigo, aunque algunos dijeron que si el ciclo de lluvias empieza bien, entonces si fertilizan. En cambio en Y acambe, una comunidad bien organizada, hay una historia de mucha fertilizaci6n al trigo. El numero de agricultores que fertilizan el trigo ha ido disminuyendo con los ailos de sequia. Hace cinco ailos, 80 familias fertilizaron su trigo mientras que este ailo solamente 15 familias fertilizaron su trigo con solo 21-23-0, (I Sondeo de Prot!uctorea de Trigo -Chuauiaaca qq de 18-46-0, y 0.5 qq de urea). En general, Ia comunidad dijo que cuando tienen plata y llueve bien, fertilizan.Las principales malezas encontradas en las varias zonas estan listadas en la Tabla 3. Estas malezas no necesariamente son problemas para la producci6n de Ios cereales de grano pequeiio, pero fueron evidentes al final del ciclo. En general, no hubo muchos problemas con malezas en los campos visitados aunque no se sabe si esto se debe a poblaciones bajas de malezas o a un control eficiente.La carretilla (Medicago spp.) tambien ocurre en la mayoria de las zonas, pero no parece competir con el trigo, y mas bien parece el alimento preferido por las ovejas.El control de malezas es principalmente en forma manual en la Provincia de Yamparaez. En la zona de Tarabuco, dos agricultores habian aplicado 2,4-D para el control de malezas de hoja ancha. Manifestaron que usan control manual a menos que el campo esta plagado de malezas, y estas van ganando al cultivo. En es ta situaci6n si aplican herbicida. De los productores de semilla en Pampa Lupiara, tres usaron herbicida ( 40 ml. 2, 4-D en 20 1 de agua) y tres usaron control manual. En Redenci6n Pampa y Yacambe, a diferencia de Tarabuco y Pampa Lupiara la mayoria de los agricultores usan 2, 4-D para el control de malezas si hay humedad, aunque algunos hacen un control manual y aprovechan la maleza para alimentaci6n animal. Enfennedades La evaluaci6n de enfermedades en campo fue dificil ya que la gran mayoria de los campos visitados habian alcanzado madurez fisiol6gica. Este afio bubo poca infestaci6n de enfermedades de trigo o cebada posiblemente asociado con la baja precipitaci6n. En Tarabuco y Y amparaez, la roya amarilla (Puccinia Striiformis) es la enfermedad mas comun en trigo, aunque parece que el nivel de dafio no llega a ser importante. Los agricultores de Mishka Mayu reportan una nueva enfermedad que no conocen. Es posible que esta sea Septoria que fue importante en ensayos de trigo en Tarabuco este afio. En Redenci6n Pampa, a menor altitud, existe mas roya de la hoja ( especialmente en Chane) y los agricultores reportaron roya del tallo pero solamente en Totora 80 y en otros afios. Los encuestadores no podrian averiguar en que etapa del ciclo el cultivo muestra infecci6n ni la importancia de este en reducir el rendimiento.En Pampa Lupiara y Tarabuco hay una nueva enfermedad de la cebada (ch' ejchi = mancha de la hoja). Hasta el momenta no se sabe que es pero muestras enviadas a San Benito no permitieron una identificaci6n positiva.Ningun agricultor usa control quimico de enfermedades.En general no se reportaron muchos problemas con insectos en cereales menores en las areas encuestada. En la zona alta (Yamparaez, Tarabuco) hay problemas muy ocasionales con pulgones, y a veces con gusanos que comen el grano y tallo.Los problemas son mayores en la zona baja (Mojocoya). Hay mayor incidencia de pulgones, y este aiio un agricultor los contro16 con Curacron. Tambien hay problemas con La k'ato (gallina ciega) y Juth'us Khuru (Spodoptera sp. ), y ocasionalmente con langostas.La cosecha de trigo y cebada es toda manual. Se cosecha I hectarea con aproximadamente I 0 dias-persona.La trilla es principalmente en la era, afuera del campo, con caballos o con tractor. Generalmente se trillan lotes pequeiios con caballos y lotes grandes con tractores. Para trillar el trigo de I ha se necesitan 8-10 caballos-dia y 8-10 personas-dia, mientras que el tractor cuesta Bs. 60-70/ha 2 . Un tractor puede trillar I hectarea en I a I. 5 horas.Hay una trilladora en Trigo Loma y otra en Redenci6n Pampa. Los agricultores prefieren la trilladora por su velocidad (limpia el grano ), aunque existen unas pocas maquinas, no abastecen a la demanda para su uso.Cada dia se hizo una lista de problemas y la fuente de informacion que se uso parra incluir el factor como un problema. Al final de las encuestas se juntaron las listas de los tres dias (Cuadro 4) y se calificaron cada uno de los problemas en base a la proporcion de! area de! norte de Chuquisaca afectada por el problema, la frecuencia en aiios que el problema se presenta y su efecto sabre la productividad. Todos los problemas analizados fueron del tipo que afecta la productividad del cultivo en lugar de aquellos que afectan la eficiencia de los recursos invertidos en ello. Obviamente, los valores de area, frecuencia y efecto sabre rendimiento son estimados, basados en la experiencia de! grupo.Cuadro 4. Listado de los problemas encontrados en el norte de! Departamento de Chuquisaca, y las fuentes de informacion que se uso para su definicion. A base de los valores estimados de area, frecuencia y efectos sabre productividad, se calculo un valor de Perdida de Productividad (Sub-) Departamental Anual (PPDA) (Cuadro 5) que se uso para priorizar los problemas donde el valor mas alto de PPDA indica mayor prioridad. Despues de calcular los PPDA, el grupo formulo diagrarnas de flujo con las causas de! problema para cinco de los seis problemas mas importantes: (Figuras 5 a 9).No se hizo un anitlisis de las causas de la mancha foliar en la cebada dado que todavia no esta identificado el agente causal.Es evidente en las Figuras 5 a 9 el alto grade de interligacion entre los problemas, especialmente los tres problemas principales de erosion hidrica, I Sondeo de Prod11ctores de Trigo -Ch11quisaca 25 estres hidrico y estres nutricional. Obviamente los primeros dos de estos estan muy relacionados, dado que el agua que no entra al suelo es perdida para el cultivo, incrementando la frecuencia y severidad de sequia, y a la vez, esta agua escurre, causando Ia erosion hidrica. Igualmente en la preparaci6n de las Figuras se ha usado el protocolo mostrado abajo para distinguir entre problema y causas. Con frecuencia se encuentra que las causas de diferentes problemas son comunes, y en este caso se indica esto en la figura ( caja rayada) y solamente se demuestra todas las causas secundarias de esto en la primera figura donde ocurre. Tambien se demuestra sombreado las causas que el grupo marc6 como oportunidades para investigaci6n.  La etapa final de esta parte inicial de! diagn6stico continuo en el norte de Chuquisaca es un analisis a las posibles soluciones de las causas de los problemas principales, seguido por una planificaci6n de las acciones, tanto de investigaci6n como de transferencia de tecnologia, que el Programa de Trigo y Cereales Menores (PTCM) debe seguir para proveer soluciones adecuadas a los problemas. Este analisis de las posibles soluciones se hizo con los integrantes del PTCM en julio de 1994, para planificar las actividades para el ciclo 1994/95. A pesar de esto, los analisis presentados tambien deben formar la base para futuras actividades de planificaci6n.En el Cuadro 6 se demuestran las principales causas de los problemas prioritarios, que a la vez ofrecen oportunidades para la investigaci6n agricola, junto con sus posibles soluciones. A las posibles solucitmes se les ha agregado una prioridad basado en la importancia del problema que causan, y la probabilidad de exito de afectar la productividad de! cultivo, quitando esa causa especifica del problema o problemas. Las decisiones sobre la conformaci6n del programa de investigaci6n fueron tomadas basadas en estas prioridades y en la division disciplinaria del grupo de investigadores.Sondeo de Productores de Trigo -Chuguuaca 31 Cuadro 6. Causas de las principales problemas que limitan la productividad de! cultivo de trigo en el norte de Chuquisaca. Las causas listadas pro vi en en de las Figuras 5 a 9, y son I onnrtunidad.es rui.ra la investieaci6n amco a.Posible Solucion Surcado eo direcci6n de la Cuantificar efectos de sembrar con surcos en el contomo, y nendieote demostrar beoeficios Siembra en pendientes sin fuvestigar los beneficios econ6micos de terrazas de fonnaci6n estructuras para controlar lenta, incluyendo el uso de barreras vivas y cultivos en franjas el escurrimiento Remoci6n de residues Investigar efectos de regresar residues al campo despues de la vegetates de! campo cosecha Prornover la oferta del servicio de cosecha con cosechadoras combinadas en areas relativamente planas.Evaluar especies altemativas para forraje, con alta forraies alternatives oroductividad v meior calidad aue la ..,;a de trigo Falla de equipos Conseguir y probar pequeilos equipos (tracci6n animal y adecuados para la siembra motriz) para la siembra directa. directa Falla de ruptura de Labrar la superficie de! suelo durante el inviemo para romper capilaridad de! suelo la capilaridad. (Ojo. El grupo decidi6 que esto no seria recomeodable debido al riesgo de erosion e6lica.) Riesgo asociado con el uso Ideotificar factores que puedeo reducir el riesgo de! uso de de fertiliz.antes quimicos fertiliz.antes, y recomendar Ideotificar niveles de fertilizaci6n auimica mas seguros.Evaluar los beoeficios de rotaciones que incluyan cereales y leonm;nosas en la rotaci6n le011m1nosas. Competencia con malezas Buscar altemativas reotables y eficaces para controlar las nrinci..,les malezas Deficiente metodo de tape Ideotificar mejores metodos de siembra y tape (Ligado con de la sernilla siembra directa v manutenci6n de residuos) Sernilla de baja calidad Demostrar el beoeficio de una buena poblaci6n de plantas. Promover el uso de sernilla de meior calidad Falla de variedades Buscar variedades precoces con resisteocia a eofermedades y precoces con calidad buena calidad.   ","tokenCount":"5659"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"9ce78768478bc429e458094908a57980","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0bc4f68b-2f6f-4e36-8afa-fb1ff435361f/retrieve","id":"-1002931843"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f7ce64c2-d760-4404-88ca-71ece78042c6","pagecount":"25","content":"Biodiversity is essential to food security and nutrition locally and globally. By reviewing the global state of edible plants and highlighting key neglected and underutilized species (NUS), we attempt to unlock plant food resources and explore the role of fungi, which along with the wealth of traditional knowledge about their uses and practices, could help support sustainable agriculture while ensuring better protection of the environment and the continued delivery of its ecosystem services. This work will inform a wide range of user communities, including scientists, conservation and development organizations, policymakers, and the public of the importance of biodiversity beyond mainstream crops.As the world's population is expected to reach 10 billion by 2050, humanity is increasingly facing a double burden of malnutrition, comprising of a shortage of calories (hunger) at one end of the spectrum and excess at the other one (obesity; Abarca-Gómez et al., 2017;Alexandratos & Bruinsma, 2012;FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP, & WHO, 2019). Addressing these challenges will require an increase of food production globally, which cannot be achieved by simply expanding industrial agriculture through land conversion to the detriment of the surrounding environment and already declining biodiversity (Jacobsen, Sørensen, Pedersen, & Weiner, 2013;Padulosi, Heywood, Hunter, & Jarvis, 2011;Sunderland, 2011), and a shift to healthier diets (Abarca-Gómez et al., 2017;FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP, & WHO, 2019). In addition, around 36% (by calorific value) of arable crops such as wheat, maize, and sorghum are consumed by livestock and this requires one-third of the total area currently utilized for arable farming (Cassidy, West, Gerber, & Foley, 2013;Herrero et al., 2013). Overall, 26% (3.4 billion ha) and 4% (0.5 billion ha) of the Earth's ice-free surface is used for livestock grazing and livestock feed production, respectively (Foley et al., 2011). This is a complex situation, as there is a need to ensure the sustainable production of safe and nutritious food, while protecting biodiversity, to allow the delivery of other goods and ecosystem services, which are directly and indirectly critical for human well-being. Furthermore, it is necessary to facilitate societal adaptation to climate-driven environmental changes that can disrupt food production and people's livelihoods (Alae-Carew et al., 2020;FAO, 2019;Jacobsen et al., 2013).Of the thousands of plant species that have been cultivated since agriculture began around 12,000 years ago, only about 200 have been extensively domesticated, leading to dependence on a narrow range of genetic diversity of crops (Meyer, Duval, & Jensen, 2012;Vaughan, Balazs, & Heslop-Harrison, 2007). Together, wheat, rice, and maize alone provide almost half of the world's food calorie intake, making our food supply extremely vulnerable (Reeves, Thomas, & Ramsay, 2016). Plant-breeding programs narrowed the focus to large-seeded, high-yielding varieties of crops (Gruber, 2017), whose global production intensified (higher yield by unit of land area) during the Green Revolution of the 1960s-1980s. This period of crop intensification was also aided by developments in the use of chemical fertilizers, irrigation techniques, and pesticides (Pingali, 2012). Although the intensification of agriculture led to reduced pressure on natural ecosystems (Godfray et al., 2010;Green, Cornell, Scharlemann, & Balmford, 2005), it created multiple unintended environmental consequences such as water pollution, soil degradation, agrochemical runoff, increased susceptibility to pests and diseases, and biodiversity loss (Pingali, 2012). Crop intensification also decreased dietary diversity along with food cultures, and many traditional crops that were important sources of critical micronutrients (such as iron, provitamin A, and zinc) for poor communities were lost (Webb & Eiselen, 2009). However, there is now increasing recognition given to the importance of biodiversity for food and nutrition security, local livelihoods, and sustainable development (Bala, Hoeschle-Zeledon, Swaminathan, & Frison, 2006;FAO, 2019). Consequently, the benefits of using underutilized traditional crops, and exploring more sustainable production methods to grow mainstream crops, are being widely promoted (FAO & WHO, 2018).Neglected and underutilized species (NUS) include wild, domesticated, or semi-domesticated plants, whose potential to improve people's livelihoods, as well as food security and sovereignty, is not fully realized because of their limited competitiveness with commodity crops in mainstream agriculture. Nevertheless, they are locally important to people and often adapted to unique climatic and environmental conditions (Padulosi et al., 2011). Bringing NUS into mainstream agriculture could strengthen the resilience and sustainability of food production systems (FAO, 2018;Padulosi, Cawthorn, et al., 2019;Raneri, Padulosi, Meldrum, & King, 2019). In addition, NUS often provide benefits beyond food, by virtue of being multipurpose. For instance, they often yield other useful products such as timber, fibers, or medicines, and contribute to safeguarding biocultural diversity (Cámara-Leret et al., 2019). Increasing the inherent value of wild species as NUS and the ecosystem services that native species can provide to surrounding environments (such as food sources for pollinators and birds, maintenance of water supply and soils, and control of pests and diseases), will support biodiversity protection and provide cultural services (Díaz et al., 2020). Many Funding information the Swedish Research Council; the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research; the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation ex situ. However, at least 11% of those species recorded are threatened. We highlight multipurpose NUS of plants from different regions of the world, which could be key for a more resilient, sustainable, biodiverse, and community participation-driven new \"green revolution.\" Furthermore, we explore how fungi could diversify and increase the nutritional value of our diets. NUS, along with the wealth of traditional knowledge about their uses and practices, offer a largely untapped resource to support food security and sustainable agriculture. However, for these natural resources to be unlocked, enhanced collaboration among stakeholders is vital.crops, ex situ conservation, fungi, livelihoods, minor crops, neglected and underutilized species, plant diversity, sustainable agriculture NUS are referred to as \"minor\" or \"orphan\" crops because of their limited role in larger agricultural production systems and have been \"neglected\" by agricultural researchers, plant breeders, and policymakers alike. Some have been major crops in the past, but are now displaced by modern commercial varieties and this is especially the case for many millets (which is a common term for a group of cereals in the Panicodeae and Chlorideae grass subfamilies) and less wellknown pulses such as lablab (Reed & Ryan, 2019). Many of these varieties and species, along with a wealth of traditional knowledge about their use and cultivation, are being lost at an alarming rate (Díaz et al., 2020). Access to NUS is also important because domesticated legumes (Fernández-Marín et al., 2014), cereals (Hebelstrup, 2017), other crops that contribute to food security (Tamrat et al., 2020), and fungi (Stojković et al., 2013) can vary in their nutritional, antioxidant, and other chemical content. This has potential implications for human health, which could be positive or negative, as for example on the diversity of the human intestinal microbiome (e.g., Albenberg & Wu, 2014).As global biodiversity is rapidly declining, limiting our possibilities of finding new food sources (Díaz et al., 2020), and considering that most analyses lack information on the entire spectrum of food resources consumed across the world, an assessment of their current distribution and conservation status to inform science-based policy making has become urgent. In addition, the adverse impacts of climate change on biodiversity, agricultural production, and food security have made the conservation of food diversity and associated traditional knowledge a global priority (Corlett, 2016;Maxted, Ford-Lloyd, Jury, Kell, & Scholten, 2006;Vincent et al., 2013). Finally, as intact habitats come under pressure from the increased demand for cropland worldwide (Tilman et al., 2017), ex situ plant conservation measures need accelerating (Larkin, Jacobi, Hipp, & Kramer, 2016), as promoted in the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 2.5 (https://susta inabl edeve lopme nt.un.org/).In this article, we (a) consider the global state of edible plants, their taxonomic diversity, uses, distribution, and conservation status; and (b) explore untapped plant and fungi resources, by reviewing the role of multipurpose NUS that could be adopted as potential future food crops under a changing climate.To assess the global diversity of edible plants we used the \"World Checklist of Useful Plant Species\" data set, produced by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Diazgranados et al., 2020). This data set includes 40,292 species with at least a documented human use and was redacted by compiling plant uses and reconciling species names using the taxonomic backbone of Kew's Plants of the World Online portal (http://www.plant softh eworl donli ne.org/) from 13 large datasets, listed in Diazgranados et al. (2020). Species with \"human food\" use in this list were extracted and analyzed in this review as \"edible plants.\" Crop wild relatives, although included in the list and analyzed in this review, were not treated separately, as several studies are already available on their richness, global distribution, and conservation, for example in Castañeda-Álvarez et al. (2016) and Milla (2020). Species from Diazgranados et al. (2020) that were also listed in Annex 5 of FAO (2015) were identified as \"major food crops\" in this review. Plant uses were classified according to the Level 1 of Uses of the Economic Botany Data Collection Standard (Cook, 1995), simplified to 10 categories, as in Diazgranados et al. (2020).Depending on authority, the total number of edible plants in the world varies from 100s (Van Wyk, 2019) to >30,000 plants, including infraspecific taxa (French, 2019). These differences in numbers are based on multiple factors, such as taxonomic rank (e.g., counting infraspecific taxa), accuracy (e.g., using reconciled taxonomy), and precision (e.g., using a unique taxonomic backbone), as well as the types of consumers and their diets. For example, using a conservative approach based on reported uses, RBG Kew has recorded to date 7,039 edible species, in a broad taxonomic sense, from 288 families and 2,319 genera, including 7,030 edible species of Bryophyta, Chlorophyta, Rhodophyta, and Tracheophyta (Diazgranados et al., 2020). Many more edible species are expected to be identified in the future, as under-documented regions, for example, tropical America and New Guinea, are better characterized (Cámara-Leret & Dennehy, 2019;Cámara-Leret, Paniagua-Zambrana, Balslev, & Macía, 2014). Recognizing variation within species (subspecies, landraces, etc.) is equally important. While Brassica oleracea is known to cover nine crops, the level of plant diversity in use can be obscured by the widespread use of a common name (e.g., \"beans\" apply to at least 17 genera, 30 species, and thousands of varieties).Vascular plants (Tracheophyta) are the most important for human food, encompassing 272 families, 2,300 genera, and 7,014 known species, that is, 2.0% of the total angiosperm species diversity (347,298 accepted species;WCVP, 2020). Sixty percent of the vascular plant families include edible species, covering almost all the major phylogenetic clades (Figure 1). The most diverse orders are Fabales (640 edible species), Malpighiales (550), Sapindales (465), Gentianales (444), and Rosales (395). The richest families (see Figure S1) are Fabaceae (i.e., beans, 625 edible species), Arecaceae (palms, 325), Poaceae (grasses and includes cereals, 314), Malvaceae (mallow family, includes cacao, okra and durian, 257), and Asteraceae (sunflower and lettuce families, 251). With at least 100 edible species, Ficus (figs) is the richest genus, followed by Diospyros (52), Solanum (51), Garcinia (48), and Grewia (46). Most of the edible plants (97%) correspond to flowering plants, with 245 families, 2,235 genera, and 6,828 species. However, there is substantial variation in the proportion of edible plants among non-flowering plant groups, for example, 0.5% (six species) of Lycopodiopsida, 1.0% (109 species) of Polypodiopsida, 3.9% (13 species) of cycads, 7.5% (47 species) of Pinopsida, 8.9% (10 species) of Gnetopsida, and 100% (one species) of ginkgo.To understand the taxonomic distribution of intensively used food plants, we mapped the major food crop species listed by the FAO (2015) onto the phylogeny (Figure 1). Only 417 (5.9%) of edible plant species from Diazgranados et al. (2020) or simply because it was not needed (e.g., high abundance of mangrove trees in the Rhizophoraceae, which provide food among other uses, may be sufficient for the local demand). Some families, such as Acanthaceae and Phyllanthaceae, have a few species under cultivation but these are not used as food (e.g., as ornamental plants).Lastly, 77 plant families have one or two edible species which are not crops.Edible plants often have additional uses, which may differ in the world as part of the existing cultural diversity. The most frequent use is medicines (70% of species), followed by materials (59%), environmental uses (40%), gene sources (i.e., wild relatives of major crops which may possess traits associated to biotic or abiotic resistance and therefore be valuable for breeding programs; Cook, 1995;32%), and animal food (30%; Figure 2a). The same general trend F I G U R E 1 Phylogenetic distribution of edible plants from Diazgranados et al. (2020), and major food crops also listed in FAO (2015). A phylogeny of 448 vascular plant families was derived from the Spermatophyta supertree inferred from sequence data of 79,881 species by Smith and Brown (2018) by keeping one representative species per plant family. Presence/absence of edible plants and major food crops per family was drawn at the tips of the phylogeny using the R-package GGTREE (Yu, Smith, Zhu, Guan, & Lam, 2017). The rectangles at the tips of the phylogeny denote the presence of human food plants (orange) and major food crops (brown) in each family. Major plant clades are color-coded, except for clades with just a few families, indicated with numbers: 1. Chloranthales (1 family); 2. Ceratophyllales (1); 3. Proteales (4), Trochodendrales (1), Buxales (1) and Gunnerales (2); 4. Dilleniales (1 fam.); and 5. Berberidopsidales (2). Please see Figure S1 in the Supporting Information for the detailed tree with the names in the tips for all families was identified for species of major crops, with 83% also reported as \"medicinal,\" and with \"gene source\" having higher weight (70%) than in the full list of edible plants (Figure 2b). The link between food and medicine is well documented (e.g., Iwu, 2016), and already demonstrated for plant-rich diets, such as the traditional Mediterranean diet (Willett et al., 1995). Livestock and wild animals can also make use of the medicinal properties of plants to improve or maintain their health, for example, to control internal parasites (Villalba & Provenza, 2007;Villalba, Provenza, K Clemensen, Larsen, & Juhnke, 2011). Indeed, the boundaries between foods, including functional foods, medicine, and nutraceuticals are often blurred, attributed to certain phytochemicals in edible plants that have mechanistic effects relevant to human health, independent of fundamental nutrition (Howes, 2018b;Howes et al., 2020;Paradee et al., 2019).Certain edible plants and their constituents are associated with a reduced risk of some diseases. For example, there has been interest in the role of cruciferous vegetables and turmeric (Curcuma longa) to reduce cancer risk (Howes, 2018a), while Perilla frutescens nutlets have been evaluated to provide protection against oxidative stress in some hepatic disorders (Paradee et al., 2019). This concept extends to livestock and there is emerging evidence that the phytochemical composition of animal feed can enhance meat and dairy products, which may reduce the incidence of some diseases in humans (Provenza, Kronberg, & Gregorini, 2019).We found the native distribution of the large array of edible plant species documented in Diazgranados et al. (2020) to exhibit a clear latitudinal gradient, with food plant species richness decreasing from low to high latitudes (Figure 3a), similarly to general patterns in total plant diversity (Kier et al., 2009). Although a major hotspot of plant species richness, tropical Americas is under-represented in terms The native distribution of some of the major food crop plant species from FAO (2015; Figure 3b) generally maps over Vavilov's centers of diversity (Vavilov, Vavylov, Vavílov, & Dorofeev, 1992), that is, the Mediterranean, Middle East, and Central Asia (for wheat, lentils, peas, artichokes, apples), Ethiopia/Eritrea highlands (for teff, Arabica coffee, enset), India (for aubergines, pigeon pea, mangoes), East Asia (for soybean, Asian rice, oranges, peaches), Mesoamerica, and the Andes (for maize, chillies, common bean, tomatoes, potatoes). However, there is a relatively low species richness in major food crops from the Malay Archipelago and high edible species richness from parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. Additional centers of origin have been proposed in recent years based on new archaeological evidence, such as West Africa for pearl millet and cowpea and Eastern Sahel for sorghum (Fuller et al., 2014;Harlan, 1971;Purugganan & Fuller, 2009).There is a geographical spectrum to food plant domestication, with total food plant richness mostly in the tropics and major domestication events more scattered at mid-latitudes, following a global pattern associated with environmental and historical factors (Diamond, 2002). The proportion of highly domesticated species increases from species-rich, forested, warm, and wet areas to drier climates, rugged terrains (i.e., mountainous areas exhibiting high heterogeneity in environmental conditions), and large human settlements developing agriculture (Lev-Yadun, Gopher, & Abbo, 2000;Meyer et al., 2012;Vavilov et al., 1992). In contrast,  2020) and (b) species of major food crops also listed in FAO (2015). The dendrogram represents a hierarchical clustering of the uses: clustered uses indicate closer proportion pattern, using the Euclidian distance for building the distance matrix and the \"Complete-linkage\" method for the hierarchical aggregation of the dendrogram wild, species-poor, cold, and flat areas of high latitudes contain few highly domesticated plants. However, humans are now changing these spatial patterns in food supply, demand, and cultivation by homogenizing the distribution of both agro-biodiversity and biodiversity in general (Baiser, Olden, Record, Lockwood, & McKinney, 2012;Khoury et al., 2014).Understanding better the global distribution of edible plants offers an opportunity to identify future crops that are better adapted to present and future climatic conditions, and whose plant material is locally accessible. This could improve food security by increasing the cultivation of \"climate smart\" crops with fit-for-purpose seed lots (Castillo-Lorenzo, Pritchard, Finch-Savage, & Seal, 2019) that will produce food despite changing growing conditions (Borrell et al., 2020;Díaz et al., 2019;Pironon et al., 2019).Previous studies on the comprehensiveness of the conservation of useful plants have highlighted that they are currently highly underconserved, both ex situ and in situ (Castañeda-Álvarez et al., 2016;Fielder et al., 2015;Khoury et al., 2019). However, when the collections housed in botanic gardens are included, we find a substantial representation of edible plant species conserved ex situ worldwide (Table 1). These results were achieved thanks to the joint efforts of the international CGIAR genebanks (https://www. cgiar.org/), botanic gardens (https://www.bgci.org/), and international plant conservation networks, such as Kew's Millennium Seed Bank Partnership (Liu, Breman, Cossu, & Kenney, 2018). However, some food species might be missing from ex situ collections due to incomplete data sets, geographic rarity, and having recalcitrant (i.e., desiccation sensitive) seeds, such as some tropical fruit trees (Li & Pritchard, 2009) and some priority crops on Annex 1 of the \"International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture\" (FAO, 2009). More work is also needed to understand and evaluate the functional and genetic diversity of ex situ collections, their potential for reintroduction efforts (Hay & Probert, 2013) and adaptability to future climate change (Borrell et al., 2020;Fernández-Pascual, Mattana, & Pritchard, 2019).The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List (IUCN, 2020) includes species-level global conservation assessments for at least 2,108 (30%) edible species listed in Diazgranados et al. (2020) and 1,811 of these (86%) are conserved ex situ (Table 2).Although most species (78%) are identified as Least Concern, at least F I G U R E 3 (a) Global species richness per country of 6,959 out of the 7,039 edible species from Diazgranados et al. (2020). (b) Global species richness per country of 171 out of the 417 major food crops also listed in FAO (2015). While edible species richness decreases with increasing latitude, high richness in major food crops is mainly found in centers of domestication at mid-latitudes. Maps include species for which an IPNI ID (https://www.ipni.org/), as well as countries and sub-countries distribution data from the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCVP, 2020), were available 234 species (11%) are considered at risk of extinction (i.e., extinct in the wild; critically endangered; endangered; or vulnerable). The Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) ThreatSearch database (https://tools.bgci.org/threat_search.php) lists conservation assessments at global, regional, and national level for at least 3,893 (55%) of the species in our list, with most species (76%) identified as \"Not Threatened\" (Figure 4). Many major food crop species are widespread; therefore, it is likely that their extinction risk will be relatively low. Nonetheless, specific plant populations, including landraces, which may have unique climatic and environmental tolerances, and upon which human communities may depend, might still be threatened. Therefore, future conservation priorities should reflect assessments at the global level, and, for narrow distributed species, at the national level (Forest et al., 2018;Liu, Kenney, Breman, & Cossu, 2019).Beyond habitat destruction, many NUS are at risk of disappearing because of changing cultural views and lack of documentation (National Research Council, 2008). Promoting their role in food security calls for coordinated approaches across plant science and food systems, from local to international levels (Baldermann et al., 2016), as actively promoted since 1988 by the International Centre for Underutilized Crops (Tchoundjeu & Atangana, 2006). However, consolidated attention to NUS has really only emerged in the last decade, as the fight against climate change and the need to make agricultural production systems more diverse and environment resilient has accelerated (see Table S1 for a selection of projects/initiatives). The same trend is also evident for the limited pool of human and animal food crops, for which the challenges of feeding a growing population with a limited pool of crops have been highlighted (Lee, 2018;Lee, Davis, Chagunda, & Manning, 2017).There are many incentives and subsidies that tie countries into the production of major crops (Hunter et al., 2019;Noorani, Bazile, Diulgheroff, Kahane, & Nono-Womdim, 2015) and which potentially hinder conservation efforts (Kahane et al., 2013). Addressing NUS conservation and their sustainable production is critically important if they are to compete in the marketplaces dominated by a few commodity crops. An integrated conservation approach combines ex situ, in situ and on farm methods and ensures the effective maintenance and use of genetic diversity, the knowledge associated with this diversity and its transmission to future generations (Padulosi, Bergamini, & Lawrence, 2012). The primary challenge is the prioritization of model species for impact, to make the best use of limited resources. Species selection should be driven by shared priorities in terms of nutrition, climate adaptation, income generation, cultural   (FAO, 2018). This bottom-up approach will help develop innovative methods and tools of wide applicability that could be applied to other NUS. Success and failures in promoting \"new\" crops can be found across many regions, for example the effective establishment of lupin cultivation in Australia (Nelson & Hawthorne, 2000), or the negative social and environmental impact in the Andes caused by the quinoa boom (McDonell, 2018). To strengthen the self-sufficiency of food and production systems in terms of climate resilience, agroecological benefits (e.g., soil improvers and species' enhancers), food and nutrition security (e.g., species and varieties that build resilient, more nutritious and healthy diets), and income generation (e.g., diversity to build economic resilience), there is a need for both sustainable promotion and integrated conservation. Sustainable promotion makes diversity a central feature of the food system (at both intra-and inter-specific levels), thereby potentially avoiding what has happened in the Andes with quinoa, where global demand is being met by a few mainstream varieties, while hundreds of others are being marginalized (Zimmerer & Carney, 2019). Low levels of funding for the promotion of NUS, like yams, amaranth, Bambara groundnut, or African leafy vegetables, represents a major challenge for most countries interested in their promotion. Economic incentives and subsidies to private companies for producing local crops or certification schemes to recognize biodiversity-rich products, should be actively pursued and include the establishment of an international \"NUS Fund\" specifically dedicated to supporting their development (Padulosi, Cawthorn, et al., 2019).It is with this vision in mind that we provide a selection of highly promising NUS of plants (wild, domesticated, or semi-domesticated) from different regions of the world (Table 3), which have been targeted by major projects, international agencies (Table S1) and researchers (references in Table 3). We highlighted (in bold text in Table 3) those which are not currently listed as major food crops by the FAO (2015), for example, the mesquites in the Americas, morama bean in Africa, Akkoub in Asia, rocket in Europe and Pindan walnut in Oceania (Table 3).In addition, considering the differences in nutritional properties of the organ types (Guil-Guerrero & Torija-Isasa, 2002), we also reported the edible parts of each species. When comparing the taxa listed in Table 3 with those reported by Diazgranados et al. (2020), we found an average of five uses recorded per taxa, and a peak of 24 taxa with seven uses (Figure S2). Examples of NUS with many uses include the baobab in Africa, which is known as the \"tree of life,\" whose leaves, flowers, fruit pulp, and seeds are used as food and to make beverages; the bark, roots, and seeds are medicinal; the bark is used for making rope, roofing material and clothing; and the hard husk of the fruit is used as calabash (Chadare, Linnemann, Hounhouigan, Nout, & Van Boekel, 2008;National Research Council, 2008;Ngwako, Mogotsi, Sacande, Ulian, Davis, et al., 2019). The taro, originally from Asia and also cultivated in Oceania, has edible leaves, flowers, and roots; the roots are also medicinal and used as an additive to render plastics biodegradable (Arora, 2014;Linden, 1996).Therefore, NUS of plants, as well as many edible species of fungi (see Box 1), represent potentially low-hanging fruit for a more resilient, sustainable, biodiverse, and community participation-driven new \"green revolution,\" equitable and fair to the environment and all members of society.In the coming century, major challenges to agriculture and biodiversity will be dominated by increased climate variation. Hence, research needs to increase our knowledge on the biology and ecology of many NUS to be able to synthesize the future impact of climate F I G U R E 4 Conservation status for 3,893 edible plant species from Diazgranados et al. (2020), according to the BGCI ThreatSearch database (https://tools.bgci.org/threat_search. php). One assessment per species was selected, giving priority to the most recent assessment with highest risk. Records without an assessment year were excluded TA B L E 3 Selection of neglected and underutilized plants (NUS) that have been recommended in scientific papers or targeted by collaborative projects, networks or international agencies. Species in bold are not listed in FAO (2015). Scientific names are ordered alphabetically and according to Kew's Plants of the World Online portal (http://www.plant softh eworl donli ne.org).  ported that iron levels in beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) decreased, while levels of protein, zinc, lead, and phytic acid increased. This study also revealed that bean nutritional quality and yields were reduced under future predicted drought conditions, leading the authors to conclude, with supportive data from crop modeling, that current bean growing areas in south-eastern Africa could become unsuitable by 2050. Given the predicted impact of future drought conditions on crops and, as 66% of people live with severe water scarcity for at least one month of the year and humans use 70% of available fresh water for agricultural purposes, the monitoring of water irrigation systems is a recommended strategy to help conserve water (Green et al., 2018).Although future drought conditions have been suggested to increase protein levels in the legume species P. vulgaris (Hummel et al., 2018), in contrast, increased CO 2 levels were found to reduce protein levels and increase omega-3 fatty acid levels in mung bean (Vigna mungo; Ziska, Epstein, & Schlesinger, 2009). Environmental factors may also impact on the nutritional quality of edible nuts, including almonds, pistachios, and walnuts. For example, in 29 different cultivars, protein, phytosterol, and mineral content were affected, suggesting that climate change may also compromise  (Dong, Gruda, Lam, Li, & Duan, 2018). Furthermore, flavonol and anthocyanin levels in fruits may be increased by changes in expression of hydroxylases in response to environmental conditions, including water deficits and UVB radiation (Martínez-Lüscher et al., 2014).The impact of emerging environmental stresses on biologically active chemicals of edible plants is important from the perspective of human health. For instance, extreme environmental conditions (late season cultivation) have been shown to increase phenolic and vitamin C content in some broccoli cultivars (Vallejo, Tomas-Barberan, & García-Viguera, 2003). Higher CO 2 levels also increased vitamin C and antioxidant capacity in lettuce, celery, and Chinese cabbage, although other nutrients (micro-and macro-) decreased (Leisner, 2020). Thus, certain phytochemicals relevant to health in crop plants may be positively influenced by environmental changes, while levels of some essential macro-and micro-nutrients may be negatively affected. In view of the emerging research that suggests that certain environmental factors could negatively impact on the nutritional quality of food, the potential consequences for human health in the long-term are concerning, particularly against the backdrop of the global scale of malnutrition, which includes protein-energy, vitamin and mineral deficiencies (De Onis, Monteiro,Beyond the few species that are used in biotechnology for the production of pharmaceuticals, industrial enzymes and plastics (Howes et al., 2020;Prescott et al., 2018), the vast majority of fungi are underutilized. However, those in mainstream agriculture have an estimated annual market value of more than US$62 billion by 2023 (Knowledge Sourcing Intelligence LLP, 2017). As edible fungi are sources of fiber, selenium, potassium, copper, zinc, B group vitamins, and are one of the only non-animal sources of dietary forms of vitamin D, a deficiency of which is a risk factor for rickets in children (World Health Organization, 2019), the potential future use of neglected fungi is considerable. Indeed, during their growth stage and post-harvest, mushrooms exposed to sunlight or controlled levels of UV radiation had increased concentrations of vitamin D 2 (Cardwell, Bornman, James, & Black, 2018). The impact of UV radiation on the vitamin D content of mushrooms could be evaluated further as a strategy to enhance availability of dietary vitamin D, especially in regions where rickets or osteomalacia are health risks.Around 2% of fungi form mutualistic mycorrhizal relationships with plants (Suz et al., 2018). Within these mutualistic relationships, the plant provides sugars in exchange for minerals and nutrients from the fungus. While some mycorrhizal fungi are often the most desirable fungi for consumption, they elude efforts, with a few exceptions, to be cultivated commercially (Boa, 2004). These desirable mycorrhizal species are instead foraged from the wild, based on distinct cultural practices. However, it is unknown if the impact of foraging on wild populations can be sustained into the future, where harvesting is likely to increase. Currently of concern is the Kalahari truffle (Kalaharituber pfeilii), which is sold in local markets in southern Africa, with a rapidly increasing commercial harvesting (Mogotsi, Tiroesele, et al. (2019) and references therein). In contrast, saprotrophic fungi are well suited to commercial myco-culture, and up to 200 species are known to be cultivated around the world. Over 85% of cultivated mushroom species belong to just five genera: Agaricus (button, portobello, and chestnut mushrooms), Lentinula (shiitake), Pleurotus (oyster mushrooms), Auricularia (jelly and wood ear fungi), and Flammulina (Enokitake; Royse, Baars, & Tan, 2017).The cultivation of fungi represents an opportunity to develop valuable new crops that require low resource inputs, create little waste (SureHarvest, 2017), are sustainable, and can be tailored to local cultural preferences. Cultivation can be at the domestic and community level (Martínez-Carrera et al., 1998) and has the potential to be scaled up commercially (Zhang, Geng, Shen, Wang, & Dai, 2014).Importantly, new species are being brought into cultivation (Rizal et al., 2016;Thongklang, Sysouphanthong, Callac, & Hyde, 2014) and these have economic potential beyond the value of a few internationally grown strains (Hyde et al., 2019). For example, within the genus Termitomyces, species such as T. microcarpus and T. clypeatus are consumed across Africa and Asia (Boa, 2004) and bringing species from this genus into cultivation could be a desirable cash crop for local communities. Myco-agriculture is most diverse in China, with over 100 species of the 1,789 reported edible species already in cultivation and around 60% in commercial production (Fang et al., 2018;Zhang et al., 2014).Finally, mycorrhizal fungal associations can also improve the nutritional quality of the edible parts of plant crops. For instance, mycorrhizal fungi inoculation of strawberries can increase the levels of anthocyanins and phenolic compounds, and in tomatoes can increase the levels of P, N, and Cu and flavour compounds (Torres, Antolín, & Goicoechea, 2018). More research is needed to understand the promising role that mycorrhizal fungi play in the nutritional value of edible plants, including NUS, particularly in the context of strategies to produce nutritious crops in a changing climate.Akré , & Glugston, 1993;Green et al., 2018; https://www.who.int/ news-room/fact-sheet s/detai l/malnu trition). While biofortification could be one approach to mitigate the impact of climatic changes on food nutritional status (Green et al., 2018), more extensive scrutiny of the nutritional quality of crops, including NUS, in the context of predicted environmental challenges, should be aligned with other strategies for food security. In circumstances where saccharide levels increase in edible species in response to climate factors (Dong et al., 2018), the consequences should be considered in the context of providing energy as a source of calories in both undernutrition (such as in wasting and being underweight) and obesity, with the latter associated with increased risk of certain non-communicable diseases (https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheet s/detai l/malnu trition).Potential strategies to ameliorate the effects of climate change on food security in the future include greater understanding of the global distribution of edible plants and by creating more diverse and climate-resilient agricultural production systems (see Table S1). In addition, improved knowledge of naturally stress-resistant plants and their broader cultivation would enable agriculture, and the human diet, to be diversified as one strategy for global food security in the changing environment (Zhang, Li, & Zhu, 2018), especially when aligned with methods to maintain the genetic diversity of crops (e.g., seed banking; Borrell et al., 2020). More research on elucidating the genes and processes that underlay the mechanisms for climate-resilience of edible species could also underpin future strategies to mitigate environmental challenges that threaten food security (Dhankher & Foyer, 2018). Indeed, a multi-faceted approach integrating physiology, genomics, and climate modeling has been proposed as important to develop a sustainable future food supply considering global climate change (Leisner, 2020).To address the impact of climate change on nutritional security in the future, a model has been described (Fanzo, Davis, McLaren, & Choufani, 2018) to increase net nutrition in the food chain under climate change. This model encompasses agriculture practices to cultivate improved varieties, and new production locations to minimize loss of biodiversity, through to processing, distribution, marketing (including promotion of food benefits), and consumption strategies to maximize nutrition availability for vulnerable groups. A positive correlation between high agricultural diversity and high nutrient production, irrespective of farm cultivation size, has been suggested from global examination of food commodities (Herrero et al., 2017), indicating that one strategy to protect availability of nutrients may be through promoting agricultural diversity, and therefore, dietary range to support health.Emerging evidence shows climate change impacts not only on food quality, nutrition, safety (Borrell et al., 2020), and cost, but also on the ability to transport food from \"farm to fork,\" thus, for many communities, restricting their access to an adequate dietary range (Fanzo et al., 2018). These factors combined will limit the availability of nutrients with potentially serious consequences for the health of humanity.In this article, we provide an overview of the global state of edible plants, highlighting their diversity, and distribution among vascular plant families from around the world. We emphasize that this diversity stands in striking contrast with the few hundred food crops, originating from main domestication centers, that mainstream agriculture currently relies on. By integrating the other uses, we also highlight the additional ecosystem services these plants provide that are important for people's livelihoods and wellbeing (Díaz et al., 2020). While more work is needed to assess the actual conservation status of edible plants, ex situ conservation (and particularly seed banking) is already playing an important role in preserving them. However, information on the functional and genetic diversity of stored seed collections is limited and alternative ex situ conservation approaches, such as cryopreservation, need to be developed for those species with non-bankable seeds (Li & Pritchard, 2009).We highlight key NUS of edible plants with the potential to improve the quality, resilience, and self-sufficiency of food production, while deploying a more sustainable local food supply. We also consider the importance of fungi, which could enhance the nutritional value of foods, through the provision of beneficial vitamins and minerals, and which have potential to be developed into valuable and sustainable crops.However, before NUS can become successful crops of the future, many knowledge gaps need to be filled relating to their biology and ecology. In addition, research efforts are needed on understanding the impacts of climate change on NUS, to enable the development of effective and sustainable agricultural practices for future climate conditions (Turner et al., 2011;Ulian, Pritchard, Cockel, & Mattana, 2019). Although methods and tools developed by farmers and researchers for the cultivation of major crops can be easily adapted to improve the cultivation of NUS, these should be integrated with local traditional knowledge on uses and practices to help protect the environment and promote the conservation of biodiversity (Casas et al., 2016;Horlings & Marsden, 2011;Patel, Sharma, & Singh, 2020). To further aid the development of NUS as future crops, research programs need to be strengthened and the necessary research infrastructure put in place, including addressing shortages in relevant fields (FAO, 2019). This will require improved mechanisms for exchanging information rapidly and effectively, as well as increased awareness of the importance of crop diversity among and between stakeholder groups. One way this could be achieved is through participatory decision-making processes (Padulosi et al., 2011) and by putting in place effective legal and policy frameworks (FAO, 2019;Noorani et al., 2015) that are accompanied by economic incentives and subsidies to support the development of NUS (Padulosi, Cawthorn, et al., 2019).Biodiversity offers a largely untapped resource to support our planet and improve our lives and has the potential to \"end hunger, achieve food security and improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture,\" as articulated in the UN SDG 2, through the development of climate-resilient crops and the more widespread use of localized crop species (Antonelli, Smith, & Simmonds, 2019), such as the NUS plants highlighted in this article. However, in order for these natural resources to be unlocked, strengthening, and developing collaborations between producers, researchers, local communities, NGOs, \"influencers,\" media, and governments are key factors for success.The authors and trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and ","tokenCount":"6368"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"88241aa80f3a4f244820ff296fce2c94","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1be5b670-941b-4e52-ad90-16d8f21a1a73/retrieve","id":"-527861080"},"keywords":["Tanzania","experiment","nutrient management","tillage","maize","yields"],"sieverID":"51db1633-049a-4f98-88a2-39fa71b595e1","pagecount":"15","content":"The Crop Nutrient Gaps project (full title: Bringing Climate Smart Agriculture practices to scale: assessing their contributions to narrow nutrient and yield gaps) is funded by CGIAR-CCAFS (Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security), Wageningen University & Research, the International Fertilizer Association (IFA) and Yara (in-kind), and also collaborates with CIMMYT and University of Nebraska-Lincoln. It runs from 2016-2019.Large parts of land suitable for agriculture in Tanzania are currently not under cultivation, presenting both threats and opportunities. In places where agriculture is practised, yields are low because of low fertility, low use of costly inputs and unpredictable weather (very narrow planting window). As a result, actual farmers' yields are usually 20% or less than what is the potential under rain fed conditions (www.yieldgap.org). A field experiment was set-up addressing the farmers' dilemma by introducing demonstration on reduced tillage, and proper, efficient fertilization. Visits for farmers and stakeholders were organised.The objective of the (large-scale) experiment is to test crop nutrition and tillage practices in maize and their potential to close the yield gap and analyse nutrient use efficiencies and other agro-environmental aspects (e.g. GHG emissions), and to use it as demonstration and discussion object.The experimental location is on the Ilula Orphan Program (IOP)'s Farm, Ilula, Iringa Region, in Tanzania (7°38'51.4\"S 36°04'05.0\"E) (Fig. 1). IOP is a non-governmental organization in Tanzania dealing with impact mitigation to: 1) determine the root cause and help to uproot the most vulnerable children (orphans from extremely poor families, children from poor single mothers or single fathers); 2) empower the elderly; 3) empower young mothers and the youth through training. IOP owns a modern commercial farm, named Farm for the Future Tanzania Ltd (FFF) that started operation in 2018, which is also used to as a training centre. It is a registered Farm aimed to generate income, empower single mothers through training (socio-economic and agriculture) and encourage school children (kindergarten all the way to secondary school) to develop love for the agriculture by providing visits and activities that will stimulate them to grow with a positive image of this number 1 employer in Tanzania. This trial experiment is part of the FFF. Four nutrient management options were combined with two tillage options, resulting in a total of eight different treatments (Table 1). The trial has a split-plot design with tillage as main plots and the four fertilizer treatments as split plots (Fig. 2). There are four replications of each treatment with a plot size of 10.4 m by 10.8 m (16 rows at 65 cm, and 36 planting holes placed at 30 cm apart, resulting in a plant density of 5.13 plants/m 2 ). Net plot (harvesting) size is 9.75 m x 10.5 m, equivalent to 102.375 m 2 . Liming was not required since former soil analysis shows an average pH of 5.5 (4.6-6.3). Yw is the water-limited potential yield, and is estimated as 7.0 t/ha, the yield target is 70% of Yw which is 4.9 t/ha (85% dry matter).Fig. 2 Trial set-up and treatments. CT = conventional tillage, RT = reduced tillage, F1 -F4 are the fertilizer treatments (see Table 1)The fertilizer treatments include a control treatment (F1) without any fertilizer application, which is required to assess crop response to fertilizer application and to calculate fertilizer use efficiency. The unfertilized control is also close to prevailing farmer practice in the region in particular if formerly barren land is cultivated for the first season as it was in this case. The F2 and F3 treatments supply N, P, and K at a rate that could accommodate NPK uptake of maize at 70% of its water-limited yield potential identified for the site at IOP Farm. Based on the GYGA and expert judgement the water-limited yield potential was estimated at 7 t maize grain per ha (at 85% dry matter), i.e. resulting in a target yield of 4.9 t/ha maize yield. We assumed 20 kg N uptake per t of grain, which resulted in 98 kg N/ha application rate (see Table 1). P and K rates were determined by the N-P-K ratio of the recommended fertilizer product YaraMila Cereal (used in F3). The F3 treatment investigates the potential benefit of applying the additional plant nutrients sulphur (S), magnesium (Mg) and zinc (Zn), knowing from previous soil analysis that these nutrients are frequently in deficiency. This treatment also represents the current Yara recommendation for maize grown in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. The fourth fertilizer treatment (F4) includes the use of organic material (composted manure) assuming to replace 50% of the mineral fertilizer.All fertilizer treatments were combined with two different tillage practices, (1) conventional (CT) and (2) reduced tillage (RT). Conventional tillage represents common farmer's practice. At IOP Farm this means using a disc plough on the whole field. Reduced (or conservational) tillage means for this experiment using a ripper instead of a disc plough and ploughing only the planting lines, leaving the remainder of the field untouched. This minimizes soil exposed to the vagaries of weather (reduces erosion), minimizes destruction of soil flora and fauna (hence encouraging a richer biodiversity). It ensures exact placement of fertilizer (in the furrow), and hence better use of the fertilizer by the plant, leading to, presumably, bigger harvests. It reduces the use of fossil fuel, hence a cleaner environment and cheaper farming operations (fewer runs than when whole field is tilled). Ripping results into better water harvesting and storage due to least soil exposure (no inversion/turning of the soil) and the deep strips that are formed collect and store more water. In the long run, this might enable minimum use of herbicides and tillage.At the start of the experiment soil samples were taken (32 samples at 0-20 cm; 32 at 20-40 cm).Afterwards land preparation (tillage), trial set up, seeding, herbicide application, application of well decomposed manure and fertilizer and trial fencing out activities were done.In a second stage of the experiment the following management activities were performed: weeding, fertilizer top dressing, herbicide application.In a third stage of the experiment the following management activities were performed: foliar top dressing, pesticide application, leaf sampling (32 samples).Finally, the maize plants in the trial experiment were harvested and soil samples (32 samples at 0-20 cm) were taken.  Reduced tillage (RT) resulted on average in a 11% higher yield compared to conventional tillage (CT), but this difference was not significant (P=0.38). However, there were significant differences between the fertilizer treatments. If no fertilizer was added (F1) this resulted in the lowest yields, while the highest yields were obtained with the addition of NPK to target 70% of Yw (both the treatment with (F3) and without micronutrients (F2)).CT-F3 RT-F4Fig. 4 Photos from some of the different experimental treatments during the growing season. See Table 1 for explanation on the treatments.Overall, the lowest maize yield was obtained under conventional tillage without fertilizer application (CT-F1), and the highest with reduced tillage and NPK fertilizer to target 70% of Yw and the addition of micronutrients (RT-F3) (Fig. 5). Interestingly, reduced tillage resulted in an increase of almost 2 tonnes per ha when no fertiliser was applied (F1). Reduced tillage did not significantly increase maize yield when fertiliser was applied (F2 to F4)The amount of fertilizer applied was aimed to target 70% of Yw, but in all cases it resulted in yields which were higher than the target, and in several cases ca. 100% of Yw was reached (Fig. 5). One reason for the higher yields than expected could be the well distributed and sufficiently high precipitation during the growing season.A more detailed evaluation of the data will follow when lab analyses and further information (e.g. on applied organic material) are available. The experiment is repeated (with addition of one extra fertiliser treatment) in 2019.dashed line indicates the estimated water-limited potential yield, and the red continuous line is 70% of the water-limited yield.Combining Commercial farming and Training is a completely new approach in Tanzania. Involving children is very much hailed by the regional authorities as the right way forward. The experiment at the IOP farm supports creating a knowledge base on nutrient management and tillage options to improve maize yields.A number of field visits by farmers were organised to the experiment in 2018. Village leaders were requested to come with at least 20 farmers each, divided equally between male and female (it actually meant 10 household members, a man and his wife to consolidate learning) to an inaugural meeting where they were introduced to the IOP and Farm for the Future philosophy, then to the tillage-fertilizer Visitors unanimously agreed F1 (Control) gave the worst performance in both treatments followed by F2 in Conventional Tillage OR followed by F4 in the Conservation tillage system. The best performance came from F3 (in Conv. Tillage sometimes in both tillage systems) OR F4, mainly in Conservation tillage.On 28 May 2018 the Tanzania Uhuru Torch made a stop at the trial, to recognize the importance of the training tool for farmers. During this festive day, Village leaders, Region and District level leaders, large and influential farmers as well as single mother young farmers were in attendance. The young single mothers offered the explanation of what was happening and made up their fertilizer regime of their choice, which was undoubtedly F4 followed by F3. This was recorded and broadcast for all Tanzanians to see. This year farmers are also attending to the trial and there will be a jointly (SUA_WU_Yara_FFF) organized Farmer's Field Day around 3 May (date to be confirmed in the near future). Additionally, the Uhuru Torch will make a stop at the main FFF cultivated field (some 210 odd hectares) to view what happens when a full fertilization is accorded to a crop. ","tokenCount":"1607"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6aa3d0d070f96eef6195b3ec2590de85","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/6553c87d-bfc0-45c2-84b5-84d1562f0c9e/content","id":"-914563091"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"bd8c54c7-5d5b-4ad8-a054-0b89639c1a1d","pagecount":"8","content":"This brief is based on a value chain survey carried out on the maize and legume seed sectors in Tanzania. The results showed that the majority of maize farmers in the surveyed districts are still using recycled seed. An important development is that the seed sector has opened up in recent years and there is growing private sector participation. Nevertheless, inefficient supply chains and low purchasing power were the two main challenges of seed markets in Tanzania. In the long-term, increasing the supply of these key inputs through greater participation of the private sector players is important. Second, strengthening the role of the public sector by focusing on the issues of sector governance, training, and research and foundation seed production will be crucial for success. On farmers' weak purchasing power, a strong credit system is inevitable. Innovations to deliver such credit to smallholder farmers are needed.The smallholder sector remains largely a low technology and subsistence affair. To increase production, incomes, and employment opportunities, Tanzania's smallholder farmers need to address these issues to move from subsistence to more commercially oriented farming. Noteworthy is that smallholder sector is the backbone of maize production and constituted 95 percent of maize producers on 3 million hectares (ha). Yet yields are generally low at 1.2 tons/ha on an average farm size of 0.7 ha. Comparatively, on the larger farms, yields (estimated at 5.5 tons/ha) are nearly five times those on smallholder farms. Legumes are an important category of crops in Tanzania. Pigeonpea in particular is growing in importance and predominates in the northern zone (Babati district), central zone (Kondoa district) and southern zone (Mtwara and Lindi districts). Common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) constitute the most important pulse crop in terms of supply of plant proteins, calories and farm income. Consumption of common beans has steadily increased without a corresponding increase in production. Common beans is largely grown and marketed by smallholder farmers, mostly women. Therefore, maize and legumes are an important group of staple crops that are central to food, nutrition and economic security of many people in the country. Access to high quality seeds of good varieties is important as part of the intensification of maize-legume intensification farming in Tanzania. In 1976, a major milestone was the release of an OPV maize variety called Tuxpeno targeted at the low lying production areas.Hybrid H6302 suitable for the highlands released.Hybrid H614 suitable for the highlands released. Three OPVs-Kito, Kilima, and Staha released.OPV varieties, TMV 1 and TMV2 released.In 1989, during a period of major economic reforms the space was opened up for private seed companies' participation in the seed sector. Research and production of foundation seed: The breeding activity in Tanzania is largely a public sector affair typical of many seed sectors in Africa apart from South Africa. National Agricultural Research Organisatios (NAROs) have the mandate to conduct crop research aimed at the development of varieties suitable to different agro ecological conditions. Apart from producing breeder (basic) seed, NAROs also have the role of providing agronomic package to the public.Governance and oversight: The Tanzania Official Seed Certification Institute (TOSCI) has a primary oversight role in the seed sector in the country. The main functions of TOSCI include seed quality control and certification, which involve variety testing and registration. TOSCI carries out control analysis of varieties to be released by conducting Distinctiveness, Uniformity and Stability (DUS) tests. Furthermore, it carries out seed testing in the laboratory before issuing certificates permitting the seeds to be supplied to the Agricultural Seed Agency (ASA) for production of foundation seed.Production of foundation seed: After quality control tests by TOSCI, the breeders from NAROs are responsible for the supply of breeders' seed to ASA, which is involved in foundation seed multiplication and distribution to private seed companies for seed multiplication.Seed multiplication: Seed multiplication is done by private seed companies and farmers. The primary function of these actors is seed multiplication and distribution (both hybrid and OPV). The seed is sold either through regional or zonal seed companies' offices or in some cases through input dealers. ASA also participates in seed multiplication and sale. Such sales are made directly to famers, agrodealers and other players. Farmers are given foundation seed by ASA to produce Quality Declared Seed (QDS). Seed designated QDS are quality certified although to be used as seed although not derived from a formal varietal breeding process.Seed distribution -Agro-dealers/seed dealers: Agro-dealers/seed dealers act as the links between farmers and seed supply from the public and private companies.The Directorate of Research and Development (DRD) in the Ministry of Agriculture and Sokoine University of Agriculture, are the key players in bean research in Tanzania. Research institutes from the respective zones (ARI Selian-Northern Zone, ARI Uyole-Southern Highlands, ARI Maruku-Lake Zone), develop breeder seed and recommend bean varieties suitable for their respective zones (Bean Based Technologies BBT). Production of breeder seed is done by breeders from research institutes and SUA. The breeder seeds are sent to ASA for production of foundation seeds.Production of foundation/certified seed: Foundation seed is mainly produced by ASA and these are then used for seed multiplication. ASA also participates in seed multiplication. Production of Quality Declared Seed (QDS) at farmers' fields has been tried but is limited by low capacity for sufficient quality and quantity.Seed distribution: ASA, Agro-dealers, stockists and farmers are the main players for seed distribution. Agro-dealers or seed dealers form a link between farmers and seed supply from the public seed sector. They also supply the retail seed industry in the farming communities across the country and cover large areas through both formal and informal seed networks.x Box 1: Seed Supply Chain: Actors and their roles in maize seed value chains in Tanzania Box 2: Demand and supply scenarios for legume seeds Farmer-level information on maize and legume seed useIn well-developed seed markets and where farmers have the purchasing power, the recommendation is to plant fresh hybrid seeds each season. In Tanzania, recycling of hybrid seed has been estimated to be up to three years in some cases. Results indicate that farmers recycle both maize and legumes. In terms of the predominant varieties, the data collected in 2010-2011 on seed type use in Tanzania showed that OPVs (Staha) and hybrid (SC 627) have equal market share of about 30 percent each. Most farmers were found to recycle Staha with a 61 percent frequency. However the hybrids, SC 627 and DK 8031 are for the most part procured from agro dealers (see Fig. 1 and Fig. 2). Jesca bean variety appears to be the most known in Karatu and Lyamungo 85 and 90 series in Mbulu (Fig. 3). Similar patterns are repeated in the data about usage (Fig 4). Still, about 10 percent of hybrids are still recycled. For the legume crops, the main source of seed is from seed saved from previous harvest (Fig. 5 and 6). One of smallholders' major impediments to commercial oriented farming in Tanzania is lack of access to reliable and lucrative markets. Local rural markets are small, and trading in distant urban markets is not profitable due to high transportation costs. Smallholder farmers also face challenges of gaining access to credit, high-quality inputs, improved technology, information on good agricultural practices, and business development services. Lack of infrastructure also prevents farmers from accessing markets even when there are buyers.In the SIMLESA project sites, household surveys done in 2011 showed that the average walking distance to the nearest village market was about 6.6 km. The average distance to the nearest village market was farthest in Mbulu (8.7 km) and shortest in Karatu (4.4 km). The average transport (one way) cost to the village market was higher in Mbulu than any other district (TSh. 489) compared to TSh 229 in Karatu district. Another indicator of the ease (difficulty) of market access was that the main means of transport to the local markets was walking (46 percent) and use of bicycles (11 percent), while just a few (3.1 percent) respondents reported using a vehicle transport.The average walking distance to the main market for the four districts was about 15.5 km reflecting diversity in infrastructure and market access, these distances were 18.5 km in Karatu, 17.8 km in Mbulu district and lower in Kilosa (13.4 km) and Mvomero (12.3 km). The majority (57 percent), considered their road condition to be of below average/poor quality and 38 percent of the respondents reported to having a road of average quality and 5 percent reported having a very good road to the main market. On average, the road to the main market is passable to trucks for about 9.5 months within a calendar year. However, there is no information on whether the two bad months when the road is not passable occur in the middle of the marketing season when farmers need to take produce to the market. This brief outlines the main features of seed value chains in Tanzania. The aim was to produce an overview of the seed value chains and identify some constraints to these value chains to inform some possible policy and agribusiness actions. The results suggest that although the seed sector has opened up in recent years and now there is private sector participation, seed supply and use remain inconsistent with many maize farmers in using recycled seed.In terms of seed sector business development, purchasing power and limited infrastructure are some of the constraints. While seed costs are typically estimated to be modest, a hectare would require between 20-25 kg of seed, which can cost about US$25/ha for open pollinated varieties and US$50/ ha for most common hybrids. In an environment of US$700 annual per capita income, seed expenses for one hectare would easily constitute the equivalent of one month worth of income for a farming household. This weak purchasing power calls for a strong credit system. Innovations around microfinance to deliver such credit are certainly called for. In the long run, increasing the supply and competition in seed markets to make more seed available to many farmers at prices they can afford represents one of the most sustainable solutions.A hectare requires betweenIn an environment of US$700 annual per capita income, seed expenses for one hectare would easily constitute the equivalent of one month worth of income for a farming household. ","tokenCount":"1704"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a808891fa62a930ab151dbb10141073e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cf8763f6-a4c5-41a0-8e55-27abf139ab13/retrieve","id":"1094252476"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4f1892f7-9b37-4ae6-b200-02d85ce63d1f","pagecount":"20","content":"Según el Banco Mundial (2016): Nicaragua sigue siendo uno de los países menos desarrollados de América Latina. La pobreza, aunque ha disminuido de manera constante en los últimos años, sigue siendo alta. Más del 80% de los pobres en Nicaragua residen en áreas rurales, gran parte en comunidades remotas donde el acceso a los servicios básicos es un reto diario.Desde sus orígenes, el desarrollo de la sociedad nicaragüense ha contado con el aporte de las mujeres en sus diferentes ámbitos: económico, político, social, cultural. Sin embargo, esta contribución sólo se ha puesto de manifiesto en determinados momentos, a través de mujeres poetas (Gioconda Belli, Michelle Najlis), comandantes guerrilleras (Dora María Téllez, Mónica Baltodano, Leticia Herrera) o una presidenta (Violeta Barrios de Chamorro); pero en el ámbito productivo, por lo regular la mujer ha quedado considerablemente relegada e invisible.Por otra parte, la condición de las mujeres ha sufrido modificaciones a lo largo de la historia de Nicaragua; una historia marcada por dos claves interconectadas: la dificultad interna -referida a las diferencias sociales-y la tendencia a la violencia. Así por ejemplo, la conquista del sufragio femenino en Nicaragua, al igual que en el resto del mundo, enfrentó obstáculos relacionados con el pensamiento y modelo patriarcal, pero se logró el 3 de febrero de 1957 (Montenegro, 2012), pues si bien para la clase política criolla no era prioridad, para las sufragistas nicaragüenses, tener derecho a votar era vital para ejercer la ciudadanía plena.Por otro lado, con el proceso revolucionario gestado por la disparidad entre la extrema pobreza de la gran mayoría y la riqueza de una minoría marginal, la situación económica tuvo un efecto particular en las mujeres de Nicaragua. Las mujeres eran una gran parte de la fuerza laboral y muchas veces eran el sostén de la familia cuando el marido las abandonaba por integrarse a la guerrilla. Con el triunfo de la revolución sandinista aunque gran parte de los cargos de liderazgo estuvieron en manos de los hombres, la participación de las mujeres en la lucha fue parte de una tradición en el movimiento sandinista y así se hizo posible empezar a dar pasos en la abolición de la discriminación de la mujer desde el punto de vista político, social, económico y cultural. En la actualidad, los avances en legislación a favor de las mujeres son significativos, pero todavía hay espacios en el ámbito productivo que es necesario ganar.Dada la importancia que tiene la mujer como actora en las áreas rurales y la necesidad de incorporar todo su potencial de gestión productiva, intelectual y social en el desarrollo territorial, el Programa de Proceso de elaboración de cuajada. Grupo de mujeres Fuente de Bendición.Comunidad Los Lirios, Telpaneca.• 8 Grupos de mujeres organizados.• Inversión en infraestructura por US$122,17 (US$91.151 aportados por PROGRESA; US$17.406 aportados por las organizaciones cooperativas; y US$13.640 aportados por los grupos de mujeres).• US$455.069 (el 18% de la inversión total del proyecto en capacitación) destinados al fortalecimiento de capacidades de las mujeres a través de talleres en diferentes temas técnicos, socio-organizativos y empresariales.Gestión Rural Empresarial, Sanidad y Ambiente (PROGRESA) incorporó el componente de género como apuesta para lograr su principal objetivo: que 4.700 familias de los departamentos de Matagalpa, Jinotega, Madriz y Nueva Segovia mejoren sus medios de vida, aumenten su productividad y expandan el comercio de sus productos.PROGRESA tiene una duración de tres años y es financiado por el Departamento de Agricultura de los Estados Unidos (USDA, por sus siglas en inglés), fue creado en conjunto con un grupo de socios del sector privado, cooperativas, organizaciones no gubernamentales (ONG) y agencias del gobierno nicaragüense. El enfoque de desarrollo de PROGRESA reconoce la importancia de trabajar con equidad de género, no solo evidenciando y reconociendo las desigualdades existentes entre hombres y mujeres, sino también identificando oportunidades para disminuir esas desigualdades e impulsar el empoderamiento de productoras para que asuman un rol más activo, tanto para que ellas se integren a actividades productivas, de agregación de valor y comercialización dentro de las cadenas que apoya el Programa, como también para que asuman cargos directivos que les permitan participar en la toma de decisiones a diferentes niveles en las organizaciones a las que pertenecen, y a la vez sean reconocidas como actoras clave en el desarrollo de sus familias y de sus comunidades.Con esta finalidad se han destinado fondos específicos para la implementación de 8 iniciativas de negocios con mujeres como actoras directas en las cadenas de valor de ganado y hortalizas en los municipios de El Jícaro, Jalapa, Palacagüina, Telpaneca, Ciudad Darío y la Concordia, con el acompañamiento técnico de Cáritas Estelí, Cáritas Matagalpa, FIDER, la Cooperativa La Unión y ASDENIC.Históricamente la cultura nicaragüense está orientada a que los hombres son los que tienen mayor acceso a recursos y toma de decisiones en sus hogares y el trabajo, situación que los posiciona con mayor poder y capacidad económica para desarrollarse como personas y emprender proyectos personales o grupales.Al inicio de la ejecución del Programa el mayor problema que se encontró fue que las mujeres rurales mostraban poco interés en desarrollar negocios en las cadenas de valor de hortalizas y ganado, y esto se debía a que en la mayoría de los casos ellas fueron formadas bajo la cultura y la mentalidad de que el único proveedor de lo necesario en el hogar era el hombre; además, ellas carecían de conocimientos referidos a sus derechos y condición de mujeres, e igualmente desconocían las oportunidades que brindan algunos programas de desarrollo como PROGRESA.Esta situación, unida al hecho de que ellas, por su condición de mujeres, carecen de recursos propios (tierras, implementos, efectivo) para tener acceso a créditos, o financiamiento para desarrollar actividades o negocios propios en sus comunidades, imposibilitaba su integración al desarrollo de actividades con enfoque de negocios.Una vez que se logró identificar esta problemática, se analizó el nivel de conocimiento de las mujeres en los diferentes rubros de las cadenas que apoya el Programa. En relación a la cadena de ganado se observó que las mujeres tenían experiencia en el procesamiento de la leche a nivel artesanal, sin embargo existía desconocimiento de las técnicas de procesamiento y transformación de la leche (manejo de materia prima, equipos, procesos para cada producto), así como también desconocían la diversidad de productos lácteos que demandaba el mercado y las normas para la manipulación de alimentos y/o prácticas de manufactura que permiten darle valor agregado a la producción, mejorar la conservación de alimentos en las comunidades y así poder ofrecer a los consumidores un mejor producto.En cuanto a la cadena de hortalizas, las mujeres se integraban a las actividades productivas (siembra, recolección, entre otras), formaban parte de la mano de obra en procesos de acopio y también en comercialización; sin embargo su participación en los eslabones de la cadena de valor no aseguraba que fueran beneficiadas con una distribución equitativa de las utilidades que se generaban de su trabajo, porque generalmente los puestos de toma de decisión en cuanto a las utilidades, estaban ocupados por hombres.En vista de la situación encontrada, PROGRESA le apostó a aprovechar la oportunidad que había para las mujeres de participar directamente con el desarrollo de ideas de negocio que permitieran fortalecer su inserción en las cadenas de valor.Grupo de mujeres de la cadena de valor de ganado, durante la elaboración de su plan de negocio.La propuesta de implementación de las acciones con grupos de mujeres fue diferenciada para cada cadena de valor. En el caso de la cadena de hortalizas, consistiría en la producción de plántulas bajo invernaderos, como tecnología adecuada para este fin, que les permitiera a los productores que demandan este servicio en las zonas de intervención del proyecto, aumentar los rendimientos productivos de hortalizas. Esta situación era muy conveniente para las mujeres tomando en cuenta que ellas no contaban con la tenencia de tierra para la producción de hortalizas. En el caso de la cadena de ganado, la propuesta consistiría en la instalación de pequeños centros de acopio y procesamiento de leche para su posterior comercialización a nivel local.En la implementación de las iniciativas de negocios participaron personas de diferentes organizaciones vinculadas al programa PROGRESA. En relación a las organizaciones socias, a través de las personas responsables del área de Desarrollo Empresarial, se aseguró la facilitación de todo el proceso en campo.Por su parte, las organizaciones de productores participaron a través de miembros de los consejos de administración en la promoción de la participación de las mujeres como beneficiarias de PROGRESA, así como también asumiendo, en algunos de los casos, un rol de cofinanciadoras de las iniciativas y apoyando aspectos de manejo administrativo.Las acciones también involucraron a personal de asesoría técnica de PROGRESA para facilitar procesos de sensibilización frente a la importancia de las iniciativas empresariales con mujeres, y acompañar todo el proceso, incluyendo la orientación de aspectos técnicos de las infraestructuras a construir y la facilitación de un análisis de la rentabilidad de cada negocio propuesto.El proceso en general implicó la implementación de las siguientes actividades:Cada organización socia del programa PROGRESA estableció algunos criterios de selección en cuanto a los posibles sitios en los que había condiciones apropiadas para promover las iniciativas de negocios con grupos de mujeres.Entre las condiciones que se establecieron se encontraban:• Respaldo organizativo. Se estableció como requisito que los grupos de mujeres tenían que contar con el respaldo legal de una organización ya establecida.• Apertura o disposición de la organización para trabajar con enfoque de género y apoyar las iniciativas.• Potencial de la zona para impulsar la iniciativa de negocios en cada rubro seleccionado.• Análisis de oferta y demanda, tomando en cuenta la existencia de otros negocios similares para minimizar el nivel de competencia.Gira del grupo Mujeres Unidas por el Progreso, para aprender sobre el proceso de producción de plántulas en invernadero.• Existencia de recursos (suelo y agua) suficientes para el desarrollo de los negocios.• Aprobación de las propuestas por parte de los directivos de las organizaciones a participar.Las personas encargadas del área de Desarrollo Empresarial de cada organización socia convocaron varias reuniones con las mujeres asociadas y los directivos de las organizaciones de productores que las respaldaban (cooperativas y asociaciones de productores),inicialmente para dar a conocer aspectos generales del programa PROGRESA y explicar con más detalle las intervenciones orientadas a promover la participación de las mujeres y generar oportunidades para su acceso a recursos económicos, capacitación y mejora de sus ingresos.En estos espacios se planteó el proceso lógico de las inversiones en pequeños negocios con grupos de mujeres, la modalidad de manejo de los recursos económicos (financiamiento, intereses y plazos), los requisitos a cumplir y las responsabilidades que tendrían las mujeres, las organizaciones de productores a las que estaban asociadas, y la organización socia que las asiste. En consecuencia, tanto las organizaciones socias como las organizaciones de productores, asumieron el acompañamiento en todo el proceso garantizando la información diagnóstica inicial, la organización del grupo, la formulación del plan de negocio y la presentación de los documentos soportes solicitados para asegurar la claridad de las normas de operación del negocio, y la legitimidad de los derechos de las mujeres a la inversión y a gozar de las utilidades que generaría la iniciativa.Las responsabilidades asignadas a las mujeres fueron básicamente: mostrar voluntad para organizarse, capacitarse, participar en la conformación de una junta directiva, en la elaboración del reglamento interno del grupo, en la construcción del plan de negocio y en su implementación. El Programa aseguró el financiamiento para la implementación de cada negocio, el asesoramiento técnico y el seguimiento al desarrollo de todo el proceso. A continuación se muestra un resumen de las actividades que incluyó el proceso:Una experiencia muy particular en este proceso fue la vivida por la organización socia CONAGAN, quien tenía previsto desarrollar dos ideas de negocios con grupos de mujeres, pero después de realizar el diagnóstico rápido, identificó que las ideas de negocio para acopio, producción y comercialización de lácteos (una con la Cooperativa Divino Tesoro, ubicada en el Municipio de Yalí y otra con la Cooperativa de Mujeres Lirio de los Valles, ubicada en la comunidad de Maleconcito del municipio de Wiwilí, ambas del Departamento de Jinotega), no eran factibles, debido a que la materia prima para trabajar el proceso lácteo era relativamente poca, además de que no contaban con terreno propio ni recursos económicos para comprarlo y construir allí la infraestructura. Esto dio pautas para que CONAGAN redireccionara los fondos de estas ideas de negocios hacia otras inversiones a nivel de fincas.Después de todo este proceso se conformaron 8 grupos con iniciativas de negocios, 4 de ellas en la cadena de valor de hortalizas y 4 en la cadena de ganado.• Grupos de mujeres en la cadena de valor de ganado (acopio, transformación y comercialización de leche y derivados):• Grupo de mujeres de El Jícaro.• Grupo de mujeres de Palacagüina.• Grupo de mujeres de Telpaneca.• Grupo de mujeres de Wiwilí.• Grupos de mujeres en la cadena de valor de hortalizas:• Grupo de mujeres de Jalapa. Producción de plántulas de hortalizas bajo invernadero.• Grupo de Mujeres Las Delicias. Producción de hortalizas bajo agricultura protegida.• Grupo de mujeres de Palacagüina. Producción de plántulas de hortalizas bajo invernadero.• Grupo de mujeres de La Concordia. Producción de plántulas de hortalizas bajo invernadero.Es importante mencionar que en el contexto local existían algunas oportunidades que facilitaron la organización de los grupos para el desarrollo de estas ideas de negocio; una de ellas fue la existencia de actores locales que promovían el empoderamiento filosófico de las mujeres, como el Programa Mundial de Alimentos (PMA) que estuvo abierto a incluirlas en actividades productivas y en procesos de toma de decisión a través de la participación en los cargos directivos de las estructuras organizativas, así como a facilitarles el acceso a recursos económicos mediante créditos. Esto contribuyó en gran medida al cambio de actitud y facilitó un poco más la decisión de las mujeres de formar parte de un grupo, establecer un negocio y llegar a ser emprendedoras en sus comunidades.Paralelo a las actividades organizativas antes mencionadas, las integrantes de los grupos participaron en un proceso de fortalecimiento de capacidades técnicas y de administración del negocio. Los temas de la capacitación fueron seleccionados de acuerdo con el tipo de negocio a implementar. Los grupos de mujeres con pequeños negocios lácteos fueron acompañados por PROGRESA en los siguientes temas:1. Procesamiento de productos lácteos 2. Buenas Prácticas de Manufactura 3. Costeo de productos lácteos 4. Mercadeo 5. Administración del negocio (elaboración de planillas, facturas, recibos, registro de ingresos y egresos e informes de estados contables), impartido por las organizaciones socias.Por su parte, los grupos de mujeres con pequeños negocios de producción de plántulas participaron en un proceso de capacitación en temas asociados a los diferentes cultivos en los que venden productos o servicios. Dicha capacitación incluyó talleres, demostraciones prácticas, pasantías y giras de aprendizaje donde se abordaron los siguientes temas:1. Elaboración de sustrato 2. Producción y manejo de plántulas bajo condiciones de invernadero.3. Manejo de plagas y enfermedades en tomate (Lycopersicum esculentum) y chiltoma (Capsicum annum) bajo agricultura protegida.4. Administración del negocio (elaboración de planillas, facturas, recibos, registro de ingresos y egresos e informes de estados contables).De igual manera, formó parte del acompañamiento en este proceso, la participación de las mujeres en la estructuración de su plan de inversión para el negocio que en consenso habían decidido emprender.Un elemento clave para velar por la sostenibilidad de las inversiones fue asegurar la claridad de las normas para la operación del negocio, y la legitimidad de los derechos de las mujeres, como dueñas del mismo, a la inversión y a las utilidades, ya que en este tipo de iniciativas en muchas ocasiones sucede que los grupos de mujeres son utilizados por organizaciones más desarrolladas para recibir gran parte de las utilidades y/o beneficiarse de las inversiones, y al final apropiarse de las infraestructuras que se establecen. Siendo este uno de los aspectos que ponen en riesgo la seguridad y sostenibilidad de las iniciativas en manos de mujeres, se desarrollaron una serie de acciones con la participación activa de las diferentes personas involucradas, para garantizar la existencia de documentos de respaldo que minimizaran dicho riesgo. Tales documentos que acompañaban las iniciativas de negocios fueron, entre otros:• Plan de negocio y análisis de la inversión.• Reglamento interno del grupo que norma las actividades básicas de operación del negocio.• Escritura del terreno donde se establecería la infraestructura, la cual debía estar a nombre del grupo de mujeres dueñas de la idea de negocios. Si el terreno no era propio, las mujeres tenían que presentar un documento legal que las adjudicara como arrendadoras por un determinado tiempo, de acuerdo al tipo de negocio.• Acta del Consejo de Administración que exprese estar de acuerdo con el grupo de mujeres en la implementación de la iniciativa de negocio y detalle su forma de apoyo a ellas.• Ficha ambiental, que muestra las medidas de mitigación ambiental a desarrollar.Para el caso de los negocios en la cadena de ganado, hubo necesidad de presentar los siguientes avales adicionales:• Aval del Ministerio de Salud (MINSA) que garantizara el cumplimiento de las condiciones higiénicas y sanitarias para iniciar el negocio.• Aval emitido por el gobierno municipal que facultara el establecimiento de la infraestructura.Una de las mayores dificultades en esta parte de proceso fue la demora para obtener el aval por parte del gobierno municipal, pues hubo necesidad de que las mujeres realizaran la gestión en varias ocasiones para poder obtenerlo.La ejecución de los presupuestos planificados para las inversiones en el plan de negocios de cada grupo se llevó a cabo a través de las organizaciones socias de PROGRESA, a quienes se les desembolsaron directamente los fondos. Con ellos, además de la ejecución del plan de negocio, se financiaron reuniones para asegurar la participación consciente de las mujeres en el grupo, elaborar el mismo plan de negocios, fortalecer las capacidades de las mujeres en contabilidad básica y hacer giras de intercambio con otros grupos para que conocieran más del negocio. Posterior a esto se realizaron las licitaciones pertinentes para la selección del oferente de servicios (contratista/constructor) que se contrataría para la construcción de las obras físicas (invernaderos y centros de acopio y procesamiento de leche).Es importante aclarar que los recursos requeridos para implementar el plan de fortalecimiento de capacidades de las mujeres, enfocado en la producción del bien o servicio que ofrecería cada negocio (abordado previamente en el punto 3), fueron un apoyo directo de PROGRESA, adicional a los presupuestos destinados para las inversiones.En la cadena de valor de ganado se dotaron 4 grupos de mujeres, cada uno con una pequeña estructura de acopio y equipamiento básico de leche que garantizara un proceso más limpio y acorde con los estándares sanitarios que exigen las instancias rectoras, como el Ministerio de Salud. Cabe aclarar que a 3 grupos se les dotó con la infraestructura completa y a 1 grupo solo se le realizaron mejoras en la infraestructura que ya tenía.De igual manera, en la cadena de valor de hortalizas se dotó a 3 grupos de mujeres con invernaderos para la producción de plántulas, y a 1 grupo con 3 macro túneles para la producción definitiva (siembra y cosecha) bajo el sistema de agricultura protegida.Así pues, aunque inicialmente se tenían programados presupuestos similares para que cada grupo de mujeres implementara sus ideas de negocios (se tenía planificado invertir US$64.000 en ocho grupos -8.000 por grupo-), durante el proceso se previó que, de un lado, los presupuestos asignados no serían suficientes (tomando en cuenta que las ideas de negocio contemplaban la construcción de infraestructuras pequeñas y la dotación de herramientas y equipos que en su mayoría son importados y relativamente costosos en Nicaragua); y del otro, cada iniciativa requeriría un monto diferente de inversión. Esto hizo que en el transcurso del Programa se ajustaran los presupuestos de acuerdo a las realidades de cada grupo, y que al final se contabilizara una inversión total de US$91.951.Las inversiones fueron diferentes para cada iniciativa de negocio, lo cual estaba relacionado con la idea de negocio, el tipo de infraestructura y el equipamiento necesarios para asegurar la operatividad. En este punto, cabe mencionar que uno de los grupos (Las Delicias) se encuentra en proceso de certificación en Buenas Prácticas Agrícolas (BPA), lo cual aumentó la inversión inicial prevista hasta por un monto de US$1.250, destinados a la instalación de una bodega de agroquímicos, área de clasificación y empaque, área de mezcla, filtros para aguas de residuos químicos, letrina y lavamanos. En adición a la inversión del Programa cada uno de los grupos, de acuerdo a sus condiciones económicas, hizo coinversiones hasta por un total de US$13.640, y tres organizaciones de productores aportaron a igual número de grupos US$17.406. A continuación se muestra un cuadro resumen con todas las inversiones:Durante el proceso de establecimiento de los negocios, en la mayoría de los casos las acciones se realizaban una después de otra (primero era la visita del asesor de infraestructura y posteriormente la legalización del terreno); sin embargo, en algunos momentos se desarrollaron acciones en paralelo. Por ejemplo, mientras el abogado o la abogada estaba asegurando el documento legal del terreno, las mujeres estaban elaborando su reglamento interno.Grupo Renacer, trabajando en su plan de negocio y en la propuesta de ampliación y mejoramiento del centro de acopio.A pesar de la cultura de la sociedad nicaragüense -en la que el machismo hace más difícil la participación plena de la mujeres-y la existencia al inicio del Programa de factores del contexto comunitario y socio-organizativo que limitaban la participación de la mujer y su acceso a servicios y beneficios (falta de fondos y políticas de crédito ajustados a las condiciones de las mujeres asociadas, falta de servicios técnicos y oportunidades para mejorar conocimientos), se puede asegurar que las oportunidades brindadas y los cambios generados con la implementación de iniciativas empresariales con mujeres, han sido muchos.Así por ejemplo, se ha asegurado asistencia técnica dirigida a mujeres, se han brindado capacitaciones en temas diversos vinculados al manejo y la administración del negocio, y se ha dotado a los grupos de infraestructura para la producción y el procesamiento (en el caso de lácteos) en donde las mujeres son las protagonistas.Durante la ejecución del Programa se ha promovido la participación de las mujeres en diferentes niveles. De un lado, las mujeres representan el 21% del grupo meta del proyecto, y el 40% de ellas participa en los procesos de capacitación. Es así como del total invertido en capacitaciones (US$2.528.163) el 18% (US$455.069) ha sido destinado al fortalecimiento de capacidades de las mujeres a través de talleres en diferentes temas técnicos, socio-organizativos y empresariales. Estas acciones de fortalecimiento de capacidades han favorecido también la integración de otros miembros a nivel familiar, y han promovido un mayor respeto y apoyo entre la pareja (la mujer y el hombre como jefes de familia), pues al inicio los hombres no se integraban a estos procesos de capacitación con mujeres.Por otra parte, la definición del proceso organizativo y de fortalecimiento de capacidades realizado, unido a las experiencias vividas en él, dieron las pautas para que 4 grupos de mujeres estén desarrollando las ideas de negocio sobre acopio y procesamiento de la leche, mientras que 3 grupos más están desarrollando negocios sobre producción de plántulas en invernaderos, y un grupo está produciendo hortalizas bajo sistemas protegidos.Fueron muy positivos la coordinación y el apoyo recibido por parte de los líderes de las organizaciones de productores, quienes le dieron importancia a ofrecer un espacio para que las mujeres fueran dueñas de sus propios negocios, de la infraestructura y de las utilidades que estos generan. Fue así como se aseguró la legalidad de los terrenos para instalar las infraestructuras y los concejos de administración se comprometieron a apoyar a los grupos de mujeres mediante actas formales.A nivel de las organizaciones de productores son notorias las mejoras en sus competencias organizativas, ya que hay más claridad sobre el esfuerzo que puede realizarse para apoyar a las mujeres asociadas en lo relacionado con el acceso de ellas al trabajo, fortalecimiento de sus capacidades, liderazgo y participación en actividades propias de las cadenas de valor, así como la intervención de ellas en la toma de decisiones y su acceso a otros beneficios.Grupo Mujeres Unidas por el Progreso, mientras trabaja en el centro de producción de plántulas.En general, el apoyo que han brindado las organizaciones a los grupos de mujeres es una muestra de que tienen una percepción diferente de los beneficios que esto trae, lo cual se manifiesta en las contrapartidas que la mayoría de las organizaciones aportó a las inversiones iniciales previstas por el Programa; y en la actitud positiva para hacer mejoras a sus políticas de crédito o elaborar sus propias políticas de género encaminadas a la institucionalización de acciones de género en la organización.Actualmente el Programa, a través de sus ocho organizaciones socias (Cáritas Estelí, Cáritas Matagalpa, ADDAC, ASDENIC, FIDER, INPRHU, CONAGAN y la Cooperativa de Servicios Múltiples La Unión R.L) se encuentra promoviendo la inclusión de género mediante el proceso de sensibilización para la elaboración de políticas de género en todas las cooperativas que atiende, e incluyendo acciones como la realización de nuevas inversiones que beneficien a mujeres desde las cooperativas.De forma particular, los diferentes eventos de capacitación ejecutados por las distintas organizaciones socias han contribuido al fortalecimiento de las capacidades y habilidades de las mujeres para el manejo de sus negocios. Ahora las mujeres saben cómo analizar sus costos de producción y la importancia que esto tiene para que puedan establecer los precios de sus productos; lo cual también viene a fortalecer sus competencias para valorar si lo que están haciendo es rentable y tomar decisiones oportunas, ya sea para reducir costos o realizar una mejor negociación con sus compradores en el mercado local.Las mujeres con negocios de producción de plántulas actualmente ya elaboran el sustrato para la siembra de las semillas de hortalizas, y manejan el control de plagas y enfermedades con mayor seguridad. Ahora conocen cómo cargar una bomba de mochila y realizar las aplicaciones fitosanitarias; igualmente hacen manipulación de todas las herramientas y equipos cumpliendo con las orientaciones técnicas estipuladas en el Informe de Evaluación de Pesticidas y Plan de Acción para su Uso más Seguro (PERSUAP 1 , por sus siglas en inglés), y asegurando su salud e integridad física.En el caso de las mujeres con negocios lácteos, ellas ahora hacen uso del vestuario y equipo apropiado 1 Documento normativo de uso seguro de plaguicidas elaborado por PROGRESA.2 1 mz (manzana) es igual a 7.026 m 2 .para garantizar la inocuidad en los procesos, también tienen más capacidad para elaborar productos diversos que demanda el mercado (queso ricota, yogur, leche agria); esto, sumado a la participación que han tenido en ferias y expoventas promovidas por la Asociación de Productores y Exportadores de Nicaragua (APEN) y la Feria Nacional del Queso, les ha permitido atreverse a buscar mejores precios y otras opciones de mercado para sus productos.También se puede mencionar al Grupo de Mujeres de Las Delicias, ubicadas en Ciudad Darío (que forman parte de la Cooperativa de Servicios Múltiples COPRAHOR, atendida por el socio Cáritas Matagalpa). Este grupo ya está comercializando sus vegetales frescos (chiltoma Nataly, chiltoma criolla y tomate) en mercados formales, como los supermercados Walmart y La Colonia.Un aspecto para destacar ha sido la responsabilidad mostrada por las mujeres ante la necesidad de llevar registros de todos los movimientos del negocio, lo cual les ha facilitado el análisis de costos, la fijación de precios para cada producto y también la determinación de las utilidades para las integrantes del grupo. Incluso se destaca que 7 grupos de mujeres poseen su propia cuenta de ahorros, la cual es manejada por ellas mismas para un mejor control y transparencia en el manejo de sus recursos económicos.El resumen de ingresos y egresos para los grupos es el siguiente: Aunque en un inicio las escasas relaciones de cooperación con algunos gobiernos municipales limitaron la gestión para la instalación de los negocios, al final del proceso se logró un mayor acercamiento a organizaciones gubernamentales, (como el MINSA y el Ministerio de Economía Familiar Comunitaria, Cooperativa y Asociativa (MEFCCA), que no eran aliadas para el desarrollo de estas iniciativas, pero respondieron de manera positiva para apoyar a las mujeres.5 En el proceso socio-organizativo las mujeres se organizan en grupos, en los que discuten y definen qué negocios van a establecer, cómo los van a desarrollar, quiénes serán los acompañantes, quiénes van a estar al frente de cada grupo y de qué manera se hará la representación ante el Programa.• La participación de las mujeres en la definición de los criterios de financiamiento conlleva a una mayor apropiación de estos procesos. En el caso de PROGRESA, cada organización socia que administró los fondos para la instalación de los 8 negocios con mujeres, definió sus propios criterios de financiamiento con la participación de mujeres integrantes de los grupos, con el objetivo de darles la oportunidad de tomar conciencia de la seriedad de la inversión y motivarlas a ser responsables en el negocio, lo que dio excelentes resultados: los grupos de mujeres estaban muy apropiados y entusiasmados para desarrollar y administrar sus ideas de negocios.• La apertura al cambio por parte de las mujeres y el apoyo de sus familias es indispensable para el desarrollo de estas iniciativas de negocio. El proceso socio-organizativo 5 realizado por PROGRESA antes del establecimiento de los negocios facilitó que tanto hijos como esposos se involucraran en los procesos productivos. Entonces, en las familias hubo apertura para que las mujeres destinaran tiempo a talleres y reuniones para aprender sobre el uso de las tecnologías, el manejo de los productos, cómo llevar la contabilidad de sus negocios, entre otros.• Es importante que los proyectos identifiquen oportunidades de negocios específicas dentro de las organizaciones de productores que puedan ser manejadas y administradas por las mujeres. Esto permite generar mayor equidad en el acceso a las oportunidades que se ofrecen a socios y socias, y generar mayores ingresos a las familias. Adicionalmente, las organizaciones de productores deben estar comprometidas con la promoción de la igualdad y equidad de género invirtiendo recursos técnicos y económicos para su aseguramiento.• Para definir una idea de negocio con grupos de mujeres es importante considerar las capacidades y experiencia inicial con que cuenta el grupo, para así garantizar éxito en el desarrollo del negocio y la sostenibilidad del mismo. Esto no excluye la necesidad de formación; por el contrario, las mujeres además deben integrarse a un proceso de fortalecimiento de capacidades a fin de que manejen elementos claves como las características y bondades del producto a ofertar, los recursos económicos con que cuentan, el segmento o nicho de mercado al cual quieren orientar sus productos o servicios, la competencia, y la rentabilidad económica del negocio. En particular, es de vital importancia el fortalecimiento de las capacidades de las mujeres para el manejo administrativo contable. Esto les permite mayor seguridad para la toma de decisiones en el negocio, y también asegurar transparencia en el manejo de los fondos suministrados por el Programa.Integrante del grupo Mujeres Unidas por el Progreso en labores de producción de plántulas.• Esta experiencia ilustró que el reglamento interno del grupo de mujeres es una herramienta que permite contar con orientaciones claras de los roles y funciones de cada participante para el manejo interno y la administración de los recursos; y que debe ser elaborado con la participación de todas las mujeres, como muestra de su interés de mantener el orden y la administración eficiente de los recursos que han sido entregados por el Programa.• El acompañamiento técnico desde las organizaciones debe ser eficiente y oportuno como estrategia fundamental para el éxito de cualquier idea de negocio que se proyecte con grupos de mujeres. Por lo tanto, es indispensable destinar tiempo y recursos para que el personal técnico pueda dar seguimiento y evaluar en el mediano y largo plazo el desempeño de los negocios, y los resultados e impactos que están teniendo en las familias beneficiarias.• El personal técnico de las organizaciones acompañantes de este tipo de procesos debe conocer y manejar el tema de género y estar comprometido con la importancia de impulsar acciones que mejoren las condiciones de las mujeres (conocimiento, acceso a recursos, mejora de ingresos) y su posición en las organizaciones a las que están asociadas (liderazgo), porque de ello depende que las organizaciones continúen apoyando estos grupos como aliados estratégicos para el desarrollo socioeconómico de las familias y las comunidades.• La ejecución de inversiones con grupos de mujeres debe estar respaldada con documentos legales que aseguren la propiedad de las mujeres y la sostenibilidad del beneficio recibido por parte de ellas. Este es un elemento clave, ya que en este tipo de iniciativas es común que los grupos de mujeres sean utilizadas por organizaciones más desarrolladas para recibir gran parte de las utilidades y/o beneficiarse de las inversiones y apropiarse de las infraestructuras. Esta es una de las mayores limitantes para la seguridad y sostenibilidad de las iniciativas en manos de mujeres.","tokenCount":"5476"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a2630b8dfe5053f3180542d8daeecdbe","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/da71bd68-3958-44c5-ba44-c5eff166d20f/retrieve","id":"1029197848"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"11cf7dd7-ff5f-4c16-ab7d-0781a5562685","pagecount":"32","content":"The Future Harvest Centres comprise 16 food and environmental research organizations located around the world, which conduct research in partnership with farmers, scientists and policy-makers to help alleviate poverty and increase food security while protecting the natural resource base. The Centres are principally funded through the 58 countries, private foundations, and regional and international organizations that make up the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). The CGIAR is co-sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank.The System-wide Genetic Resources Programme (SGRP) joins the genetic resources programmes and activities of the Future Harvest Centres in a partnership whose goal is to maximize collaboration, particularly in five thematic areas. The thematic areas -policy, public awareness and representation, information, knowledge and technology, and capacity-building -relate to issues or fields of work that are critical to the success of genetic resources efforts. The SGRP contributes to the global effort to conserve agricultural, forestry and aquatic genetic resources and promotes their use in ways that are consistent with the Convention on Biological Diversity. IPGRI is the Convening Centre for SGRP. The Inter-Centre Working Group on Genetic Resources (ICWG-GR), which includes representatives from the Centres and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, is the Steering Committee.The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) was established in 1975. IFPRI's mission is to identify and analyze alternative national and international strategies and policies for meeting food needs of the developing world on a sustainable basis, with particular emphasis on low-income countries, poor people, and sound management of the natural resource base that supports agriculture; to make the results of its research available to all those in a position to use them; and to help strengthen institutions conducting research and applying research results in developing countries. IFPRI is one of 16 Future Harvest agricultural research centers and receives its principal funding from governments, private foundations, and international and regional organizations, most of whom are members of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research.The 11 CGIAR genebanks have grown considerably in size over the past few decades. They now conserve over 660,000 accessions (plant or seed samples) of crops grown mainly by poor people (such as cassava, millet, sorghum and cowpea), staple food crops grown throughout the world (such as rice, wheat and maize), and tree species used in agroforestry systems. This collection accounts for a sizeable share, perhaps 30 to 40%, of the unique entries in genebank collections worldwide. Conserving germplasm is a very long-term, if not in perpetuity (i.e., from now to eternity), proposition, and so the mismatch between the mainly annual funding support for this conservation effort and its very long-term nature and intent is a serious concern. An endowment or trust fund, the earnings from which would assure a funding stream to conserve this genetic material for all future generations, would judiciously match the duration of the funding commitments to the duration of the conservation commitments.Our best estimate of the annual cost of conserving and distributing the genetic material presently held in the CGIAR genebanks is US$ 5.7 million per year. A commitment to underwrite these core genebank services for the benefit of all future generations could be met by setting aside a fund of US$ 149 million (invested at a real rate of interest of 4% per annum). Of this US$61 million (40 % of the total) would underwrite the CGIAR's current conservation activities in perpetuity and US$88 million (60 %) would maintain the distribution activities that provide germplasm to breeders, scientists, farmers and others worldwide.These annual and in perpetuity estimates are sensitive to a number of factors, including the crop composition and size of the holdings, the number of samples distributed annually from the genebanks, the technology of germplasm storage, the rate of interest used to calculate the present value of distant future costs and various conservation protocols (especially the frequency with which aging seed samples are tested for viability and regenerated when necessary to maintain the vigor and size of the sample). The US$ 149 million conservation fund represents our best estimate, but with plausible variations in two key factors (interest rates and regeneration cycles), the size of the fund needed ranges from US$ 100 to US$ 325 million.This funding is sufficient to support only core conservation and distribution activities currently undertaken by the CGIAR Centres. A key constraint to the effective use of genebank accessions for crop improvement and other purposes is the lack of information about the agronomic and genetic characteristics of the accessions. Although we have addressed the economics of this issue from a theoretical standpoint in another study, precise estimates of the costs are not available at this time. Nevertheless, a prudent strategy would be to complement the conservation fund costed here with comparable additional resources for characterizing the CGIAR collection to increase its value to plant breeding.Throughout the course of this work we received a lot of valuable assistance from a lot people. Many CGIAR colleagues went out of their way to provide us with the information and data required to conduct the five genebank costing studies that are drawn together in this report. We would especially like to thank Paula Bramel, Daniel Debouck, Mike Jackson, Kameswara Rao, Bent Skovmand, Suketoshi Taba, Jan Valkoun and Eric van Dusen for their help in conducting these studies, and Samy Gaiji, Robert Guei, Jean Hanson, Geoffrey Hawtin, Quat Ng, Willy Roca, Suzanne Sharrock, Tony Simons and Jane Toll for providing additional data and reactions to earlier drafts of this paper.This work was funded by the CGIAR System-wide Genetic Resources Programme (SGRP), with in-kind contributions from CGIAR Centres and additional support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).Genebanks are a recent institutional innovation. For most of agriculture's 10,000-year history, it was farmers who saved seeds from one season for planting in the next. The idea of setting aside seeds from around the world in special facilities for future use by breeders and others did not really take hold until the early 20 th century. Much of the credit for this idea and its implementation goes to the famous Russian biologist Nikolai Vavilov. During three decades of travel over five continents he amassed the largest collection in the world (at that time) of species and strains of cultivated plants and developed theories on how to use this material for breeding improved varieties (Reznik and Vavilov 1997). This collection formed the basis for the genebank now maintained at the N.I. Vavilov Research Institute of Plant Industry in St Petersburg, Russia.Long-term germplasm conservation facilities are an even more recent phenomenon. Pistorius (1997, p.4) credits the National Seed Storage Laboratory (NSSL) at Fort Collins, Colorado, USA, created in 1958, as being the first such facility. Since then, a sizable investment has been made in collecting and conserving landraces (farmer-developed varieties) and wild and weedy species of crops in genebanks around the world. Motivating these investments were concerns that the genetic basis of agriculture (be it for commercial or subsistence production) was narrowing globally for many agricultural crops as genetically more uniform but superiorperforming varieties developed with scientific breeding methods spread worldwide at an accelerating pace beginning in the 1960s. 1 Since the 1970s, the 11 genebanks now maintained by the CGIAR (or CG for short) have become a pivotal part of a global conservation effort, currently holding over 660,000 accessions (plant or seed samples) of crops grown mainly by poor farmers (such as cassava, millet, sorghum and cowpea), staple food crops consumed worldwide (such as rice, wheat and maize) and tree species used in agroforestry systems. Of these 660,000 accessions, nearly 515,000 accessions are held in trust under agreements with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Having built this collection over the past three decades, the financial basis for conserving the material for all future generations is now being addressed.At present the CG genebanks, like the CG generally, are financed from short-term (often year-by-year) pledges of support to the system and its centres by its members and from project funds with limited lives (sometimes five years, but often three or less). Germplasm conservation is a very long-term, if not in perpetuity, proposition, and so the mismatch between the short-term nature of the financial support and the long-term nature and intent of the effort is a serious concern. This paper describes our best estimates of the annual funds required to support the core conservation and distribution services provided by the CG genebanks, and uses these cost estimates to determine the size of endowment fund required to underwrite these core conservation services in perpetuity, along with the distribution efforts that ensure this material remains available on demand to breeders, scientists and others worldwide.The basis for estimating the resource requirements is a series of detailed costing studies led by International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) over the past several years in close collaboration with colleagues at five CG genebanks. These five genebanks accounted for 87%1 Concerns about 'genetic erosion' (loosely, a narrowing of the genetic resource base used by farmers or breeders for improving crop varieties) were raised by NRC (1972) and Harlan (1972), among others. Using data for the past three decades (and especially the 1990s) on area-sown-tovarieties in developing countries (except China) and various metrics of 'genetic diversity' based on varietal pedigree information for CIMMYT-related spring bread wheats, Smale et al. (2001, p.25)  conclude that \"The data are not consistent with the hypothesis that the genetic base of CIMMYT germplasm has tended to narrow over time.\" This may in part reflect the extensive use CIMMYT breeders and their collaborators have made of landraces and other material collected from all over the world, precisely the same type of genetic material that is conserved in genebanks.of the CG's germplasm holdings. Results from these studies are summarized in this report, together with the extrapolations made to develop a complete costing of the entire CG conservation and germplasm distribution effort. 2 The unique aspect of this study is that we developed an estimate of the current costs of conservation and used a set of plausible technical assumptions (based on present conservation practices) to derive the in perpetuity costs of conserving these seeds. The sensitivity of our baseline estimates to variations in key elements of the costing are also reported as a basis for setting targets for an endowment or stewardship fund to underwrite the CG's conservation effort over the very long run.INTRODUCTION 2 Extrapolating costs was not straightforward given the substantially different types of accessions held in the CG centres not directly costed, compared with those conventional crop accessions that make up most of the holdings in the centres we directly costed.For this costing analysis, we grouped the genebank operations into a set of three main services: q conservation services q distribution services q information services We take conservation services to include conserving agricultural genetic diversity in the form of a 'base collection' held in controlled environment conditions to maintain the stored plants (or plant parts) and seeds for use in the distant future. To fulfill this function properly requires maintaining healthy (free of disease) and viable germplasm in long-term storage, periodically checking the viability of the stored material (via germination tests) and regenerating it when required (planting the aged seeds and storing their progeny) and maintaining duplicates of the collection at other locations for safety reasons.The distribution activities are geared to making accessions available upon request for current utilization. This typically involves maintaining an 'active collection' of germplasm in a mediumterm storage facility from which samples of seed (or in vitro plantlets of crops that are usually vegetatively-propagated, such as cassava) are disseminated to researchers, crop breeders, farmers and other genebanks. Material stored in active collections typically requires more frequent regeneration than that in base collections because the environment in medium-term storage facilities is not as conducive to germplasm longevity (typically the temperature and humidity are not as low or as stable as in long-term stores because of more frequent access to retrieve samples for distribution) and germplasm sample sizes are eventually reduced as samples are shared with others to the point they must be replenished.Basic conservation and distribution activities also require keeping track of the size and condition of each holding and documenting so-called passport data that indicates the source of the seed samples (for example, obtained from another genebank, institution or a field collection expedition) and their physical attributes (including plant height, seed characteristics such as size, colour, and shape, and evident pest and disease susceptibility). Much of this agronomic information is collected when the seeds are grown out in greenhouses or the field for disease screening or regeneration. There are additional information services that generate useful and reliably accessible information about each accession to expedite the use of material for crop-improvement or other research purposes. Some of this information is obtained by purposefully screening the genebank collection for accessions with resistance to certain pests and diseases (often by planting out samples in the field and exposing them to certain pests or diseases or other stresses like too much or too little water at certain stages of growth). Increasingly, modern biotechnology tools are also being used to collect data at the molecular level, identifying the genetic basis for certain traits and other genetic information deemed desirable in breeding programmes.The demarcation between genebank and breeding functions is not always clear-cut. In some settings (such as in the CG centres, where the genebank activities form part of a more comprehensive research operation), some of the information services emanate from cropbreeding programmes. In other cases, some of the pre-breeding (e.g., molecular characterization) activities typically done as part of a breeding programme fall within the ambit of a genetic resource or genebank programme. To facilitate meaningful cross-centre comparisons that span a consistent set of core conservation activities, we confined the scope of our costing exercise to those functions that are essential for fulfilling the conservation and distribution demands placed on a genebank. Table 1 provides an overview of the functions that may form part of a genetic resource programme and identifies the subset of those activities included in our costing exercise. Notably, some management aspects deal with genetic resource issues not directly included in the conservation and distribution activities we costed. Thus only a share of the total management costs were included in our calculations.Table 1. A categorization of genebank operationsActivities not costed Management 1 Management 1 q q q q q Administrative tasks q q q q q Administrative tasks q q q q q Data-related activities 2 q q q q q Data-related activities 2Information provision q q q q q Acquisition (including basic q q q q q Characterization (additional morphological and passport data) morphological and molecular) q q q q q Long-term storage q q q q q Evaluation q q q q q Safety duplication q q q q q Pre-breeding q q q q q Viability testing q q q q q Other research q q q q q Regeneration Distribution Other services q q q q q Medium-term storage q q q q q Germplasm collection q q q q q Dissemination q q q q q Training q q q q q Viability testing q q q q q Regeneration 1 Some management activities pertain to functions other than the conservation and distribution activities encompassed by our estimates. Based on advice from genebank managers around 80% of these costs were shared among conservation and distribution activities and the residual was attributed to other functions not costed here.2 Excludes system-wide documentation and dissemination of data (e.g., CG SINGER)3 Average annual storage costs can be calculated as the total costs of storage in any year divided by the number of accessions in a storage collection. The marginal costs of storage would be the increase in total costs of storage that are incurred when an additional accession is added to the collection. See Pardey (1999 and 2000) for an elaboration of marginal costs in this context.To structure the costing exercise we considered the genebank operations within a production economics framework, wherein inputs such as labour, buildings, equipment and acquired seeds are processed to produce outputs in the form of stored and distributed seeds and the information that accompanies them. Properly stored seeds and related information can be disseminated on demand for current use, or held in storage as use options that can be exercised, repeatedly if necessary, in future years. We also partitioned total costs into their variable (both labour and operational), capital (buildings and durable equipment) and quasi-fixed (senior scientific staff) components. Costs in each class were then summarized in terms of average and marginal costs. 3 In our framework quasi-fixed inputs include the 'human capital' costs of the skilled labour and the scientific expertise such as the manager of a genebank and laboratory researchers. Technicians and temporary workers, or those paid on a daily basis, are treated as variable labour inputs. As a practical matter, we identified variable inputs as those that are sensitive to the size of the operation, capital inputs as those that are not and quasi-fixed inputs as a group of inputs that are neither fixed nor variable but 'lumpy.' A quasi-fixed input is lumpy in the sense that it is a discrete, indivisible unit that cannot be adjusted easily to match marginal changes in the extent of genebank operations; it is variable in that it is more easily adjusted (in discrete increments) than a capital item such as a building.A premium was placed on collecting and assembling the cost data in ways that were consistent in scope and treatment among centres. To do so meant addressing several conceptual and practical issues.Evolving protocols. During the period over which data were gathered, most genebanks were restructuring and reorganizing their operations, with consequent changes in some of their conservation protocols. In many cases these changes were stimulated by the findings of the 1995 SGRP review of the centre genebanks (SGRP 1996), in some other cases they represented plans put into practice by individual centres. For example, one genebank was reconfiguring its storage space across crops to more efficiently manage the space; another was building new structures to accommodate expanded operations. Cost profiles during a transitional period can be quite different from the structure of costs when operations are being managed in a steady state. 4 For this study we sought to compile and analyze the data for a 'representative' snapshot year, abstracting from the effects of abnormal one-off events and assuming away technological changes when projecting these representative costs forward to simulate costs incurred in future years.Jointness/divisibility. The genebank is but one of many programmes in a CG centre. Typically, some of the services required for operating a genebank are provided centrally and shared with other programmes. For example, seed health testing units, field operation units and engineering units usually supply services to various programmes within a centre, thereby realizing economies of scale and other efficiencies. A genebank operating as a stand-alone facility would have to secure each of these services independently, leading to higher costs than those reported here assuming cost-sharing arrangements. This study treats the costs of the shared operations as being divisible among programmes and they are partially allocated to the genebank based on the genebank's share of the overall operation. The costs of other centrally provided services (such as security, building maintenance and library) that cannot be allocated in this way are included as prorated parts of overhead costs.The issue of jointness also arises within the genebank operation. When accessions are regenerated due to either low viability or low stock, the general practice is to regenerate enough seeds for both the medium-and long-term storage, even though the purpose of the regeneration is to replenish seed stocks in only one part of the storage facility. This study assumes that the regeneration is performed for both purposes and the total costs of regeneration are allocated equally between conservation and distribution functions. Similarly, when seeds are packed after cleaning and drying, all the packing for different purposes (e.g., long-and medium-term storage, safety duplication, repatriation, distribution and so on) is done at the same time. Again, this study assumes that the packing is divisible and allocates the packing costs to different operations according to the amount of material and labour required for each purpose.Quality of operation. The FAO/IPGRI (1994) genebank standards manual lays out two sets of conservation standards. 5 One is an 'acceptable standard' considered to be a minimal but adequate standard, at least for the short term. The other is a 'preferred standard' that describes the basic conservation conditions (based on scientific criteria) that give a \"higher and thus safer standard\". The funding realities are such that most CG genebanks have insufficient resources to satisfy all the criteria required to meet the preferred standard. Thus genebank managers are forced to continually juggle priorities, meeting some aspects of the preferred standard for some parts of the collection, implementing the acceptable standard for other aspects of the conservation effort and, in some instances, making do with less than acceptable standards. 6 Meeting the preferred standard clearly costs more than maintaining the holding in acceptable condition. 7 Taking cost data at face value is thus tricky. A comparatively high cost for a certain operation in one genebank does not necessarily imply that this operation is being achieved with less efficiency than the same operation at a lower cost genebank. It might simply indicate a higher standard of operation. Because quality standards vary among centres and within centres over time, comparing costs on the premise that all-else-is-equal (including the quality of operations) can be quite misleading.Capital costs. To estimate the annualized 'user-cost' of capital, we compiled information on the purchase price of each capital item and combined that with notions of the service profiles of each item 8 and the real rate of interest. Past capital purchases were made on different dates, so they were inflated forward using the most applicable price index series to express them in a set of base-year (taken to be the year 2000) prices. We also assumed a depreciation profile in which the capital good survives intact until the end of its life and then disappears all at once. 9 Annual depreciation costs are constant under this profile and so the annualized cost is easily calculated using the interest rate and service lives of each item. Equation (3) in Appendix A was used to derive the annual user cost of a capital item.Dynamic costs and life-cycle considerations. The costs of some operations such as storage are incurred annually, while the costs of other operations such as regeneration are incurred periodically, say every 20 to 30 years, and the viability of a sample is tested every five years or so. Thus the conservation costs of a sample in any particular year depend on the time in storage and the status of the sample. Figure 1 illustrates an example of the profile of conservation costs incurred during the life cycle of an accession from introduction, expressed in present-value terms with a positive discount rate. When an accession is newly introduced into a genebank at time zero, it is typically regenerated and tested for viability and health, and the costs of conservation in that year are especially high. During a normal year when an accession is simply held in storage (such as time t A in Figure 1), the conservation cost consists of only the long-term costs of storage. When an accession requires regeneration after failing a viability test, the costs in that year (time t B in Figure 1) are higher than the cost at time t A . Year t C represents a year in which a sample successfully passes a viability test and requires no regeneration. Appendix A provides the formulas we used to calculate the present values of cost elements that are incurred repeatedly but at varying intervals. The present value of the costs of conserving an accession in perpetuity is obtained by summing all the areas (irrespective of their shading) of the bar graph in Figure 1.   2) -about 10% of the estimated six million accessions held in genebanks worldwide (FAO 1998). 10 Beginning in October 1994, the CG centres collectively agreed to place the genetic material held in their genebanks under the auspices of an 'in-trust' agreement with the FAO, with the intent of maintaining the collection in the global public domain. About 77% of the material held in the genebanks is now conserved under the terms of this in-trust agreement. 11 Material designated as part of the in-trust collection is made freely available, but with the stipulation that recipients agree not to seek intellectual property protection on any of the in-trust material obtained from CG centres.As the world repository of germplasm for the poor, CG genebanks mainly hold landraces and wild species of crops (73% of their total holdings) that are especially important to people in developing countries, such as cassava, yam and chickpea, and crops grown worldwide, such as rice, wheat and maize. As the amount of material held in genebanks worldwide grew markedly in the past few decades (with new and expanding genebank collections drawing in accessions held elsewhere), the number of duplicates began to proliferate. FAO (1998) claimed the number of unique accessions held in ex situ collections worldwide in 1996 was between 1 to 2 million. Thus given the high proportion of landraces and wild species in the CG collection, the percentage of the world's unique ex situ accessions held in CG genebanks could be much higher than its share of the global ex situ collection (600,000 out of 6 million accessions).Storing seeds and other plant material. Most of the accessions that produce storable seeds are placed in packets or small containers and stored in medium-term storage facilities (maintained at 0 to 5°C and 15 to 20% relative humidity) as an active collection. Most of this material is also kept in long-term storage facilities (held at colder temperatures, often in the range -18 to -20 °C) as a base collection. The expectation is that most seed samples (but, perhaps, not all, and so the need for monitoring) will remain viable for 20 to 30 years in mediumterm storage and for up to 100 years in long-term storage, depending on the species, the initial seed quality and the specifics of the storage environment. Seed samples are checked for viability every 5 to 10 years and regenerated if the viability drops below a threshold level.Vegetatively-propagated species (including crops such as cassava, potato and banana) are conserved as whole plants in field genebanks. They are also kept as live specimens, often maintained on a special growth medium in test tubes stored under warm, lighted conditions (23°C and 1500 to 2000 lux) in so-called in vitro genebanks. Plants in field genebanks can be readily characterized and evaluated but are susceptible to environmental variations and are increasingly difficult to distribute internationally due to increasingly stringent phytosanitary restrictions. In vitro genebanks store plants in controlled environments with less risk of natural disaster and facilitate the distribution of disease-free materials internationally. Another option that may become economically attractive for long-term conservation is to use cryoconservation techniques, conserving plant material (and even seeds for that matter) at extremely low temperatures (-196°C maintained with liquid nitrogen); some material is already stored this way. However, protocols for cryoconservation for many species (and even some genotypes within a species) are not fully elaborated and remain under active investigation.The protocols used by ICRAF for conserving and distributing tree germplasm are quite different from the protocols generally used for crop species throughout the rest of the CG. Some tree species are kept as seed in cold storage (much like other crops, with the exception that the amount of material stored per accession is often vastly larger than for other crops), but other material is conserved in field genebanks and the bulk of the distributions are made from seed harvested from 'nuclear or catalyst stocks' maintained at various locations throughout the world.Shipping seeds and other plant material. Complementing the conservation services, another important service provided by CG genebanks is to disseminate seed and other plant samples free of charge upon request. Samples for ready dissemination are maintained in medium-term storage as active collections, which require more frequent viability testing and regeneration than do long-term collections. Table 3 provides details on the material shipped from each CG genebank in the past seven years. The figures indicate the total number of samples distributed (i.e., including the samples shipped to those outside each centre as well as samples used for breeding and other purposes within each CG centre). From 1994 to 1999, over half a million samples were shipped by the CG genebanks (averaging more than 88,000 samples per year), of which more than half the samples were disseminated to breeders and other scientists working within each centre.Most of the samples held in the CG genebanks are landraces and wild species. 12 This material is an important source of genetic diversity (and a potentially valuable source of novel and useful traits), but it is presently less amenable to ready utilization in crop breeding programmes. Demand for this type of material is thus lower than that for well-characterized and better-known breeding lines. While a very substantial number of samples have been shipped, the number of samples per se may not accurately indicate the utilization of this material. More complete information on the impact of this germplasm on crop-breeding efforts globally (as sources of new, desirable traits) and various other uses is needed to reasonably assess the use value of the material held in the CG genebanks.The structure of conservation costs critically depends on (i) the type of crops being conserved, (ii) institutional differences such as cost-sharing arrangements within each CG centre, and (iii) the local climate and general state of the infrastructure (such as electricity supplies, communications and international shipment options) available to each genebank. For example, regenerating cross-pollinating crops (such as maize, sorghum and pearl millet) or wild and weedy species is typically more complicated than regenerating self-pollinating cultivated species. 14 Vegetatively-propagated species maintained in vitro as clones and in field genebanks are much more expensive to conserve than stored seeds. Besides these crop-specific aspects, differences in wage structures and the composition of labour (which are affected by local labour laws and practices) also have significant impacts on the overall costs. Moreover, if the local climate is inappropriate for regenerating some accessions, it may be necessary to plant them out at other locations.Our basic approach was to estimate a representative set of baseline costs per accession in ways that would make it possible to evaluate the sensitivity of these baseline costs to differences in key crop-, location-and institution-specific factors. To systematically address these diverse factors within a reasonable timeframe, we conducted cost studies of five CG centres, standardizing as much as possible our treatment of the data to facilitate meaningful comparisons. The five centres are CIMMYT, CIAT, ICARDA, ICRISAT and IRRI, constituting nearly 90% of the total CG-held collection (578,742 out of 666,080 accessions, Table 2). Using the annual budgets for each genebank during 1998 and 1999 reported in SGRP (2000, Table 3, p.16), these five genebanks constituted about 55% of the total budget of the 11 CG genebanks (US$ 3.8 million out of US$ 6.9 million). But the scope of activities (and hence the functions funded from each genebank budget) varies from one genebank to another.The case studies were conducted over several years-1996 data were used for CIMMYT, 1998 for ICARDA, 1999 for IRRI and ICRISAT and 2000 for CIAT. To control for the effects of inflation, we expressed all costs in year 2000 prices using a weighted average of the producer price index for the G7 countries constructed from data obtained from OECD (2000) and World Bank (2000). 15 Appendix Table 1 presents a breakdown of the baseline, per-accession costs for each operation, for each crop, for each centre. Some interesting comparisons are possible. For most crops at most centres the differences between medium-and long-term storage costs are much smaller than the differences in regeneration costs among crops, the general pattern being that cross-pollinating species (such as maize at CIMMYT and pigeonpeas at ICRISAT) and wild species (such as wild groundnut at ICRISAT or wild rice at IRRI) are much more costly to regenerate than other types of crops. The costs associated with vegetatively propagated crops (such as cassava at CIAT) are also comparatively high due to the intensity of labor required for subculturing. There are also significant locational-cum-institutional differences in the costs of regenerating crops; for instance wheat at CIMMYT versus ICARDA, forages at ICARDA versus CIAT, and chickpeas at ICRISAT versus ICARDA.Table 4 reports the average costs of conserving (and distributing) an accession for one year. 16 Clearly the annual average cost depends on the crop in question and the state of the sample, including its time in storage, time from last regeneration or viability test, and the like. If an existing sample is known to be viable, it costs little to hold it over for one more year-less than US$ 2 per accession for most crops. However, if the sample requires regenerating because it failed a viability test, the holding costs increase substantially with the additional viability testing and regeneration costs. If the accession is newly introduced into the genebank (so that health testing is also required), the cost jumps even further and the variation in costs among crops increases. The structure of the distribution costs are similarly revealed in the two righthand columns of Table 4. 14 It is crucial to regenerate material in ways that minimize the genetic drift from the planted to harvested sample. In promiscuously out-crossing plants like maize, this requires fairly elaborate procedures, like hand pollinating each plant and isolating the pollen of each plant by placing a cover over its tassels. 15 The index was formed by taking a weighted sum of the national producer price indices for the G7 countries where the weights were the respective country shares in the seven-country GDP total. The index was 100.9 in 1996, 101.4 in 1997, 100.6 in 1998, 101.2 in 1999 and 104.4 in 2000. 16 In this and all subsequent tables we opted not to round off our estimates to facilitate cross-referencing, but this should not be construed as implying any false precision.  Table 5 provides a representative snapshot of the total annual conservation and distribution costs incurred by each of the centres. The estimates for CIAT, CIMMYT, ICARDA, ICRISAT and IRRI were obtained directly and used as the basis for estimating the costs for the remaining six CG centres with active conservation programmes. 17 These costs include all the labour and operational costs incurred to provide core conservation and distribution services for one year, and an estimate of the annualized cost of the recurrent capital expenditures required to build and equip the genebanks. Based on the assumptions that underlie these estimates, the total annual cost for the CG genebanks is US$ 5.7 million. Table 5 illustrates that the number of accessions per se is not an especially good indicator of the comparative costs of conservation. There are many other factors-some intrinsic to the crop in question, others relating to locational and institutional aspects-that affect these costs.Table 4 refers to the costs of conserving an accession for one more year, with the notion that decisions can be revisited the following year. However, the presumption is that the CG collection is being held for safe keeping for an indefinite future, so that an in perpetuity (i.e., from now to eternity) perspective on costs is more appropriate than a one-year perspective. Indeed the notion that the CG is guaranteeing safe keeping of these genetic resources for the common good, for both current and all future generations, is implicit in its in-trust commitments to the FAO. The cost of such a guarantee depends on a host of factors, not least the state of future conservation technologies, input costs (including the rate of interest used to calculate the present value of an indefinite future stream of costs), storage capacity vis-à-vis the size of the holding and regeneration intervals. Table 6 reports the present value of the average costs of conserving an accession in perpetuity, assuming per accession costs are constant over time 17 In section 4 below we sketch the basis for extrapolating costs to include all 11 CG genebanks. Source: Authors' calculations. Note: These estimates of annual total costs were based on the in-perpetuity costs given in Table 7. This method provides an annual average costs that implicitly takes account of differences in the long-term structure of the recurrent capital purchases for each of the genebanks and also recognizes that only a fraction of each centre's total holding is regenerated in any given year. Thus these costs are also sensitive to assumptions about the rate interest (here taken to be 4 % per annum) and the length of the regeneration cycles, among other things. All costs are denominated in year 2000 US dollars. a Material in other centres mainly consists of vegetatively-propagated species, and we used the costs of maintaining cassava at CIAT as the basis for costing this material. Thus, some crop-specific characteristics of the vegetatively-propagated species may not have been considered here. The costs of conserving and distributing agroforestry material was based on data provided by the manager of the ICRAF genetic resources programme. in real (i.e, inflation-adjusted) terms and baseline conservation protocols are maintained throughout the entire period. 18 Here the present value represents the value of the stream of time-discounted future costs, recognizing that with positive interest rates a dollar expensed in the future is less costly than a dollar expensed today (because today's dollar could be invested and return more than a dollar in the future.)For cassava, the present value cost of cryoconservation is lower than either in vitro conservation or a field genebank, implying potential cost saving from using this type of conservation method. The table also shows that the present value of distribution costs are generally higher than the present value of conservation costs. This is due to the more frequent regeneration and viability testing of seeds held in medium-term storage (from which distributed seeds are drawn) as well as the high 18 The baseline assumptions for seed storage are (i) accessions in the medium-term storage are conserved for 25 years and those in the long-term storage for 50 years, (ii) viability testing is done every five years for seeds in medium-term storage and 10 years for those in long-term storage, (iii) an accession is disseminated once every 10 years and (iv) the presumed real interest rate is 4%. We also assume that all accessions are held both in medium-and long-term storage. For in vitro conservation of cassava, we assume that subculturing is done every 1.5 years. For cryoconservation, the storage life is assumed to be 100 years and the interval of viability testing is 10 years. The present values of the costs for each operation are calculated using the formula in Appendix A. COSTING THE CG GENEBANKS cost of dissemination per se. The right-hand column of total costs in Table 6 indicates the presentvalue cost of conserving an accession forever and maintaining the current average rate of dissemination for each accession over this same period of time. The crops conserved at CIMMYT represent the upper and lower bounds of the present value of total costs for all the crops in our study-US$ 62 for each accession of wheat and US$ 690 for each accession of maize.Figure 2 compares the costs of conserving an accession for one year (panel a) with the present-value costs of conserving an accession in perpetuity (panel b). Simply holding a seed sample for one year (in which the sample requires no special treatment) costs less than US$ 1.50, except for maize, which costs US$ 2.16 per accession, and cassava conserved in vitro, which costs US$ 11.98 per accession. These storage costs consist mainly of the costs of electricity and the annualized capital cost of the storage facility, with a small expense for maintaining the storage equipment. The storage costs of crops at ICARDA are comparatively low due to its cheap labour and electricity costs, while costs are higher at ICRISAT, where electricity is expensive. The comparatively high cost of storing maize is due to its comparatively big seed size (less seed fits in a given storage space and more costly containers are required).However, considering storage costs in perpetuity (which also include viability testing and regeneration costs) changes the ranking of costs. For example, the costs of forage conserved at CIAT and wild rice at IRRI are now higher than those of chickpeas or sorghum at ICRISAT due to the higher costs of regenerating forages and wild rice (repetitive costs that mount up over the longer term). As a rule, wild and weedy species and cross-pollinating crops that are relatively expensive to regenerate are more expensive in present-value terms when costs are cumulated over the long term.     The present value of costs in perpetuity represents the amount of money that would need to be set aside (at, say, a 4% real rate of interest) to underwrite genebank activities at their current levels over the long term. We used the costing evidence in Table 6 as the basis for calculating the size of an endowment fund that would assure the conservation of the CG holdings for all future generations. To do this we presumed a particular correspondence between the per accession costs for crops we did directly cost and for those CG crops not included in our centre studies. 19 This method of extrapolating costs based on per accession cost might bias down the conservation costs for smaller genebanks since it may understate the costs of some indivisible capital equipment and facilities that are required regardless of the size of genebanks.Because of the substantial differences in conserving and regenerating tree compared with conventional crop species, we relied on annual budget data and informed estimates from the manager of the ICRAF genetic resource programme to generate a proximate but representative estimate of the annual conservation, multiplication and distribution costs incurred by ICRAF. To maintain a headquarter operation (which includes a medium-term storage facility and ancillary buildings) and a wide network of on-farm conservation and regeneration sites in 10 countries around the world, the estimated total annual operating cost is about US$ 800,000, of which 80% was allocated to the conservation and distribution functions of ICRAF that were included in this study (and split 4:6 between these two functions).Baseline estimates. Table 7 presents our best baseline estimates of the centre-specific and CG-wide endowment fund that would be sufficient to underwrite the CG's basic conservation and distribution functions at their present levels of activity into the indefinite future. Based on our assessment of the relevant costs, a US$ 149 million endowment invested at a real rate of interest of 4% per annum (or a nominal rate of, say, 7% if inflation is expected to average 3% per annum over the long run) would generate a real annual revenue flow of US$ 5.7 million, sufficient to cover the costs of conserving and distributing the current holdings of all 11 CG genebanks in perpetuity. About 20% of the endowment funds (nearly US$ 30 million) would be needed to underwrite the on-going purchases of equipment and genebank buildings as they need replacing. The rest would need to be set aside to meet the recurring non-capital costs.Figure 3 illustrates the estimated centre-specific shares of this overall endowment fund. The conservation and dissemination activities undertaken by the five centres we directly costed (and that collectively conserve 87% of the CG's current germplasm holdings) could be supported with 66% of the total endowment fund, with the remaining 34% underwriting activities at the six centres we did not directly cost. These estimates indicate that 13% of the genebank holdings account for 34% of the total costs. This is because the vegetatively propagated material that constitutes a large part of the IITA, CIP and IPGRI/INIBAP collections and the tree species conserved by ICRAF are intrinsically costly to store and regenerate. CIAT and CIMMYT constitute 17 and 18% respectively of the total costs. Both centres are located in comparatively advanced developing countries in Latin America, where wage rates are comparatively high by developing country standards; they also maintain sizable holdings of crops that are intrinsically costly to conserve-specifically vegetatively-propagated cassava at CIAT and cross-pollinating maize at CIMMYT.19 Specifically, we used CIAT's costs of conserving and distributing cassava as indicative of the corresponding costs for the root and tuber crops held at CIP, the Musa (banana) stored at INIBAP and the bananas, cassava and yams kept at IITA. Since the methods used to conserve these crops differ among centres, we used the in vitro and field genebank costs for the corresponding material held at CIP and IITA, and the in vitro and cryoconservation costs for the bananas stored at INIBAP. Rice costs at IRRI were deemed indicative of rice costs at WARDA, CIAT's forage costs were used to represent forage costs at ILRI, ICRISAT's chickpea costs were treated as equivalent to IITA's cowpea costs, while CIAT's bean and forage costs were treated as equivalent to IITA's soybean, miscellaneous legumes and wild vigna costs respectively.      Sensitivity analysis. Our baseline cost estimates build on a number of assumptions made explicit above. Here we explore the sensitivity of the overall costs (in present-value terms) to changes in those elements of the costing framework thought likely to significantly affect the final figure.Because the endowment fund represents the present value of the in-perpetuity costs it is designed to support, significant cost elements that repeat at regular intervals are likely to have a large effect on the estimated size of the endowment fund. Appendix Table 1 makes it clear that regeneration costs represent a significant share of the non-capital costs. Thus regenerating material at longer or shorter cycles will lower or raise costs accordingly. Interest rate is also a key component of any present value calculation; lower rates tend to raise the present value of future costs.We tested the sensitivity of our best endowment fund estimate (US$ 149 million) to changes in these two elements by re-estimating the fund figure using the regeneration cycles given in Appendix Table 2 and several rates of interest. In scenario A, the storage lives are comparatively short, requiring more frequent regeneration and viability testing. For scenario C, the storage lives are much longer, and the cycles of regeneration and viability testing are thus less frequent. Scenario B represents a medium (and seemingly most plausible) regeneration cycle used to form the baseline estimates in Table 7. Figure 4 shows that with this combination of key assumptions the size of the endowment fund could be as low as US$ 100 million (under scenario C with a high, 6% rate of interest) or as high as US$ 325 million (under scenario A with a low, 2% rate of interest).     In setting a target for a conservation fund there are other things to consider; some that would decrease the size of the endowment compared with our best estimate, others that would increase it. Improvements in storage efficiencies due to technical change would likely lower costs in the future (but then again other techniques may reduce the risk of loss but increase costs). The costs presented above are based on data collected during a time of structural and operational changes for some CG genebanks. We tried to abstract from the cost implications of these changes, but on balance we are likely left with an upper-bound estimate of the relevant costs if the genebanks were to be operating in steady state. Pardey et al. (2001), using data from CIMMYT, illustrated that savings through potential economies of scale and size may be realized from consolidating genebank facilities.There are some factors that would raise the endowment target. Our cost estimates were based on a steady-state continuation of the present level of activity into the distant future. Increasing the size of the collection or the number of samples distributed annually would obviously increase costs and the amount of funds required to support them. Conserving genetic material is a labour-intensive undertaking. If structural changes in developing-country labour markets cause local wage rates to rise the endowment fund would need to grow accordingly.Moreover, our cost estimates include only those core activities required to conserve and distribute the CG holdings now and forever. Wright (1997) pointed out that the general lack of evaluation information on stored germplasm has severely limited its use in crop breeding and thereby curtails the demand for genebank material. Tanksley and McCouch (1997, p.1066)  described how modern molecular biology techniques could be used to tap the 'wide repertoire of genetic variants created and selected by nature over hundreds of millions of years [that are] contained in our germplasm banks in the form of exotic accessions.' Costing the characterization activities that provide the molecular basis for modern breeding efforts and thereby greatly enhance conventional crop-breeding techniques is a tricky exercise, depending in part on the state and nature of the rapidly changing biotechnologies and the timing of their use (Koo and  Wright 2000). In the absence of further detailed study, we believe it is prudent to match the resources devoted to conservation purposes with a comparable sum for their characterization and evaluation. This will greatly enhance the contribution of the conservation effort to the cropbreeding efforts of future generations worldwide.Using germplasm conserved by the CG, crop breeders developed improved crop varieties that were taken up by farmers the world over. The result has been unprecedented increases in crop yields in the past several decades with benefits in the tens of billions of dollars for developing country producers (through increased productivity and lower costs of production) and consumers (through lower food prices and improved grain quality) (Alston et al. 2000). The benefits to the rich countries have been substantial too (for example, see Brennan and Fox 1995 and Pardey  et al. 1996 for Australian and United States evidence respectively). There is no reason to think the flow of benefits will diminish any time soon: with little land left to bring into agriculture and a projected 3 billion increase in world population by 2050 (almost all occurring in poorer countries) yields must, and can, continue growing. This study provides a firm empirical basis for putting the CGIAR's conservation efforts on a firmer financial footing. If the future is anything like the recent past-and every indication is that it could be-setting aside $200-300 million to underwrite the CGIAR's genebank conservation and distribution efforts into the very distant future is a small down payment compared with the billions of dollars of benefits flowing from continued access to and use of this germplasm.  For example, if regenerating an accession costs US$ 100 and it is done every 20 years from year 20, then the present value of the cost of regenerating the accession in perpetuity is US$ 83 at 4% interest rate.  As a practical matter, conserving cassava in a field genebank is more properly thought of as a medium-term undertaking, but we included it here under long-term storage to reflect its conservation intent. Most cassava is distributed in the form of in vitro samples. A few samples are distributed locally as cuttings direct from the field genebank, and the associated costs are subsumed in the storage costs reported here.","tokenCount":"8582"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2d689c95eaebe4df5f97069448a0bf60","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3a002993-1e99-4970-915c-8083e6186742/retrieve","id":"-453276734"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4cdedc6d-8978-466b-87ab-67607e57a6ec","pagecount":"16","content":"We analyze rural households' purchases of food (cereals and non-cereals) in Sub-Saharan Africa using nationally representative data with 65,000 observations covering 7 countries over a decade. We distinguish between three strata of countries: lower stratum in income and urbanization, middle stratum, and upper stratum. The paper breaks ground by the breadth and time length of the sample. We find that purchases form the majority of rural food consumption whether in favorable or unfavorable agroecological zones and over country and income strata and for most food products. Rural nonfarm employment (as a cash source) plays an important role in household food purchases across all study countries and food products. Policy implications include the importance of food purchase markets and supply chains to and in rural areas as well as nonfarm employment.In this paper we present detailed evidence of the importance and determinants of purchases in food consumption of rural households in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This adds to a debate about how, and from what sources, farm households get the food they consume; and adds to a literature, and a fragmented evidence base that has been growing in developing regions for decades. Our contribution is a systematic analysis of this phenomenon over heterogeneous rural areas in widely differing countries, agroclimatic zones, food product types, and over the span of more than a decade (see Table 1).There has been a surge in interest in and importance of the topic of rural food purchases in SSA because of controversies in policy debates during COVID-19, with many taking a position that rural households are insulated from food price hikes because they rely little on purchases from food markets and can just grow their own food and wait out the crisis. This position harks back to a long-standing view of SSA rural households as autarchic, subsistence households. But recent evidence such as Maredia et al. (2022) showed for five SSA countries that COVID-19 effects on incomes and consumption were similar between urban and rural areas, suggesting that rural households depend on purchases from food markets.There has been a parallel surge of interest in rural food purchases in the nutrition debate, such as Sibhatu andQaim (2017, 2018) and Olabisi et al. (2021) showing that diet product diversity is not or only weakly correlated with crop diversity of rural households. This suggests that these households rely on purchases from markets.The above two recent debates dovetail with a long-term debate in the development literature about whether, how much, and where purchases take place (Barrett et al., 2022). Here we briefly review the evolution of the literature on this theme and point to the gaps that we address.A first strand of relevant literature was the farming systems literature in the 1960s and 1970s that emphasized the autarchic or subsistence character of the SSA rural households. It examined farmers' strategies to minimize cereal output variation, store and redistribute cereals, and supplement cereals with fruits and vegetables and animal products through home gardens, livestock holdings, and hunting and gathering (Eicher and Baker, 1982;Toulmin 1986).A second strand of literature emerging in the 1970s and 1980s focused on the exceptions to autarchy when, for example, droughts strained a village or a household's farm production. Households then \"cope\" with the shock by buying grain (this literature focused on foodgrains) either with cash from migrant earnings or sales of livestock or by doing farmwork for households who had grain stores and could pay for the work in-kind in the form of grain (e.g., in Mali, Toulmin, 1986;in the Gambia, Haswell, 1975;in Burkina Faso, Reardon et al., 1988).A third strand of literature emerged in the 1970s and 1980s and intensified in the 1990s/2000s; we call it \"development of structural purchasing.\" Rather than occasional purchases, structural changes in the rural household segment and the rural economy led to persistent purchasing. Three structural cases are noteworthy: a) Broadening of cash cropping induces households to buy food. An example is Kennedy and Cogill (1988) showing sugarcane farmers bought food (and had better nutrition than subsistence farmers). b) Persistent land poverty that causes rural households to be net food buyers. An early example of this is in research on pastoral households in SSA (Little et al., 2014 in the Horn of Africa). In Asia, Mellor (1976) contended that the Green Revolution would drive down rural food prices and help the rural poor because many small Indian farmers and landless are net buyers of food and thus food price increases hurt the rural poor and helped only the net seller minority. Weber et al. (1988), Barrett (2008), and Masters et al. (2013) underscored for Africa Mellor's India point. Part of the early African work literature contended that farmers undertake \"forced sales\" wherein they sold at low prices after the harvest and then ran out of food and had to purchase at high prices in the hungry season. This theme was revived in the 2000s and tested empirically (e.g., for Kenya, Stephens and Barrett, 2011;Renkow et al., 2004). We do not address this theme in the present paper. c) The rise of rural non-farm employment (RNFE) provides cash for food purchases by African households (Toulmin 1986;Reardon et al., 1988Reardon et al., , 1994)). As RNFE has grown quickly in developing countries, including in SSA, to form nearly half of rural incomes, RNFE as a cash source for food purchases has been increasingly recognized in the literature on food purchases (Haggblade et al., 2010). Studies (e.g., Sauer et al. (2021) in Tanzania) have shown that RNFE drives rural purchases of processed foods as women undertaking RNFE seek to save time home-processing and preparing food.The result of the above trends has been the rise of rural households' purchases of food in SSA. Various studies have documented that rise. Most of the studies have focused on individual countries and years; a number of these studies have shown that purchases have attained major shares of rural food consumption (such as Faye et al. (2023) for fruits and vegetables consumption).However, there is a gap in the literature: there is a need for a more comprehensive analysis across years and countries and agroecological zones to reach a systematic and comparative understanding of rural food purchases in Africa. To address that gap, we test for the diffusion and persistence of food purchases associated with variables we hypothesize to affect purchases: (1) macro and meso variables such as the level of development of the country, the agroecological status of the zone (whether it is favorable or unfavorable for crop production) and the rainfall level (good and bad rainfall years); and (2) micro variables such as farm size, RNFE, and other cash sources. These hypotheses have not yet been tested across countries and across years. Our evidence covers seven countries that range from upper to medium to lower developmentlevel country strata based on income and urbanization characteristics; the data span favorable and less-favorable agroclimatic zones; the data cover a wide set of food products; and our evidence documents change over a decade leading up to the present.The paper proceeds as follows. Section 2 discusses data and definitions. Section 3 presents descriptive statistics. Section 4 presents the regression model and its results. Section 5 concludes with implications for food security policies and strategies.We analyze nationally representative panel survey data from nearly 65,000 rural households from 7 countries in SSA: Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda. The data are from the rural household sub-sample of the Living Standards Measurement Study-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA), except for Ghana. These surveys were conducted by the country national statistical institutions in collaboration with the World Bank's LSMS team. For Ghana, we use the rural sub-sample of the Ghana Socioeconomic Panel Survey (GSPS), the only nationally representative panel survey for Ghana. For some of the Ghana analysis we complement the GSPS with data from the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS), an LSMS-type nationally representative repeated cross-sectional household survey that has comparable samples covering a longer period  than the GSPS. The LSMS-ISA surveys have comparable sample designs and questionnaires, albeit with some variations across countries. As much as possible our key variables are constructed from similar, and in most cases identical, questions across the countries.The surveys span various years but are mostly between 2010 and 2020 (Table A1, appendix). They have a two-stage sampling design where enumeration areas or clusters were drawn at the first stage for each stratum. Within each cluster, a listing of households was done to construct a sample frame from which a random sample of households was drawn. Because the samples are not self-weighting, we use sampling weights provided in the datasets to account for the complex survey design. This generates nationally representative statistics from the samples. The sample weight for each household is calculated as the inverse of the probability of being drawn from the frame given the sampling design. Most of the panel surveys ran for three waves and then introduced 'refresh' samples, and in some cases only a small sub-sample of the original panel was maintained. To ensure the integrity of the panel and have sufficient statistical power for our empirical analysis, we utilize the available data in various ways. For each country, we construct the longest possible panel but with sufficient observations to be representative of the rural population. For some countries, we do the analysis using more than one sampleone with a relatively short panel but with higher statistical power, and then another with a longer panel but fewer observations per wave. In some cases, we also utilize the latest cross-section where there is a new baseline to get more information. Table 1 provides a summary of the rural sample used for each country. To understand changes occurring for the same households over time, we use only the balanced samples for the panel data regression analyses, mostly dropping observations that appear in only one wave. Panel attrition rates across the samples range between about 2% for Ethiopia and 9% for Ghana. Note.The purchased shares are all in value terms. a GDP per capita is retrieved from World Bank (2021) and is averaged over the last three most recent years for which data is available (i.e., 2017-2019).A key variable in our analysis is shares of purchases in food consumption, for food overall and for various product categories. This share is food consumed (overall or of product i) that is purchased, divided by the value of total food consumed. The latter is the sum of food consumed from purchases, own-production, and food gifts and payments received in-kind. We calculate that share over food groups including: (1) cereals;(2) roots & tubers; (3) pulses; (4) edible oils; (5) fruits and vegetables; and (6) animal proteins.Over the period of the panels, some food items were added to the list in some countries. However, in all countries except Ethiopia, about 98% of the food items were consistently covered over the period of the panels. For all countries, we use the list of food items for which we have data over the entire period of the panels.We valued all foods consumed that were not purchased at the cluster or community median price if there were sufficient observations at that level. Otherwise, we use the median price at the next level of aggregation such as the ward or local government area, depending on the country.In the regressions, we will show the correlations between the share of purchases in consumption and various income sources. We define the latter here. There are two functional categories of income: (1) cash income, from both earned income (from agricultural sales, selfemployment in rural non-farm income (RNFI) enterprises, and wage and salary employment) and unearned income (most of which is remittances); (2) in-kind income, formed by addition of the imputed value of in-kind income received as gifts and in-kind payments (either selfvalued or imputed using cluster median prices) and the imputed value of own-produced agricultural production less the costs of own agricultural production. There are two sectoral sources of income: (1) farm income (income from crops and livestock); (2) RNFI (all other income, cash or in-kind, earned though the supply of household labor to manufactures or services undertaken in rural areas including in rural towns).While remittances can in theory be in cash or in-kind (such as a sack of grain sent from the city to the rural household) and can be from the farm or non-farm sector, most of the remittances are in cash and from household members undertaking non-farm activity in cities, although some are in other farm areas. We count remittances as unearned income; we lump with them pensions which are a minor source of transfers: on average across all the countries, migrant remittances make up 85% of this source of income (98-100% for Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, and Niger).We expect purchases of food by rural households to be correlated positively with the GDP per capita of a country and negatively with the share of rural population in total population. In turn, GDP/capita is positively and the rural share of population is negatively correlated with overall economic development and transformation (Timmer, 1988).Table 2 shows the study countries' GDP per capita in current USD purchasing power parity (PPP) terms as an average of the three most recently available years from the World Bank (https://data.worldbank. org/indicator), 2019-2021. The table also shows the share of the rural population in total population in 2021 from the same source.The countries roughly divide into three sets which we will call upper, middle, and lower country strata based on the above indicators. Upper includes Ghana and Nigeria, with an average GDP/capita of 5488 USD and rural population share of 49%; middle includes Tanzania and Uganda, with GDP/capita of 2564 USD and rural share of 69%; lower includes Ethiopia, Malawi, and Niger, with a GDP/capita of 1760 USD Notes: Authors' computations using the datasets described.and a rural share of 81%.For each country, we grouped households into those living in favorable and unfavorable (or less-favorable) production zones based on rainfall distribution. The favorable zones tend to have bimodal rainfall distributions (and thus weak seasonality). The less-favorable zones have unimodal rainfall distributions (and thus sharp seasonality). Just due to the geography of the selected countries, in many countries the favorable zone was southern and the less favorable more Northern.Food constitutes the largest share of rural African households' total consumption, accounting for more than 60% of the household's budget in 6 out of the 7 countries, on average, over the survey periods (Figures A1-A3, appendix). Consistent with Engel's Law, Figure A4 shows that, in general, the poor spend a higher share of their income on food. Also, we observe in all countries a pattern consistent with Bennett's Law which states that as household income rises, the share of the food budget devoted to grains falls (Figure A5, appendix) while fruits and vegetables and animal proteins' shares of the food budget rise (Figures A6 and A7,appendix).The rest of this section focuses on patterns in food purchases of sample households, and cash incomes and other characteristics of households that can help to understand how households fund and why they make food purchases. This is further explored with regressions in Section 4.3.1. Food total and food categories purchase shares in rural areas of the three strata of countriesTable 2 shows sample households' shares of purchases in rural food consumption overall and by food product category. The following points stand out.First, on average over the 7 countries the majority (58%) of all food consumed is purchased; the share is more than 50% in 5 out of the 7 countries. As expected, the shares differ (statistically significantly) over the country strata, increasing with income and decreasing with rurality, with 44% in the lower stratum (Ethiopia, Malawi, Niger), 51% in the middle (Tanzania and Uganda), and 72% in the upper (Ghana and Nigeria). Niger is the exception in the lower stratum, with a share of 70%, probably because its unfavorable farming conditions push rural households to buy food.Second, over the 7 countries, there are substantial shares of purchases in consumption of basic staples (cereals, 51%, pulses, 61%, and roots/tubers, 51%). These findings are at odds with a long tradition in the African debate of the assumption that farmers grow their own staples and rely little on food markets; this point of view was much in evidence in the African policy debate during the years of COVID-19 such as in Nigeria (Liverpool-Tasie et al., 2021). The results are similar over most of the countries, with two sets of exceptions: Ethiopia and Malawi where the shares of purchases in cereals dip to a quarter and a third (with the other countries being above a half), and Uganda and Tanzania where the share of purchases of roots and tubers dip to a third and a quarter. The cereals exceptions can be explained by the high incidence of remote poor grain farms in those countries. The roots and tubers exceptions can be explained by these products being bulky and costly to transport and their being often grown and consumed mainly in remote mountainous areas (such as in Northwest Tanzania).Third, a large majority of non-staple products are purchased, and this is consistent across all country strata: the purchase shares are over 70% for edible oils (79%), fruits and vegetables (74%), and animal products (72%). The purchase shares of edible oils are very high across all 7 countries because it is common for the import share of these oils to be high. More surprising is that the share of purchases in rural consumption of fruits and vegetables is around three quarters in both high and low strata countries; even in the middle stratum, more than half is purchased. This flies in the face of the common image of rural households growing their own vegetables in home gardens for sauce and backyard mangoes for seasonal treats. These findings corroborate country-specific findings such as Faye et al. (2023) who show for rural Senegal that 76% of fruit and vegetable consumption is purchased.. These purchases are supplied by relatively long supply chains from a few commercial horticulture zones to penetrate all around the Senegal, in rural and urban areas.Also surprising is the high share of animal proteins purchased in high and medium strata countries, 87 and 77% respectively. The share is somewhat lower in low strata countries, 52%, but this masks the fact that Malawi and Niger have shares of 80% and 78%, like the upper strata countries, while Ethiopia's purchase share is only one third. This latter low share of purchases may be due to the importance of milk in Ethiopian hinterland rural diets and farmers often having their own milk cows mainly for subsistence (Minten et al., 2020). Table 3 shows shares of purchases in food consumption of rural households by country and over time by product group. The following points stand out.First, for overall food, for the upper stratum countries, there was little change in the purchase share over the decade of the 2010s. For the middle stratum, the share increased by about 10%. For the lower stratum countries by contrast there was a sharp rise: 30% for Ethiopia (from 33 to 43%), and for Malawi, also 30% (44-58%). The findings suggest that the upper stratum is already at stability or \"maturity\" of about three-quarters of food being purchased; in the middle, Tanzania and Uganda are gradually rising toward that share at a modest convergence rate. By contrast, Ethiopian and Malawian rural areas are rushing toward convergence with the middle. This pattern of advanced countries in stasis, middle in gradual climb, and lagging areas in rapid change, mirrors a common pattern of \"convergence\" such as described for the industrial revolution by Gerschenkron (1962). The rate of transformation of food consumption habits in Ethiopia and Malawi is remarkable, showing how malleable food habits are and how change can sweep a countryside only recently thought highly traditional.Second, in the lower stratum countries the jump in the purchase share of cereals consumption in the 2010s was two times faster than for overall foods (in Ethiopia, 20-32%, and Malawi, 28-44%). This shift from \"self-reliance\" for grain consumption contradicts the traditional image because it is often thought that while some households might buy what may be considered as luxuries beyond basic grains, they depend only on their own grains (and tend not to sell their grain) due to what was long held as a missing or constrained rural market for foodgrains for African rural areas (Liverpool-Tasie et al., 2021).The share of purchases in cereals stayed below that in overall food, but even in the poorest countries the data show that is changing quickly: the share of purchases in cereals at the end of the decade is close to the share of purchases in overall food at the start of the 2010s. In the upper and middle strata countries, the shares of purchases in grain consumption rose at about the same rate as in overall food and the shares do not differ much from those for overall food, implying that for all but Ethiopia and Malawi, the shift to purchasing cereals happened before the 2010s -perhaps well before but we do not have the data to explore that.Third, in all countries but Ethiopia the great majority of edible oils were purchased. The Ethiopia case is striking: in just a decade the share of purchases of edible oils leapt from 29 to 57%.Fourth, there is a moderate (7-10%) decline in the purchase share of fruits and vegetables in food consumption in the upper stratum countries, dropping down to three quarters purchased. In the middle stratum, the shares in Tanzania and Malawi rose 7%, while Ethiopia's stayed stable at 90%, higher than other countries.Fifth, the share of purchases in consumption of animal proteins shifted a bit in most countries but stayed high. It dropped 10% (but still to a high 82%) in Nigeria and rose slight in Ghana from 81% to 84%. Tanzania's rose 11%-78% to converge with Uganda's 79% and Malawi's 81%. The outlier was Ethiopia, both much lower overall, and with a decline from 36% to only 30%. This may be because Ethiopian rural households' own production of livestock is nearly double the average across study countries; this reinforces the image of the rural hinterland \"pocket\" being more substantial in Ethiopia than the other countries.Table 5 shows shares of purchases in food consumption of rural households by country and over time by favorable versus less-favorable zone, and per zone, by harvest versus lean season. The following points stand out.First, for the upper and middle strata countries: (1) there is not much seasonality in the purchase share, with the less-favorable zone having just a slightly larger increase in purchase shares between the harvest and lean seasons; (2) controlling for the season, there is not much difference in purchase shares between favorable and less-favorable zones.Second, by contrast, in the lower stratum countries even in the favorable zones the lean season has higher shares of purchases than in the harvest season. In the final survey year, in Ethiopia's favorable zone, the lean season's purchase share is 10% higher than in the harvest season, and in the less-favorable zone, 15%. The pattern is similar in Malawi.Table 2 shows salient characteristics of the households that have probable influences on the shares of food purchases of the households. The patterns are used to form hypotheses that are tested in the regression section. Note that household assets and demographic characteristics are discussed in the Appendix.First, on average across the countries, 53% of total household income comes from own-farming. The share varies sharply and inversely with the country stratum: with a low in Nigeria (38%), highs in Ethiopia (79%) and Niger (78%), and near the average in the other countries. As unearned income is minor (around 5% on average across all countries), most of the non-own-cropping income is RNFI. RNFI averages 43% of rural household income across all countries and is higher (58%) in the upper stratum countries and lower in the other two strata (around 40%). This is similar to findings in Haggblade et al. (2010) from diverse household data in Africa. Ghana is an outlier with an RNFI of only 36% and an own-farm income share of 53%; this is because there is a lot of cash cropping in Ghana. The low own-farm income shares and high RNFI share in Nigeria may be due to a high urbanization rate and many small and medium towns creating linkages to rural areas. While urbanization rates are also high in Ghana, the link to the rural economy is seen more though the higher share of income (11%) from migrant remittances, which when added to RNFI raises the non-own-cropping share to 47%. 1  Moreover, cash income in total income (with the complement being the imputed value of own-farm production that is home consumed, i.e., not sold) is on average 68% of total income across all countries: SSA rural households are highly \"monetized\" in all three country strata.RNFI is the most important component of cash incomeits share in total cash income averages 53% over all countries. Among the upper stratum, RNFI's share is lower in Ghana (44%) than in Nigeria (67%), again because cash cropping is particularly important in Ghana. 2 In the other countries the RNFI share of cash share is 60-70%, except for Ethiopia with only 26%.Figs. 1-3 show shares of cash income in total income by zone type. Overall, in all three strata of countries (with Mali being an outlier) rural household income is mainly composed of cash in both favorable and less-favorable agroecological zones. In all but Ethiopia and Niger the share of cash in total income was relatively close between the two zone types. The following specific points stand out.First, in upper stratum countries, the cash share in favorable zones exceeds that of less-favorable zones by only 11% for Ghana and 6% for Nigeria. The shares were relatively stable over the decade except for the less-favorable zone in Ghana where the share rose from 57 to 78% probably due to road improvement in northern Ghana that helped the zone integrate more into the national cash economy. The modest difference between favorable and less favorable zones can be attributed to pull factors (like agriculturally linked RNFE in the favorable zones) balancing the push factors (like the need to compensate for a poor resource base in the less-favorable zone).Second, in middle and lower strata countries (except for Uganda and Malawi where the difference is not significant statistically), the cash share is higher for the less-favorable zone than the favorable zone by 11% in Tanzania and Ethiopia and 28% in Mali. We surmise that these results differ from those of the upper stratum because push factors in the less-favored zone (such as rainfall risk) are stronger in the middle and lower strata countries and drive households to undertake more coping and risk management via undertaking RNFE to compensate.In some countries the cash share climbed quickly, such as in the lessfavored zone in Tanzania where the share climbed from 62 to 76% over the decade; in Malawi and Ethiopia the share jumped from 55% to 71%  in the favorable and from 50% to 78% in the less-favorable zone. Ethiopia showed a more \"expected\" pattern, with the cash share 20% higher in the less-favorable zone (presumably because of \"push factors\"). But even in the less-favorable zone in Ethiopia, there was a jump in the cash share of about 34% in the less-favorable zone.Table 4 shows shares of farm, RNFE, and unearned income in total cash income and total income (cash income plus the imputed value of own-farming output in gross terms).First, farm output sales only constitute 31% of household cash among the upper and middle strata countries, averaging over the decade (with Ghana's higher than the average at 43% and the rest around 30%). But this share changed over the years of the decade. Middle stratum countries saw a rapid decline in Tanzania (from 49 to 32%) and a rapid rise in Uganda (from 21 to 35%).By contrast, farm output sales form 58% of rural cash incomes in lower stratum countries. But this high share was driven mainly by Ethiopia which averaged 69% over the period, steady over years; Malawi's cash crop share in rural incomes was only 23% (and dropping fast from 32 to 14% over the years. Niger's bounced from 9% in 2012 to 24% in 2015, a situation that driven by poor rainfall in 2011 relative to 2014.Second, the great majority of cash outside farm sales is from RNFE in upper and middle strata countries where RNFE forms 65% and 58% of cash, respectively (averaged over years). The RNFE share of cash is also high in the lower income countries of Malawi and Niger (averaging 70 and 71%) but less than a third (26%) in Ethiopia (an outlier).Third, unearned income (mainly remittances) is only 6% of rural cash incomes and 4% of total income across all countries. Unearned income shares are particularly low in Nigeria (3%), Ethiopia (5%) and Malawi (7%), and higher in Uganda (11%), Tanzania (14%) and Ghana and Niger (13%). These findings dovetail with findings from detailed income surveys reviewed in Haggblade et al. (2010).Table 6 shows shares of purchases in overall food consumption by household farmland holding, commercialization, and income characteristics. For each country, we categorize rural households as having above or below the average of farmland per capita, of the commercialization rate (the ratio of farm output sales to total output in value terms), and of RNFI share. The following points stand out.First, for upper and middle strata countries, the food purchase share for below-land average households is about 7-10% higher than that for the above land-average households. In lower stratum countries, for Ethiopia, they differ by 13% on average over years, but only by 6% in Malawi and 5% in Niger. Thus, for 6 of 7 countries, the difference between the below versus above average landholders does not exceed 10% points. This is explained by the importance of RNFE for both low and high land groups, and the strong correlation of crop sales and farm size in all countries except Niger.Second, the upper and middle strata countries show purchase shares that are only 5-9% higher for the low commercialization households compared with high commercialization households. By contrast, in two of the three lower stratum countries (Malawi and Niger), the high commercialization households have higher purchase rates, particularly in the poorest country, Niger (around 19% higher). We interpret this as meaning that in the upper and middle strata countries, the commercialization rate has a weak effect on the food purchase rate, presumably because RFNE is the dominant cash source for food purchase. In the poorer countries, the RNFE factor is less strong and having cash from crop sales has a much stronger effect.Third, the \"Non-farm income share\" column of Table 6 shows RNFE is strongly positively correlated with the share of food purchased, and that effect is highest in the middle and low income countries. The effect is present but weaker in higher income countries, perhaps because the distribution is tighter around the non-farm average. In the upper stratum countries, the above-average RNFE share households have a 15-16% higher share of purchases in food consumption, averaging around 77% over the years and countrieshence only 23% of their consumption is coming from their own farming, versus 61% for the RNFE-belowaverage household. In middle-income countries, the shares are 64% versus 41% for high-and low-RNFE. The story is similar in lower stratum countries with Ethiopia's and Malawi's high-RNFE households having 20% and 22% higher share of purchases in food consumption. Niger is an outlier in terms of the high food purchase shares for both below and above average RNFE earning households which might be because of the unfavorable farming conditions that require even households with lower non-farm cash sources to still buy a large share of their food.To identify the correlates of the share of purchases in food consumption, we use a panel data model that allows us to account for unobserved time-invariant household-specific characteristic as expressed in Equation ( 1):where foodpurchaseshare it is the purchased share of foods consumed for household i in time t and X it is a vector of covariates expected to explain the variation in purchased share of food consumed by households. Thus X it includes demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of household i at time t such as household composition, literacy of the household head, household assets, income shares from RNFE and unearned income, livestock wealth (in tropical livestock units, TLU), and farmland owned. X it also includes covariates such as distance to markets, 3 agroecological zone (which affects household production capacity and/or access to markets), and seasonality dummies. 4 c i refers to time-invariant unobserved household-specific heterogeneity that could be correlated with the observed covariates and purchase share in food consumption. δ t are year fixed effects which we control for using time dummies. β is a vector of parameters (associated with the various covariates) to be estimated. 3 We used geospatial data collected in the LSMS survey on household distance to the nearest major market or \"key market centers\" in kilometers (km). 4 We constructed a seasonality variable that is a binary indicator of the period of the year when the survey collected data on food consumption. This variable takes on the value one if the consumption data were collected during the lean season (i.e., the months prior to the main crop harvest season), and zero if the consumption data were collected during the harvest season (i.e., during harvest and the immediate periods afterwards). For each country, we used information obtained from the \"global information and early warning system on food and agriculture country brief\" for each survey year to determine the survey-yearspecific lean and harvest seasons (www.fao.org/glews).Panel data allow us to control for time-invariant unobservable household-specific effects (c i ) such as the farmer's innate ability, which are expected to be correlated with the explanatory variables (Hausman and Taylor, 1981) and food purchase shares. If we assume that households are optimizers and aware of these household-specific factors in their decisions, then the unobserved household effects in the error term will be correlated with several covariates (particularly those such as income shares from various sources) resulting in a bias in standard ordinary least squares (OLS) estimation.The correlated random effects (CRE) estimator provides an approach that allows for correlation between the unobserved time invariant household specific factors c i and included explanatory variables. We use the CRE model developed by Mundlak (1978) and Chamberlain (1980) that models the distribution of the unobserved household-specific variable conditional on the means of the strictly exogenous variables instead of treating it as a parameter to estimate. To operationalize the Mundlak-Chamberlain approach within the context of our fractional dependent variable (i.e., the purchase share in food consumption which ranges between 0 and 1), we use the CRE fractional probit regression model (Papke and Wooldridge, 2008). We ran a pooled regression of our dependent variable on the explanatory variables, including the means over the survey years of the time-varying explanatory variables (X 1i ) as additional regressors:where X it = [X 1it , X 2i ] distinguishes between time-varying covariates (X 1it ) such as income shares, assets, market access, and household composition on the one hand and time-invariant covariates (X 2i ) such as agroecological zone dummies and gender. Given the complex survey design described earlier, all our point estimates and standard errors are adjusted for the effects of sampling weights, clustering, and stratification.The results of the CRE fractional probit regressions of the purchased share by category (for all foods consumed, and for grains, roots and tubers, pulses, fruits and vegetables, and animal products) are shown in Tables 7-10. Table 7 shows regression results for all foods taken together; Table 8, for grains; Table 9, for fruits and vegetables; and Table 10, for animal proteins. Appendix Table A2 shows results for roots & tubers; and Table A3, for pulses. The following are the main findings that are statistically significant.First, Table 7 shows that the share of non-farm income in total income has a strongly positive effect in all the countries, consistent with our descriptives above that non-farm income is a major source of cash income. The effect is stronger in lower income countries (except Ethiopia) compared with the upper and middle income study countries. The effect in middle income countries is also stronger than in the upper income countries. We tested (and rejected) the hypothesis that the coefficients are the same across the country strata using cross-model hypothesis testing. Moreover, while unearned income only accounted for about 5% of total income, the share of unearned income has a positive effect (similar to that of non-farm income) in middle and lower income countries (see Table 8).Second, Table 7 shows that food purchase shares decrease with farmland per capita, as expected, but as farms get big enough the farm cash income effect increases food purchases, especially of items not grown on the farm. As expected, purchases shares are high among the landless. Fig. 4 shows that bigger farms tend to be more specialized, and often in non-food cash crops as Dzanku et al. (2021) also show for Ghana. However, in all countries, only a small fraction of households (between 1% in Nigeria and 5% in Malawi) have farmland per capita above the threshold at which the effect turns positive, so the negative effect dominates.Appendix Figures A8-A11 explore heterogeneity in the non-linear relationship between farmland per capita and food purchases by agroecology and seasonality, and how this might further be nuanced by type of commodity, i.e., non-perishables (grain staples) versus perishables (fruits and vegetables). Across agro-ecological zones of all the countries, the U-shaped relationship tends to hold, but the positive purchases tend to generally increase more with landholding in favorable zones than in less-favorable zones, showing the cash crop specialization effect. The exception is Ethiopia.Third, space and time affect purchases. Given the zone, distance to market has a negative effect on food purchase shares. Purchases also differ over zones in ways that are conditioned by the season. Relative to the lean season (LS) in the less-favorable zone, food purchase shares are lower in the harvest season in either zone and in the lean season in the favorable zone. Thus, in most of the countries, households in the worst situation (season and zone combination) have to rely most on purchases to smooth consumption. Figure A3 (Appendix) provides details of pairwise comparisons of all seasonality-agroecology differences among the study countries.Fourth, for overall food, female-headed households tend to have a lower purchase share in the lower and middle strata countries but higher shares in upper strata countries. The latter may be because in Ghana and Nigeria, rural female-headed households tend to have higher participation in non-farm employment, higher shares of unearned income, and smaller farm sizes than do male-headed households.Fifth, socio-demographic variables have some surprising results. As expected, households with older heads tend to have a lower purchase share while the number of adults of either gender does not have a clear effect on food purchases. This might be because households with older heads have a predisposition to higher investments in the traditional home farm enterprise compared to younger households. Such a predisposition is likely to have more of an impact on household purchases than the composition of the household. However, surprisingly, the number of adults of either gender does not have a clear effect on food purchase shares. The dependency ratio reduces the food purchase share, perhaps because families with more children focus on starchy staples provision and postpone buying more expensive non-grains. Finally, literacy is positively correlated with the purchase share in upper and middleincome countries, but not in lower income countries except Niger. The reasons might be that literate households live closer to markets and know to diversify their diets with purchases.The results for Tables (8-10) and Tables A2 and A3 showing shares of purchases in specific product categories are similar in sign but with fewer significant results to those for total food consumed (Table 7). The following are the significant results from the product-specific tables.First, the share of non-farm income in total income is associated with purchases of all food groups except for animal proteins in middle and lower income countries; rural households in the latter countries tend to consume from their own flocks and herds. Across the country strata, the effect of the share of non-farm in total income on grain purchases exceeds that of all other food categories in the lower income countries but not in the other country strata. This can be explained by Bennett's Law, whereby the poorer depend more on grains and would be more likely to buy grain with available cash.However, the effect of the share of non-farm in total income is greater on the share of purchases in roots and tubers and pulses consumption in Ghana and Nigeria than for the other food components. This is because processed cassava, cowpeas, and peanuts are mainly purchased rather than laboriously home-processed and these crops are central staples in the diet although they are not grown by all households.Furthermore, surprisingly, the effect of the share of non-farm in total income on the share of purchases in fruit and vegetable consumption is less than that for food in general, for starchy staples (grains in drier countries and roots and tubers in humid zone countries), and for animal products. This lower effect on horticultural purchases appears to suggest that persons depending more on non-farm income prioritize staples purchases perhaps with a view to \"basic food security\" (controlling for their farm size hence their ability to grow their own food).Second, whereas unearned income was not important (relative to farm income shares) in driving overall food purchases in the upper income countries, they increased the purchase share of roots and tubers consumption. In the lower income countries (particularly Malawi and Niger) unearned income strongly affected the share of purchases in grains consumption.Third, in the upper income countries, the seasonality-agroecology interaction effects on the purchase share of roots and tubers, fruits and vegetables, and animal products tell a similar story to that of overall food purchasespurchase shares are significantly higher during the lean season for households in the less-favorable zoneswhile those of grains and pulses differ sharply from it.Relative to the lean season in the less-favorable zone, the lean season in the favorable zone is associated with a higher share of purchases in grains consumption in Ghana, Nigeria, and Uganda. Rice is mainly imported into these countries and has attained a major role among the staple grains consumed including in rural zones. In the favorable zones during the harvest season, roots and tubers and fruits and vegetables are less purchased than grains. For example, in Ghana and Nigeria, farm households tend to grow nongrains in year-round gardens in the humid zones while grain mainly comes seasonally from the drier Northern zones. The rural households in the favorable zones are also relatively well off, and tend (more than do the poorer households in less-favored zones) to buy rice and wheat which are luxuries and more expensive than the traditional foods (roots and tubers and millet).In the lower-and middle-income countries, being in the harvest season in the less-favorable zone reduces the purchase share, as expected. By contrast, in Ghana and Nigeria, being in the harvest season (not just in the lean season as expected) in the favorable zone is correlated with a higher share of purchases (compared with the intercept   term of being in the lean season in the less-favorable zone). This can be explained by the strong presence of cash cropping and non-farm income in linkages with the strong agriculture sector in the favorable zone in these upper stratum countries.Comparing the results in Tables 7-10 with those in Tables A2-A7 (Appendix) shows that most of the correlates of purchase shares in food consumption differ over the years in terms of statistical significance and effect size. Several points stand out.First, except for Tanzania, the non-farm income share effect magnitudes are larger for the latest waves of the surveys. For some products an effect was absent for the early waves of the period, usually a decade of data, and then emerged only recently, such as non-farm on purchase shares of fruits and vegetables in Ethiopia and animal products in Uganda, and unearned income on most food groups in Nigeria. It appears that the jumps were mainly due to increases in the share of cash income in total rural income, especially in the less-favored zones of most countries, over the decade, as shown in Fig. 1.Second, a similar inversion between the early and late years of the survey data occurred with respect to the effect of the distance of the household to the main food market: this was negative at the start and then its significance disappeared later, particularly in Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda. This suggests that market access may have generally improved over time such as from road improvements.Third, the negative effect seen in earlier years of the survey rounds of the household being female-headed lost its significance in later rounds in Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Malawi. In Ghana, the effect did not change over time but was even shown to be positive in the regression using the Ghana LSMS data that span 1992-2017 (Table A2).While the literature on rural areas in Sub-Saharan Africa has observed purchases of food and in particular areas and years shown their importance, the literature has not yet had a systematic analysis of these purchases over countries of different incomes and rural population shares, over different agroecological zones favorable and less-favorable, over a series of years and high and low seasons, over food product categories, and as a function of apparently important drivers like rural nonfarm employment (RNFE). We used nearly 65,000 observations in 7 countries over about a decade in rural Africa to examine the patterns and determinants of food purchases. The following are the key findings.First, food purchases were found to be a substantial share of total food consumption in all three country stratalower, middle, and upper. The purchase share was consistently the majority of food consumed.Second, while the share of purchases was somewhat higher in lessfavorable zones in the low season, fitting the traditional view of purchases as just occasional \"coping\" with low own-production of food or depleted stocks (Liverpool-Tasie et al., 2021), this was only the case in the lower-stratum countries. It was, importantly, not the case in upperand middle stratum countries. In these latter, the purchase share was similar over seasons and agroecological onesmeaning it has become \"structural\". The latter we found to be due to the spread especially of RNFE in most countries, as the main/majority cash source, and in a few places, like Ghana, from the spread of cash cropping. Early work finding that cash cropping does not need to reduce nutrition or constrain food consumption (von Braun and Kennedy, 1994) finds further support in these findings where these sources of cash are important to food purchase including of nutrient-dense foods.Third, while the literature had focused mainly on purchases of grain, we found that shares of purchases of both grains and non-grains were substantial, and even higher for non-grains than grains. Rural households across the countries were buying the great majority of their fruits and vegetables and animal products from the market, not relying mainly on own-production. Our literature review showed that in various places these products were not being bought from the local area's production but from areas far away but in the same country, such as in Senegal (Faye et al., 2023). That underscores the link between long supply chains from specialized areas of horticultural and animal product production to consuming areas all over the rural (and urban) areas, a point we emphasize below in implications.Fourth, purchases are not a luxurythey are not done only by the upper income consumers, nor are they the last resort of the poor who cannot grow their food and have to buy to cope. Of course, both these cases occur, but in the main we found that purchases are done by all income terciles. They are fueled by widespread participation in working off the farm for various reasons, push and pull, and using the cash to buy food, not just grains, but non-grains too. Less common but also occurring (in Ghana) is non-food cash cropping driving these purchases and paying for them.The food security strategy and policy implications of these findings are the following. First, food markets as a source of purchases, and often, supply chains plying between rural zones and urban and rural areas, are important to the food security of rural areas. This is not just in poorer areas but over a variety of zones, well-watered and dry, richer and poorer, in many countries. This points to the importance of infrastructure for supply chains such as roads and wholesale markets in rural towns.Second, we showed the importance of rural non-farm employment for these purchases thus again highlighting the need for policies and programs that help that employment to grow and be equitably accessible (Haggblade et al., 2010). The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.","tokenCount":"8203"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b5a65bc197ba4b339e9ec325db68d3ea","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7212da23-4a64-4ca9-b689-a11908b385cb/retrieve","id":"1512901809"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8aac2afd-c473-40be-92de-e2a462096677","pagecount":"28","content":"Cereal crop GHG emissions• Globally rice, wheat, and maize provide similar amounts of calories and protein• Yet rice emits significantly more greenhouse gases • Produced by bacteria in flooded conditions• High Global Warming Potential (28x more harmful than CO 2 )  Priority for mitigation• Other GHG: N 2 O (mostly from fertilization, GWP of 265)• Carbon sequestration?Net emission is methane plus nitrous oxide minus C sequestration • This is mostly due to the traditional method of paddy farming, where flooded fields release methane and other greenhouse gases through anaerobic decompositionHowever, the relative mitigation potential for rice (36%) is much higher than that of livestock (9%), and croplands (3%) (Roe et al., 2021;EPA, 2021) Promising options for rice!In the entire agriculture sector, paddy rice production offers one of the most promising options for reducing absolute emissionsCurrent emission baselines are high, particularly in Asia, but:• Many established emission reduction practices available -new ones 'in the making'• Multiple outscaling approaches with both public and private sector parties   • Minimum size of a C credit project for economic viability?• Pay-out modes? How do farmers benefit?• Accuracy?• Mitigation options beyond watermanagement?• Carbon credits vs. countries' NDCs? ","tokenCount":"192"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"173ec5a941f53e55fdfb36ca65767cff","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f096c09e-bff8-4d8b-80f5-84f037b3c9ad/retrieve","id":"583949422"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"21f92ac5-5c71-4ddf-8e84-80a050e4246a","pagecount":"4","content":"Marketing transactions take place in an environment where information is shared and exchanged among and between sellers, buyers and middlemen. It is argued that traders and middlemen have a competitive advantage over producers in negotiating for prices, because the former have access to prices in both primary and terminal markets, while the latter only have limited access to prices in the primary markets. This Research Brief highlights the situation regarding access to livestock marketing information by producers in pastoral markets of Kenya. Results show that livestock marketing information was not accessible to producers from September 2004 to September 2005, and hence did not play a significant role in influencing market prices. Subsequent analyses also show that producers consider a number of attributes when pegging prices to their animals, and that these tally with the categorization system developed by the Livestock Information Network and Knowledge System (LINKS) project. Further findings suggest that past efforts to develop livestock marketing information systems have been dogged by limited capacity to provide information that is accurate, timely, reliable, and spatially coherent. This has been exacerbated by failure to effectively use existing media and complement these with emerging information communication technologies to disseminate the information. LINKS has since responded to these factors through improvements in geographical coverage, accuracy, reliability and timeliness in the overall livestock market information system, as well as through improved information dissmination systems; improvements that have strenghted LINKS, allowing it to function as the foundation for the National Livestock Marketing Information System in Kenya.Research has shown that livestock marketing information plays a significant role in improving the performance of pastoral production and marketing systems (Ndikumana et al. 2000;Aklilu et al. 2002;Mbogoh et al. 2005). More timely, accurate and reliable livestock information can lead to increased commercial livestock offtake and increased producer prices. These studies (ibid) hitherto have focused on the broad aspects of livestock markets in Kenya. Very little attention, however, has been given to examining specific aspects of livestock markets, such as what constitutes viable livestock marketing information.This study was undertaken to analyze the factors that influence beef cattle marketing behavior in pastoral areas of Kenya, with emphasis on the role of livestock marketing information. For instance, although traders have indicated their considerations for some quality attributes in beef cattle sold in pastoral areas, these are not well documented. Moreover, there have been no precise estimates to quantify the value of these attributes. Specifically, the present study consists of three main components: 1) Identifying the existing sources of information and extent of their use by producers; 2) Identifying the physical attributes of beef cattle considered while selling animals; and 3) Evaluating the importance of these attributes in determining prices of animals offered for sale.Information derived from the study will provide inputs to designers of livestock marketing information systems to improve their information formats to make them more effective and efficient in terms of having the capability of transmitting relevant, accurate, reliable, accessible and useful information. In addition, it provides information on attributes of beef cattle that are demanded by traders, an important factor in livestock marketing for pastoralists, should they have to respond to the needs of the market.The study used two sets of data. The first set was sourced from a cross-sectional survey conducted using a questionnaire administered to 135 pastoral households from Garissa and Isiolo Districts. The second set was a 1,233 transactional survey data set collected between September 2004 and September 2005 from three livestock markets in Kenya: Nairobi, which is the main terminal market in Kenya, and two other pastoral markets (one in Garissa in the northeastern rangelands and one in Isiolo in the eastern rangelands). The samples Data from the cross-sectional survey were analyzed using descriptive statistics to generate frequencies. Results indicated that a majority of the respondents (73%) had access to radio, while 28%, 11% and 10% had access to a cellphone, newsprint and television respectively.To obtain information on livestock marketing, 75% of the respondents relied on their neighbors and their own personal visits to the market. On the need for price information from other markets, 77.8% of the respondents expressed a strong need, and out of these 32%, 54%, and 9% desired to have the information on weekly, monthly and quarterly basis respectively, while 5% were indifferent about the frequency. A total of 96% of the respondents preferred to sell their animals within markets in their region citing distances to other markets, security, volume of sales and unfamiliarity with distant markets as the major factors influencing the decision, in that order. The study found out that over 75% of the pastoral households used visual assessment to peg prices to their animals before sale. This corroborates findings in Kaitho et al. (2004). As a followup step, pastoralists were asked to rank the attributes they considered when selling beef cattle. Table 1 summarizes these results by frequency.The results from the transactional data, analyzed using regression analysis, are given in Table 2. Almost all the attributes were negatively correlated to the price, class, sex, volume, castration, grade and market. Other reported items, such castration and breed type were not significant. This could have been associated with the uniform/single breed available in each market. The analyses for the individual attributes indicate the relationships given below.Class. The class of beef animal was used as a proxy for age (mature, young, immature), which showed that mature animals fetched higher prices than immature ones. The coefficient for class variable suggested that class had the largest negative influence on cattle price as indicated by the highest negative coefficient. Price decreased by 0.53% for a 1% change in class.Sex. The results on the sex variable (male, female) showed that males fetched higher prices than females by a premium of 0.4% on average. This corroborates results of previous studies by Sieff (1999) which showed that males usually fetched higher prices than females. The positive correlation coefficient observed for sex showed preference for males.Males are bought for both breeding and slaughter purposes.Their demand was expected to exceed that of female cattle, which are mainly required for breeding purposes. Males were also thought to yield more meat than females.The market variable has a negative coefficient (-0.149) and standard error of 0.012. The negative coefficient indicates that prices in Nairobi are higher than prices in other markets of Isiolo and Garissa. This is reasonable given that Nairobi is the terminal market.Grade. The variable grade (grade 1, 2, 3, 4; the higher the grade, the poorer the body condition) is used to reflect the influence of the cattle body condition scoring method (a proxy for meat quality and weight) as developed by LINKS, and emerged as a significant explanatory variable. It has a negative coefficient (-0.147) with a standard error of 0.009. Animals available for sale in the markets were mainly grades 2 and 3. Grade 2 fetched a higher price than grade 3.Volume. Volume was the other factor affecting prices.The volume had a standardized coefficient of -0.235. This corroborates well with the theory of standard demand which states that the lower the supply (volume) the higher the price. In this case it indicates that a 1% increase in volume decreased the average price by approximately 0.235%.Breed. The breed variable (Boran, Zebu, Mixed) had a positive coefficient of 0.037and standard error of 0.010. This indicated that mixed breeds (crosses) commanded higher prices than the local breeds such as Boran and Zebu.Castration. Castration yielded a negative coefficient, -0.026 and standard error of 0.016. This implies that noncastrates fetched higher prices than castrates because they were in high demand both for breeding as well as slaughter purposes and were therefore regarded as premium animals.The results, however, were not significant at the 1% level.The overall regression model explained about 82% of the total variation in the dependent variable. The regression model on factors influencing commercial offtake rates showed that market information had a positive response to livestock offtake rate; the response was significant at the 10% level with a coefficient of 0.074 and standard error of 0.007. Other significant variables determining offtake rate were household size, dependency ratio, cattle birth rate, cattle purchase rate, off-pastoral income and mortality rate. At the time of the study, market information provided by LINKS had just started diffusing to producers, and respondents felt that improved accuracy and reliability of market information would be useful for informing marketing decisions for pastoral households. Research findings (Aklilu et al. 2002;Mbogoh et al. 2005) show that information can indeed improve marketing performance in pastoral areas if it can be availed efficiently and in good time.The results indicate that livestock marketing information was not accessible to producers from September 2004 to September 2005, and hence did not play a significant role in influencing market prices. Subsequent analyses also show that producers consider a number of attributes when pegging prices to their animals, and that these tally with the categorization system developed by LINKS. LINKS has since responded to these factors through improvements in geographical coverage, accuracy, reliability and  The GL-CRSP Livestock Information Network and Knowledge System (LINKS) project developed from the GL-CRSP Livestock Early Warning System (LEWS) project established in 1997. The LEWS project developed and applied a suite of information communication technology to provide a regional decision-support framework for livestock early warning. The LINKS project is placing LEWS technology inside a broader livestock information and analysis system that is designed to improve livestock markets and trade, thereby enhancing the well-being of pastoralists in eastern Africa. timeliness in the overall livestock market information system. Therefore, the challenge to develop a flexible, demand-driven system that is easy to maintain and that allows the input of contents with maximum efficiency as envisaged by Kaitho et al. (2004) is right on course. The integration of this system in livestock markets across Kenya will provide a national livestock marketing information system (NLMIS: see Kariuki et al. 2008) tailored to meet the needs of livestock producers.Dissemination of information through media that are easily accessible to most producers will enhance information flow to pastoral communities, eliciting the desired response in livestock marketing. It is therefore prudent to explore ways of using the existing delivery media, such as the popular radio broadcasts and the growing mobile telephony and Internet gateways across most towns in the remote areas of Kenya, to accomplish this feat.","tokenCount":"1715"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2b748c1c77c4cd80fc043dbd9db1182c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/470ed853-7efb-4800-bf82-ef1d61dea095/retrieve","id":"124916830"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"872b9733-b060-4e08-a316-aae15fc88c64","pagecount":"24","content":"The five day event included sessions on: The workshop methodology included participatory presentations using PowerPoint, as well as group discussions, guided by a step-by-step process of discussing, reviewing and building consensus on the different areas of focus during the workshop. This report summarises the discussions and conclusions as well as recommendations from the workshop. In general, the following recommendations came from the workshop:  Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) for the program is seen to largely focus on outputs and less on the process  With respect to capacity development there is need for skills in facilitation, needs assessment and action planning for all partners  There is need to develop a plan around identifying and engaging partners so as to establish who and why we are selecting partners  There is a need for more specificity around work on gender that is planned in the value chain countries  There is need to evaluate the Livestock and Fish value chain tools from a gender perspective  There is need to strengthen accommodative approaches in our research as we move towards GTAs Posters and presentations from the workshop are online at: http://livestockfish.wikispaces.com/genderwg_oct2013Kathleen Colverson, the Livestock and Fish program gender and learning theme leader opened the workshop by welcoming the participants, and facilitating an introductory exercise, during which each participant was provided with one-half of a photo and they were supposed to locate the person having the matching half of the photo to introduce themselves. While highlighting the capacity development activities in the Livestock and Fish program, Kathleen expressed that 'change will not be achieved by individuals and organizations in isolation' and hence the need for gender capacity building targeted at all of CG, partner organizations and VC actors. She reiterated that here is a great need to influence and inspire partners to integrate gender and not mandate its inclusion in projects and programs.In conclusion, Kathleen expressed the need to focus on Gender Transformative Approaches (GTAs), an initiative which needs more funds to implement and realize results. Literature review for this effort is ongoing and the gender network is planning a future meeting to discuss the next steps.What is gender by definition?Gender is about socially constructed roles by societies, relationships, and it can change with time and place. It was also defined as having a focus on the marginalized community, frequently women and children. It was emphasised that the focus on gender issues is about \"how we work, not who we work with\", and \"how we approach other people and what social constructions we come up with to inform our work.\"Scientists working with the program from, Froukje Kruijssen and Emily Ouma's presentation gave an update of the output on the gender strategy which focuses on the value chain development theme. In her introduction, Froukje mentioned that a value chain (VC) toolkit development has been developed and will be reviewed for its ability to collect and analyse gendered data, and identification of gender equitable interventions.Froukje reported that the tool had been applied in value chain analysis in Uganda for the pig VC, Tanzania for the dairy VC, Ethiopia for the small ruminants VC, and India for the dairy VC.In Nicaragua, plans for VCA for the dual purpose VC were in progress. She also mentioned that VC benchmarking had been done in Tanzania through a pre-write shop, in Botswana through field testing and application in the Smallholder Competitiveness project, and there were preparations for this to start in Ethiopia.Froukje mentioned that the next steps will involve reviewing the usage and usefulness of the tools, followed by the development of a database and guidelines for training, implementation analysis and review. In addition, she highlighted that it is necessary to address the issue of tool 'harmonization', so as to identify what common themes are emerging as the tools are adapted. She emphasized there is a great need to discuss and agree on prioritization processes for identifying best-bets interventions & ex ante analysis.In her conclusion, Froukje articulated that some of the challenges facing the program are on how the tools relate to the IDO's and M&E indicators. There is also a need to establish if the tools capture the proposed gender M&E indicators, and if not, how to address this. It is also necessary to have clarity on what impact assessment methods and approaches will be used to assess the impact of the program (overall and for each VC and theme). She further mentioned that there is a need to assess if the current level of communication among the program value chains is sufficient to foster learning as they progress with their respective work plans.Emily Ouma discussed the experiences from the Uganda pig value chain on application of the VCA tools at district and village levels. She highlighted the differences observed in the men's and women's activity clocks. Women face time constraints and need interventions that address these constraints, to improve their productivity and create time for other activities such as trainings. Emily pointed out that the toolkit was quite detailed and therefore has the potential to obtain a lot of engendered information. She also mentioned that the toolkit was lengthy, requiring about six hours to implement with both mixed gender parallel and plenary sessions. She concluded that it is essential to use the gendered information to ensure inclusiveness in the design of technologies and institutional interventions.In response to Emily's presentation, participants were interested in the concept of \"ownership\" of the pigs and gendered decision making. Emily indicated that each person in the household has a number of animals, and where women own more animals they have more control over the decision making related to the pigs. Questions arose on the issue of ownership; \"Did you have a common definition of ownership and control?\" Emily responded that \"ownership\" means different things to different people, and further research was needed on this topic as it relates to gender decision making.It was concluded that the tools are very generic and hence field testing is crucial because it creates opportunity for feedback on whether the tools are applicable in the particular context. There is need for a training manual to ensure consistency in all the value chains when using the VC toolkit.Presentation by Paula Kantor Paula Kantor gave an update of the GTAs as one of the outputs captured in the program strategy. Paula reiterated that the objective of this output is to promote 'strategies and approaches that increase women's and marginalized groups' entitlement to access markets and control resources, technologies, labor, power and the benefits of their work'. She mentioned that it focuses on wider social context within which a value chain functions, looking at how well it enables equitable participation and control over the benefits. In her presentation, Paula emphasized that entitlement is key in three dimensions:-own sense of entitlement;-recognition by others of women's and other marginalized groups' capacities and claims to engage in markets;-translation of society's recognition into the way formal and informal institutions allocate opportunities and resources While highlighting the achievements and actions in 2013, she mentioned that tools for integrating GTA's in value chain analysis had been drafted and preparations were underway for these to be field tested in 2014. Additional plans involve writing a paper on the social embedding of value chains and relevance of GTAs to value chain performance, as well as distribution of outcomes. She concluded by emphasizing the need to consider more fundraising ideas for GTA's and including a focus on gender, risk and technology adoption studies.There is need to harmonize the tools and create one toolkit for value chain analysis. To achieve transformation within systems, it is necessary to adopt a strategy that will involve the identification of champions from within to influence the change that needs to happen.Stuart observed that the institutional mandate was missing for this output. He highlighted that a partnership analysis should be conducted to identify the research and development partners to engage in GTA's. We need to demonstrate the knowledge and evidence which the program generates around GTA's and how that will contribute to the output.Partners presented on gender mainstreaming efforts within their organizations and their experiences in developing gender capacities on the first day. While highlighting the gender mainstreaming efforts at the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Regional Africa (ASARECA)-a regional organization, Yeshi Chiche highlighted that gender mainstreaming efforts began in 2003, and tremendous progress has been made with the establishment of a gender mainstreaming unit in 2013. This unit is in charge of identifying (Figure 1)The LIVES project is Livestock and Fish program aligned project in Ethiopia. Ephrem Tesema, gender scientist from LIVES, discussed the proposed areas of intervention that target women from female-headed households who have land for vegetable production to engage in input supply systems like fruit tree nurseries, pullet production, feed block preparation. The project will involve women and women groups in value addition/processing (for example juice and honey processing).Margaret Mangheni, Makerere University, shared her research that is engaged in gender Presentation by Dr. Alessandra GalièThis ILRI project has been funded by IDRC and CIDA with an overall objective of improving nutrition and income security. Among its specific objectives, the project seeks to \"analyze impacts (productivity, environmental, gender and empowerment, food security and nutrition) of integrating improved goat breeds with sweet-potatoes and cassava into an agro-pastoral farming system\" working with ILRI, the project partners include Sokoine University in Tanzania and University of Alberta in Canada, for the period 2011 to 2014.Data from the mid-term review points out that decision-making about goats and milk is mostly with men. Gender trainings are effective in raising awareness of gender-based labour contributions and gender equity is a key emergent property of the system. The project includes a gender strategy which determines whether gender is integrated in all project activities and evaluations. However, the findings from the mid-term review indicate that the strategy does not explain the rationale behind the need for empowerment, and does not address how to enhance empowerment for women. Future plans include the development and implementation of a gender empowerment framework which will assist with working with local realities to achieve equity of development. To do this, the project will adopt a methodology that involves the participatory assessment of women's and men's vision of their empowerment and development goals in 10 years, and hindrances to achieving them.The methods will include single-sex focus groups discussions and envisioning future empowerment scenarios.In relation to the participatory development of indicators, what kind of borders/tests have been done with the community? This has not yet been done with this project, but has been done in other projects with good effects. It was indicated that a \"pathway\" could be constraining, thus it would be good to talk about \"processes\" as opposed to pathways.Alessandra responded by stating that \"process\" is a vague term, and difficult for the community to understand while \"pathway\" is more self-empowering and easier for the community to use in identifying problems and solutions. It is important to adopt a 'Gender Action Learning System' where each member of the household is asked what they envision for themselves and where they want to be in the future.Presentation by Paula KantorPaula's presentation focused on 'Improving Employment and Incomes through the Development of Egypt's Aquaculture Sector' (IEIDEAS) Project. This project is oriented towards enhancing numbers and quality of employment, particularly for poor women and youth. In the aquaculture sector, rising costs and unstable prices have put the aquaculture industry under threat. There is a need to enhance the sector by improving productivity, increasing the profit margins, and value addition products. Since its inception in 2011, main activities undertaken by the project have included:• Dissemination of the 'Abbassa strain' of genetically improved tilapia• Development of Best Management Practice(BMP) guidelines followed by BMP training• Support for women retailers (managed by CARE)• Expansion of aquaculture in Upper Egypt (CARE)• Improving the policy environment for aquaculture A retailer survey focusing only on women in the five governorates in which the IEIDEAS project operates, found that fish retailing is considered an occupation of last resort. Women retailers face many challenges including: lack of regular supply of fish, handling and storage, lack of space to vend, lack of market information, and limited economic data as most of the retailers do not keep records.Paula highlighted that this project has additional challenges, including the volatile environment and political context of Egypt, which affects the ability to form sustainable organizations that advocate for change and work on gender equality. Future activities and areas of potential research include developing a tank aquaculture system that will work for catfish, and further research on gender, risk and uptake of the new tank aquaculture technology. Paula suggested that Egypt and Bangladesh (both Livestock and Fish VC countries) consider securing DANIDA funds for value addition and market expansion.Additional research could focus on conditions under which fish retail can be transformative for women, as well as and employment in the aquaculture sector and testing GTA VCA tools.Participants were interested in knowing how the project has positioned itself to respond to the aforementioned challenges. Paula recommended gender trainings and the inclusion of a budget for incorporating a gender focal point within the partner organisations specifically for the project. Participants also observed the importance of public-private partnerships in fostering innovations, and recommended the need to adopt an approach which would enable the women retailer committees to partner with the government for more opportunities.Elizabeth presented on lessons drawn from the Gender Asset Gap Project, (GAAP), in which assets are defined as Natural, Human, Physical, Social, Financial and Political. The study was carried out in Bangladesh, Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique. In Bangladesh, training was provided to dairy farmers' groups in livestock production and health. Groups were linked to markets by the provision of bulking and chilling facilities, thereby enhancing the natural, human, financial and social assets. In Kenya and Tanzania, irrigation pumps were bought by farmers, increasing both the physical and financial capital. In Mozambique, high yielding cows were freely distributed to farmers who also received training on production and health, increasing the natural, financial and human assets. The impacts from the interventions were positive across all sites. All countries reported increased household production, income and assets (including pump ownership by women). In addition, there was improved wellbeing in terms of access to more nutrients, better hygiene (Bangladesh and Mozambique), education and healthcare. Elizabeth articulated that there was enhanced self-esteem for women and men (especially women on dairy hygiene and animal health).However, she mentioned that negative impacts were also recorded whereby women's work load increased disproportionately to the increase men's workload. For example in Mozambique, men paid additional labourers to do the extra work and women delegated house and other work to children and existing servants. She also pointed out that women's and men's crops were redefined differently, especially in Kenya and Tanzania, where men owned one-off harvest and sale crops like green maize, cabbage and tomatoes, and women became owners of repeated harvest green leafy vegetables such as kale, amaranth, and spinach. The results also indicated that women's control of income and assets were equally affected negatively. In Bangladesh, women's control declined, while joint control increased.In Kenya, women (from male-headed households) could not openly claim pump ownership.In conclusion, Elizabeth emphasized that a woman buying an asset, having it registered in her name and owning it, does not signify control of use of the asset or income and the benefits accrued through it. What needs to be transformed is the actual access to, and control of benefits accruing from the asset. Empowering women to know their rights and having them protected by the law discourages dispossession of assets from women.Presentation by Isabelle BaltenweckIsabelle mentioned that EADD had gone through the first phase of implementation, and is now in the second phase. Lessons learned from the first phase indicate limited attention was paid to gender in the original plan; and staff were not equipped to address gender based constraints. A gender strategy was developed in 2009 using baseline survey results and Focus Group Discussions with key staff. Isabelle highlighted that the gender strategy in EADD is a two-fold approach with a separate and cross cutting focus on gender to ensure that supporting outputs and activities are included fully in the project design. A gender work plan was integrated, performance targets formulated, and budget allocated moving forward.Isabelle mentioned that the proposed gender activities in EADD aim to increase access to assets that women require to participate fully in project activities. Increasing returns to assets by increasing productivity and/or improving access to market and reducing risks and vulnerability should enhance the women's productivity. Proposed strategies include training of the women on bargaining and negotiation skills, especially for those participating in informal markets. Creating business opportunities along the value chain for youth as milk transporters in Uganda is also proposed. The project will also consider introducing innovative modes of payment through mobile money technology to allow women increased access to financial services. To reduce risks and vulnerability, EADD's proposed strategies include regular introduction of improved breeds and providing linkages with financial service providers.In conclusion, Isabelle emphasized that phase one of EADD conducted gender analysis at the baseline, but phase two would focus on gender analysis at various levels of the value chain.Attention to gender and youth will be increased in phase two with a provision for gender mainstreaming in all objectives, and a specific objective on gender and youth empowerment.Michael articulated that the Monitoring Evaluation and Learning (MEL) theme of the Livestock and Fish research plan is formulating a strategy which includes how the program's MEL activities will be implemented. This strategy will provide a structured system of program monitoring for learning and innovation, and is based on assumptions from the research plan's theory of change and impact pathway. Michael's presentation reviewed key questions for integrating gender in the MEL frameworks, including:• Why and how should we develop these gender indicators?• Which MEL framework will these indicators be part of? Presentation by Barbara Szony Barbara's presentation focused on the 'Safe Food Fair Food' project whose objective is to \"protect the health of poor consumers and safeguard the livelihoods of poor livestock keepers and other VC actors\". The study focuses on looking at risks to food safety and nutrition within the sheep and goat VC with an ultimate goal of ensuring adequate intake of safe and nutritious foods.In a summary of gender-related consumption patterns, it was reported that although food preparation is exclusively done by women, men are given better meat cuts. Consumption of raw meat and milk by women was reported, a practice which poses a great risk to both mother and fetus. In some areas, it is considered a cultural taboo for women to drink milk, with claims that it would make women crazy and difficult to handle, and would also cause an early onset of puberty in girls. There is also preferential feeding of red meat and liver to pregnant women, and women are more likely to consume butter in addition to using it as a cosmetic.Barbara articulated that there is low level of consumption of Animal Source Foods (ASF) due to economic constraints and religious as well as cultural practices. As a result, the major risks in the sheep and goat VC are nutritional deficiencies of protein, iron, zinc, vitamins A and B12. In her conclusion, Barbara mentioned that gender roles may have large influence on health and nutrition risks, and there is need for further research on this area.The workshop included a \"share fair\" for participants to showcase additional research During this session, Jo Cadilhon facilitated several iterations of a \"world café\" with small groups of participants to gather expert advice on a gendered dairy value chain assessment report for the Mulukanoor women's dairy cooperative in Andhra Pradesh, India. The Mulukanoor women's dairy cooperative in India asked ILRI to gather evidence to help make decisions on expanding its development, an activity which is being spearheaded by JoCadilhon and is captured in this blog.The objective of this session was to share tools with participants and get feedback on three main issues: Participants were divided into four groups, each of which was provided with copies of one tool to discuss and provide feedback on the tool in terms of its usefulness from a gender perspective.In general, participants liked the tools, with a few recommendations including redundancies in the tools related to questions, language being too complicated or jargonistic, the need for inclusion of visuals to capture participants' interest, specific gender questions to be included that were lacking, and provision of specific guidelines for facilitators. ","tokenCount":"3428"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"0477616c40205a1b966806bb5a7c1a19","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/16d74b11-6946-440f-8a87-f119becda023/retrieve","id":"-355566615"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"3d0e570f-7b59-44e1-9f7e-a1700d5db32c","pagecount":"9","content":"Vision: an inclusive and sustainable development of the dairy value chain by 2023 (remains same)Development Goal: Improve livelihoods through milk.• By promoting rural commercialization to boost productivity and economic viability of smallholder dairying by and for the poor (ASDP-2 Component 3) • Leverage new experiences and learning to promote small-scale agribusinesses and strengthen their linkages to overcome market barriers in smallholder dairy value chains • Upscale lessons on adapted market hubs approaches without collective bulking and marketing • Conduct research within the agribusiness development project• Improve access to and use of inputs and services including credit among precommercial producers• Increase participation of smallholder male and female farmers in output markets• Improve enabling environment for production and consumption of milk and facilitate new linkages between value chain actors and public and private services to generate innovation• Catalyze private and public investments for the incorporation of milk into national and community dietary systems and empowerment for improved nutrition particularly in women of child-bearing age and young children.Initial targeting by researchers who then hand-over leadership to an agribusiness development while the latter plays a 'knowledge partner' role (MLE and targeted studies)• How can new dairy technologies & approaches be profitably leveraged by agribusinesses to deliver increased income for pre-commercial producers and better nutrition for poor consumers at scale?• New knowledge on opportunities for upscaling and sustaining inclusive gender-equitable participation• Improved and validated approaches and technologies in different contexts, and how to integrate them into existing institutional mechanisms for delivery of inputs and services• Lessons for sustainable market hub models and related agribusinesses captured for different contexts and recommendations for further scaling out developed and disseminated.(Generated within the agribusiness dev project)• Identify and target priority locations and producer groups for development• Identify \"crystallizing agents\", typically existing product and service delivery agents around whom multiple activities can coalesce• Support the strengthening of research-extension linkages and provision of extension services in a commercially viable way• Promote access to and use of ICT as a way of increasing access to critical information• Enhance local capacity of producers, other value chain agents and extension workers to operate within hubs and multi-stakeholder alliancesWork in progress, mainly questions at this point• DDF -Quo vadis? Added value to driving the industry• ASDP -2 Context (LMP already integrated)• Role of AR4D within the ASDP-2 context? Potential areas from LMP• An agri-food systems approach for income and nutrition?• A project like MoreMilkiT that other projects can leverage would be ideal The CGIAR Research Program on Livestock aims to increase the productivity and profitability of livestock agri-food systems in sustainable ways, making meat, milk and eggs more available and affordable across the developing world.This presentation is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.The program thanks all donors and organizations which globally support its work through their contributions to the CGIAR system","tokenCount":"471"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d536c0c5472318111714b636dcb897c0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/a079db1a-37d4-4ec2-90f9-20eb4ccefaee/content","id":"-1984884567"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"5b13ebca-50a2-40dd-928a-d85996facb61","pagecount":"10","content":"One way to meet growing food demand is to increase yields in regions that have large yield gaps, including smallholder systems. To do this, it is important to quantify yield gaps, their persistence, and their drivers at large spatio-temporal scales. Here we use microsatellite data to map field-level yields from 2014 to 2018 in Bihar, India and use these data to assess the magnitude, persistence, and drivers of yield gaps at the landscape scale. We find that overall yield gaps are large (33% of mean yields), but only 17% of yields are persistent across time. We find that sowing date, plot area, and weather are the factors that most explain variation in yield gaps across our study region, with earlier sowing associated with significantly higher yield values. Simulations suggest that if all farmers were able to adopt ideal management strategies, including earlier sowing and more irrigation use, yield gaps could be closed by up to 42%. These results highlight the ability of micro-satellite data to understand yield gaps and their drivers, and can be used to help identify ways to increase production in smallholder systems across the globe.Food production may have to increase by up to 70% by mid-century to achieve global food security 1 . One way to increase yields is to close existing yield gaps, which are defined as the difference between current yields and the potential yields that could be achieved under ideal management 2,3 . Closing yield gaps is particularly important in smallholder systems, where yield gaps are large 4 and food demand is likely to increase the most over the coming decades 1 . Correctly estimating yield gaps and their drivers is challenging in smallholder systems due to a lack of agricultural production data, particularly at the field scale 5 . Conventional methods of collecting field-level yield estimates, such as crop cuts, are time and cost intensive 6 . Satellite data have been shown to be a valuable tool for estimating yields, and quantifying yield gaps and their drivers at the landscape scale [7][8][9] . Yet, historically available imagery, such as Landsat (30 m) and MODIS (250 m), which have primarily been used to map yield gaps in smallholder systems 10,11 are likely too coarse in spatial resolution to map individual field-level yields 12 .Over the last five years, new micro-satellite data have become readily available and have shown promise for mapping yields at the field scale 5,12 . Despite the availability of such data since 2015, to date microsatellite data have not been used to map yield gaps and their drivers over multiple years. Yet, understanding the persistence of yields and yield gaps through time provides insights into the possible drivers of yield gaps 9 . For example, if yields are persistent, this suggests that there may be some consistent infrastructural (e.g., irrigation access) or biophysical (e.g., soil type) factors that largely explain yield gaps in these systems. On the other hand, if yields are not persistent, meaning that different fields have the largest yield gaps in different years, this suggests that there may be some time varying factor, such as weather (e.g., inter-annual rainfall variability) or management (e.g., sowing date), that primarily explain yield gaps 13 . Such analyses can provide critical information about what potential interventions may effectively close yield gaps at the field scale in these systems 14 .Here we show that microsatellite data are able to accurately map field-level yields, and quantify yield gaps and persistence, at regional scales and over multiple years in smallholder systems. We also show that these data can also be combined with ancillary data on management, weather, and biophysical factors to identify which factors are the most important in explaining field-level yield gaps over multiple years. We focus our study in wheat systems in eastern India, where yield gaps are large and field sizes are especially small 10,15 (< 0.3 ha). We specificallyuse SkySat and PlanetScope data (~ 3 m resolution) to map field-level yields from 2014 to 2019 and assess the magnitude of yield gaps and their possible drivers. Using this information, we then assess how much yield gaps can be closed under ideal management conditions, providing invaluable insights for how much yields may be able to increase over the coming years. While our study is focused on wheat systems in eastern India, our approach can be used to quantify yield gaps, yield persistence, and their drivers in smallholder systems across the globe.Study area. We conducted our study in Arrah district, Bihar, India (25.47 • N, 84.52 • E), which is in the eastern portion of India's main grain belt, the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) (Fig. 1). Our analyses are focused on an 8 × 16 km 2 area where we had access to SkySat and PlanetScope imagery over multiple years. The region is dominated by smallholder farms (< 0.3 ha) 12 and over 80% of the land area is under agriculture. Most farmers in the region follow a rice-wheat cropping system, with rice planted during the monsoon (kharif) growing season and wheat planted in the winter (rabi) growing season. Our analyses focus on wheat as previous studies have shown that yield gaps for wheat are large in this region and are expected to increase given the negative impacts of warming temperatures on wheat yield 4,10 . The wheat growing season spans from early November to mid-April, and wheat management varies widely across farms resulting in significant across-farm heterogeneity in yield 12 . For example, wheat sowing dates vary from early November to early January and farmers also vary the number of irrigations applied throughout the growing season (ranging from 1 to 3 irrigations 12 ).Field data collection and processing. We collected crop cut data from 271 randomly-selected wheat fields from 2014-15 to 2018-19, with the number of fields ranging from 36 to 79 in a given year (details provided in Table S1). Crop cuts are considered to be the gold standard for yield estimation, and are widely used to estimate crop yield on the ground 16 . It is important to note that different fields were visited in different years, meaning that repeat samples were not collected for the same field through time. To collect crop cut data, the field team visited each of the 271 fields at the time of crop harvest (in the month of April) and randomly selected subplots to harvest from each of the farmer's fields (details in Table S1), as randomly selected subplots have been shown to approximate full-field crop cuts well 17 . The team harvested the crop from these subplots, threshed the sample, dried the sample, and weighed the grain on site. We then averaged the yields from each subplot for each field to estimate the average yield per hectare for the full field. In addition, the field team collected five GPS points, one from the field's center and four from the corners of each field. For years 2014-15 and 2015-16, we also conducted a survey about farmers' management practices in the field for that year in December (close to the timing of planting) and in April (after crop harvest). The survey included questions about management factors shown to be important for explaining wheat yields in the previous literature, including sow date and the number of irrigations throughout the season. This work was considered exempt for Human Subjects Research by the University of Michigan Institutional Review Board (HUM00156479, HUM00128955, HUM00120778). All the methods reported below were performed according to the relevant guidelines and regulations.To derive field polygon boundaries from the five GPS coordinates for each field, we used the rgeos 18 and sp 19 packages in R Project Software Version 4.1.0 20 . We overlaid all field polygons over high-resolution imagery from Google Earth (https:// www. google. com/ earth/), and adjusted field polygons to match field boundaries that were visible in the high-resolution imagery 12,21 . We then linked all associated yield and management factors with each polygon, and used the resulting shapefile for all subsequent analyses.  S2). We assessed image availability by searching the PlanetScope API (www. planet. com) for all available images for our study site (Fig. 1) from November 1 to April 15 for each year's growing season. We then visually inspected all available images and selected only those images that were cloud free. Since multiple tiles encompassed our study area, we mosaicked tiles into one image that covered the full study area extent using histogram-matching of overlapping areas in ENVI Software. SkySat imagery were provided as top of the atmosphere reflectance, so we corrected imagery to surface reflectance by stretching histograms to match distributions of each band as seen in cloud-free, surface reflectance corrected Landsat 7 and 8 imagery obtained from Google Earth Engine 22 (GEE). Specifically, images were matched to cloud-free Landsat scenes from the closest available image date, and if a cloud-free Landsat scene was not available within two days of a given SkySat scene, we used a date-weighted average of the histograms from the two closest Landsat scenes before and after each available SkySat date (more details provided in Jain et al. 12 ). All PlanetScope imagery were provided as surface reflectance corrected data, and thus all images were used directly without additional corrections.SkySat and PlanetScope have blue (450-515 nm, 450-515 nm), green (515-595 nm, 500-590 nm), red (605-695 nm, 590-670 nm), and near infrared (NIR, 740-900 nm, 780-860 nm) bands. Using these bands, we calculated the green chlorophyll vegetation index for each image (GCVI) (Eq. 1) as previous studies have shown that GCVI has a linear relationship with the leaf area index for wheat 23 .We then extracted the mean GCVI for each field polygon for each image date in all years, and these mean GCVI values were used to create our yield estimation model. We predicted yield using random forest regressions, where each year's crop cut data were used to train individual random forest models for each year (Eq. 2)where crop cut yield (kg/ha) is the observed yield estimated using crop cuts for each polygon, and GCVI 1 to GCVI n are the mean GCVI values for each polygon for each image date (n) within a given growing season. For each year, the estimated random forest model was used on the stacked GCVI raster layer for the respective year to predict yield values. Through previous work, we have found that the models that lead to the highest yield prediction accuracies are the ones that use GCVI data throughout the growing season 10,12 . In particular, it is helpful to have images from the early growing season and near the timing of peak greenness 10 . We used a similar approach in this study, where we used GCVI from all available image dates (stack GCVIs) to predict yield and get similar accuracies to those that we have found in our other yield mapping papers. Though GCVI values from different dates were correlated in some models (Table S3), this does not impact our results. This is because random forest regressions are robust to multicollinearity, particularly for prediction, and we were not interested in identifying the relative importance of each GCVI value, which is more likely to be impacted by multicollinearity 24 . Furthermore, though random forest is robust to overfitting, we ensured that our models did not overfit the data by running a fivefold cross validation analysis where we used 70% of the data for training and 30% of the data for testing. We find that prediction accuracies are similar between training and test datasets (Table S4), suggesting that our models are not overfitting the data. However, the random forest yield prediction values did not fall consistently on the one-to-one line when plotting predicted versus observed yield values (Figure S1). Furthermore, percent bias (PBIAS) was not equal to zero (Figure S1), suggesting that there is systematic over or underestimation of yields in each year. Thus, to correct for this systematic bias, we conducted a second step, where we regressed the observed crop cut yields on the random forest estimated yields using a linear regression (Eq. 3).where crop cut yield (kg/ha) is the observed yield estimated using crop cuts for each polygon, RF estimated yield (kg/ha) represents the mean predicted yield for each polygon derived from the random forest model from the first step (Eq. 2), and ε represents the residual error. To calculate mean satellite yield, we took the mean value of all pixels within each field's polygon. We then applied the coefficients from Eq. 3 to the full raster stack to correct predicted random forest yields at the pixel scale across the study site. It is important to note that this correction (Eq. 3) was conducted separately for each of the five years. We validated our satellite yield estimates at the polygon scale by comparing estimated yields after the two-step approach with observed crop cut yields at the field scale (Fig. 2). Accuracy was evaluated using R 2 and root mean squared error (RMSE) on the full dataset also used for training, which is a common approach in satellite yield estimation when there are a small number of crop cut samples available 5,12 .To estimate yield gaps (YG), we subtracted the mean yield (Ymean ) for each polygon from yield potential (Yp) for each year (y; Eq. 4).where YG y equals the yield gap (kg/ha) for each polygon in year y, Yp y represents the yield potential (kg/ha) for all polygons in a given year y, and Ymean y represents the mean yield (kg/ha) for each polygon in a given year y. We defined Yp y as the 95th percentile yield value found in each year's satellite estimated yield raster for the study region after masking out non-cropland pixels using land cover classes from the Global Land Cover product 25 . Previous studies have suggested that such empirically estimated Yp better captures realistic economically-achievable yields that consider real-world infrastructural, management, and economic constraints, which are not well accounted for in modelled estimates of Yp 9 . We calculated Ymean using the mean satellite estimated yield for each polygon for each year, as crop cut yield values were not available for each field in each year.We measured yield persistence in two ways. First, we estimated how consistently fields were relatively high or low yielding by conducting a decile analysis developed in Lobell 9 . Specifically, all 271 fields were categorized intoone of ten deciles based on their yield rank using 2014-15 satellite estimated yields. Keeping each field within its original categorized decile from 2014-15, we plotted boxplots of all yields seen for all fields across all remaining years (2015-16 to 2018-19). If yields are persistent, we would expect there to be little overlap between boxplots across decile values, as the lowest yielding fields would always be low yielding and the highest yielding fields would always be high yielding. However, if there is a large amount of boxplot overlap across deciles, this suggests that there is variability in yield through time. Second, we quantified the percent of yield variation that was persistent through time using methods from Lobell et al. 26 . Specifically, for the highest yielding decile of fields found in 2014-15, we calculated the fields' average anomaly from the study site mean yield in 2014-15. For these same fields, we then calculated the fields' average anomaly compared to the study site mean for all subsequent years (2015-16 to 2018-19). By comparing yield anomalies from 2014-15 with yield anomalies for all remaining years, we gain an understanding of the amount of yield persistence from 2014-15 across later time periods.To understand which factors most influence yield gaps, we conducted random forest regressions where we regressed yield gap estimates for each year on a suite of management, weather, and biophysical variables that have been suggested to be important drivers of yield gaps in the previous literature (Eq. 5). Specifically, for management variables we considered wheat sowing date and the number of irrigations applied, for weather variables we considered average temperature and total rainfall within each winter season, and for biophysical variables we considered soil nitrogen and soil organic carbon.where YG y represents the yield gap (kg/ha) calculated for each year for each field (from Eq. 4), DOS y represents the sowing date of wheat (days since November 1) for each field in each year, Irrigation y represents the number of irrigations (ranging from 1-3) applied to each field during the wheat growing season in each year, AvgTemp y represents the average temperature (°C) for each polygon in each year, Tot_Rain y represents the total amount of rainfall (mm) for each polygon in each year, Nitrogen represents mean soil nitrogen (cg/kg) for each field across all years, Soil_Org_C (dg/kg) represents mean soil organic carbon (SOC) for each field across all years, Plotarea represents area of the field, and ε represents error. We calculated variable importance for our random forest  regression (Eq. 5) by examining the mean decrease in accuracy (%IncMSE) over all out-of-bag cross validated predictions when each variable was permuted.We obtained sowing date and irrigation information from management surveys that were conducted in 2014-15 and 2015-16. Given that we only had management variables available for these two years, we restricted our analyses (Eq. 5) to only these two years. We calculated average temperature using temperature data from Terra Climate 27 ; specifically we calculated mean temperature for each month (November to April) for each year (2014-15 to 2018-19) using the mean of monthly maximum and minimum temperature. We calculated total rainfall as the sum of monthly rainfall from November to April using monthly precipitation data from Terra Climate 27 . Finally, we calculated soil nitrogen and SOC using World Soil Information Service (WoSIS) global raster data 28 . Weather and soil raster data were extracted as the mean value for each polygon using the raster package 29 in R Project Software 4.1.0 20 . More details about each dataset, including their source and resolution are included in TableS6.Finally, we ran simulations to quantify how much yield gaps could be closed if all farmers adopted optimal management strategies. For this analysis, we focused on the two management variables considered in our analyses (Eq. 5), sowing date and number of irrigations applied. To identify what management values were optimal, we examined the partial dependence plots of sow date and irrigation and identified which values were associated with the smallest yield gaps. Partial dependence plots show the marginal effect of each feature on the predicted outcome from our random forest analysis (Eq. 5). Based on the partial dependence plots, we found that a sowing date of November 12 and three irrigations were associated with the lowest yield gaps. In our scenario analysis, we therefore altered all sowing dates to be November 12 and all irrigations to equal 3, and we predicted what yields would be for each field using our random forest model (Eq. 5). To estimate how much yield gain could be achieved, we quantified the difference between this predicted yield value under optimal management and Y mean y . All analyses were done using the Random Forest 30 and partial dependence plot 31 packages in R Project Software 4.1.0 20 .Accuracy of satellite estimated yields at the field scale. Overall, we find that micro-satellite data can accurately map yield at the field scale across multiple years. While accuracies varied from year to year, all years resulted in moderate to high validation accuracies (R 2 values range from 0.68 to 0.85), suggesting good fit with observed yield values (Fig. 2A-E). RMSE values were also moderate, ranging from 272 kg/ha to 410 kg/ha across the five years.Magnitude and persistence of yield gaps. We find that overall yield gaps are large, with an average value of 985 kg/ha across all polygons and all years. This is equal to 33% of mean yield values. The average yield gap varies from year to year, ranging from 543 to 1579 kg/ha (Fig. 3). Considering persistence, we find that yields are somewhat persistent through time and the level of persistence likely varies for low versus high yielding fields. Specifically, we find that there is high overlap in our decile boxplot analysis, particularly for lower decile values (Fig. 4A). This suggests that fields that are the lowest yielding in 2014-15 are not consistently low yielding across the timeframe of our study. There is, however, a positive increase in yields across decile values, and less overlap in boxplots for higher decile bins, suggesting that there is some yield persistence across time, particularly for higher yielding fields. Considering the amount of persistence that occurs for the highest yielding fields, we find that 17% of yield anomalies persist from 2014-15 to later time periods (Fig. 4B). To provide an overview of the yields per year, we have provided the descriptive statistics of yields per year at the field level in Table S5.Drivers of yield gaps and the ability to close yield gaps with ideal management. When considering which biophysical, weather, and management factors drive yield gaps, we find that weather and management variables are the most important factors explaining variation in yield gaps (Fig. 5). Our model shows that amongst all variables considered, sowing date is the variable that explains the most variation in yield gap. Weather variables and plot area are also found to be important explanatory factors of yield gap, with average temperature and total rainfall explaining similar amounts of variation (Fig. 5). These results are robust to the use of disaggregated climate data, specifically monthly GDD and monthly precipitation values (Figure S2). Considering partial dependence plots of the management variables considered in our study, we find that later sowing dates are associated with larger yield gaps (Figure S3A) and November 12th is the sowing date associated with the lowest yield gap. Furthermore, yield gaps decrease as more irrigations are applied, with the lowest yield gap seen with three irrigations (Figure S3B). Inputting these ideal management factors (November 12, three irrigations) into our scenario analysis, we find that yields could be increased on average by 414 kg/ha across all fields, which is 42% of the estimated yield gap in this region (Fig. 6). Shifting only the sowing date to November 12 could close the yield gap by 25% and only optimizing irrigation could close the yield gap by 18% (Fig. 6).We find that microsatellite data can accurately map field-level yields in smallholder systems, and these data can be used to understand the magnitude of yield gaps, yield persistence, and the drivers of yield gaps at the landscape scale. This is exciting given that previous remote sensing studies that have focused on yield gap and persistence analyses in smallholder systems have relied on coarser resolution imagery (e.g., Landsat) that are unable to resolve yields at the field scale 12 .Using micro-satellite data, we find that yield gaps are large on average (985 kg/ha), though the magnitude of yield gaps vary from year to year (Fig. 3). Our yield gap estimates are mostly smaller than those found in previous studies for the region, likely because we used an empirically derived estimate of economic yield potential (Yp). Specifically, by using the 95% percentile observed yield as our estimate of Yp, we are identifying the highest yielding field that exists given currently available inputs, soil health, and management practices. Previous studies have largely used crop model simulations or yields obtained from on-farm trials to estimate Yp [32][33][34] . When using crop model simulations or on-farm trials, ideal inputs and management practices are used (e.g., ideal sowing date, ideal input use), leading to a much larger estimate of Yp. For our study region, previous studies that have used modelled estimates of Yp find yield gaps that are about double those found in our study, ranging from 1500 to 2000 kg/ha. Yet such estimates of Yp do not account for existing economic and/or infrastructural constraints in the system that are difficult to alleviate, and thus represent long-term, idealized potentials. It is important to  note that by calculating yield gaps for each year, we are examining the magnitude and causes of yield gaps while controlling for inter-annual variability in weather.Our yield gap estimates are similar to those found in a previous study 10 that used Landsat satellite data to map wheat yield gaps across the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP). This is likely because this study used a similar approach to quantify Yp and associated yield gaps. Considering yield persistence, we find that yields are 17% persistent in this region, and yields seem to be more persistent for fields with higher-than-average yields. This suggests that systemic factors that consistently vary across farms, such as differences in soil quality and farmer skill, will also need to be addressed to close yield gaps in this region, particularly for the highest yielding fields.When analyzing the drivers of yield gaps, we find that sowing date, plot area, and weather are the factors that most explain variation in yield gap in our study region. Plot area is likely capturing the effect of improved management in larger fields that are typically owned by wealthier farmers 35,36 . The importance of sowing date has been highlighted by previous studies 10,37,38 , with farmers who sow earlier experiencing higher yields. This is because wheat is one crop that is particularly negatively impacted by heat stress that occurs at the end of the growing season during the time of grain filling 39 . If farmers are able to sow their wheat earlier, allowing the crop to mature prior to heat stress at the end of the growing season, negative yield impacts can be reduced 40,41 . We find that if farmers are able to sow their wheat earlier, they will be able to close yield gaps by 25% (Fig. 6). Furthermore, if farmers are additionally able to increase the amount of irrigation they use to three irrigations, yield gaps can be closed by 42%.While this is a substantial amount of the yield gap, it must be noted that the adoption of these ideal management strategies may not be possible for all farmers. Previous studies have suggested that while farmers are aware of yield gains associated with earlier wheat planting, they are often constrained on when they can plant based on irrigation availability, monsoon rainfall patterns, and decisions made in the prior monsoon growing season 38,42 . Several policies may help advance sowing and increase irrigation use across farmers. The first is providing farmers access to low-cost groundwater irrigation, possibly through the promotion of solar pump technologies 43 . There is scope to sustainable increase groundwater use in this region, but farmer use of groundwater is limited due to the reliance on costly diesel pumps 38 . Second, the use of zero tillage has been shown to advance sow date by up to two weeks in the region, and policies that enhance the uptake of zero tillage, such as increased subsidies and the promotion of service providers, could help farmers advance sowing date 38,44,45 .While our study is, to our knowledge, the first to map yield gaps and persistence in this landscape using microsatellite data, there are several important limitations. First, crop cuts were collected using different data collection protocols in each year (Table S1) and the same fields were not re-measured year after year. This is because we used data that were collected for several different research projects that were managed by different field teams and had different goals. We tested, however, if the method of crop cut used influenced our satellite yield estimates and find that there is no significant effect (Table S7). Second, our study examined a limited number of management variables that may influence yield gaps, namely sowing date and irrigation, and future work would benefit from including additional management strategies that have been shown to be important in the literature, such as sowing method and fertilizer use 21,44 .In conclusion, our study highlights the ability of microsatellite data to map yield gaps, yield persistence, and the drivers of yield gaps in smallholder farming systems at the field scale. We show that our yield gap estimates are for the most part smaller than those reported in previous studies, as we are able to better capture economic yield potential using empirically driven estimates. We find that yields are somewhat persistent in the region, and that yield gaps can be closed by up to 42% if farmers are able to adopt ideal management strategies. To our knowledge this is the first study where microsatellite data have been used to assess yield gaps over multiple years in smallholder systems. While our study is focused in one region of India, we believe that microsatellite data can be similarly beneficial for yield gap analysis in other smallholder systems across the globe. ","tokenCount":"4779"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"700c55e97865ca0073b17b95afee966a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/884f2043-587f-478c-94f9-d2277dc778de/retrieve","id":"1940894540"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f8a2c79f-0daf-4cab-b06c-6f423a5ce505","pagecount":"19","content":"Como parte de la iniciativa \"AgriLAC Resiliente: Sistemas de innovación agroalimentaria resilientes en América Latina y el Caribe\", en el marco del paquete de trabajo 1, \"Dando forma a las 'mejores apuestas' socioecológicastecnológicas (SET) sensibles a la nutrición\", se ha priorizado el fortalecimiento de las capacidades comerciales y técnicas de los socios y actores clave dentro de la cadena de valor agrícola. Esta contribución tiene como objetivo no solo mejorar la producción, sino también asegurar la sostenibilidad comercial a largo plazo para las asociaciones locales.En este contexto, los paquetes de trabajo 1 y 3 de la iniciativa unieron esfuerzos para dar continuidad a las acciones desarrolladas por el proyecto SLUS, financiado por la Internationale Klimaschutz Initiative (IKI). Estas acciones se enfocaron en la recopilación y análisis de información, así como en el fortalecimiento de capacidades comerciales de dos asociaciones de cacao: Asproabelén, ubicada en Belén de los Andaquíes (Caquetá), y Asoproagro, en La Paz (Cesar). El objetivo principal fue mejorar su potencial para la transformación y comercialización en el mercado.Para ello, se desarrollaron talleres que permitieron a los productores tener una visión integral sobre los procesos de agregación de valor y la comercialización de los productos transformados de cacao en Colombia, así como también se profundizó en los desafíos y las oportunidades para incursionar en nuevos productos y mercados.En esta etapa se concluyó que una de las principales barreras para ambas asociaciones era el desconocimiento y la falta de capacidades técnicas y de infraestructura para la transformación del cacao. En este sentido, nació la idea de darle un valor agregado a la producción a través de un proceso de maquila y un producto con cacao de origen para ser comercializado en principio localmente.En este caso, se decidió elaborar una barra de chocolate con un 60% de cacao, destacando su equilibrio entre sabor y beneficios para la salud. Esta elección responde a las tendencias del mercado que favorecen snacks saludables y sostenibles. Además, se incorporaron sabores locales como la mora y el asaí para resaltar las cosechas propias de las regiones. Por último, las asociaciones recibieron asesoría para definir el precio de venta del producto, así como herramientas de comercialización que les permitieron identificar mercados potenciales y desarrollar estrategias de venta.En consecuencia, para este segundo año de trabajo la iniciativa se dio seguimiento a las prácticas actuales de comercialización de las barras de chocolate, para conocer los avances y desafíos en cuanto a la aceptación del producto, las ventas y las posibilidades de mejora. Esto con el objetivo de evaluar la viabilidad y rentabilidad del negocio.La identificación de las dinámicas actuales para comercialización de las barras de chocolate se realizó de la siguiente forma:• Definición de los objetivos: Identificación de información clave requerida tal como: canales de distribución, clientes, precios, el perfil del cliente, la competencia y las estrategias de marketing.• Diseño de herramienta de recolección: se definió trabajar sobre una herramienta cualitativa para explorar percepciones, comportamientos y estrategias subjetivas de los productores.• Recolección de datos cualitativos: se realizaron reuniones con los miembros de la asociación para indagar sobre aspectos claves de la comercialización de las barras de chocolate.• Análisis de la información: de acuerdo con la información recolectada se establecieron unas acciones que se deben llevar a cabo y que estarán plasmadas en el desarrollo de este documento.La asociación Asproabelén (Asociación de productores agroforestales alternativos de Belén de los Andaquíes) se encuentra ubicada en el municipio de Belén de los Andaquíes en Caquetá y cuenta con alrededor de 53 asociados, 39 hombres y 14 mujeres. Tienen una capacidad de producción de 15 toneladas de cacao seco en grano donde cerca del 30% de la producción es de origen orgánico.Dentro de sus principales desafíos en el año 2024 se encuentra mejorar los rendimientos en la producción, puesto que en este último año han sido muy bajos, y a pesar de que en el mercado se presentan buenos precios de compra, no existe suficiente cacao para la venta.En el 2023 el precio de cacao seco era de COP$ 14.000/Kg y en el 2024 el cacao seco ha alcanzado los COP$ 35.000/Kg. Así mismo la asociación presenta dificultades en el proceso de beneficio, poscosecha, y trazabilidad del cacao. A pesar de que algunos productores cuentan con infraestructura de finca para poscosecha no se ha logrado la estandarización en la calidad del grano de cacao. Este ��ltimo aspecto es fundamental, en especial si se quiere continuar con los clientes extranjeros con los que la asociación había logrado establecer acuerdos de compra de cacao especial, para noviembre de 2024 se espera el envío de 2 toneladas de cacao especial a una empresa chocolatera en Francia.La asociación Asoproagro (Asociación de Productores Agropecuarios Los Encantos) se encuentra ubicada en el municipio de La Paz y San Diego (Cesar) legalmente constituida desde el 2019. Está conformada por 60 productores, 24 hombres y 36 mujeres, dedicados al cultivo de cacao, el 20% cuenta con certificación BPA. Además del cacao también tienen establecidos otros cultivos complementarios como el plátano, el aguacate y el café Se estima que el área destinada para la producción de cacao es de 1,5 a 2 hectáreas por productor, la siembra se realiza bajo Sistemas Agroforestales (SAF) y se cuenta con una oferta amplia de materiales de cacaos criollos y clones como ICS 39, ICS 60, ICS95, San Vicente 41, FEAR 5, CNCH 12 y CNCH 13, entre otros. En este último año la producción de cacao especial alcanzó las 24 toneladas.Respecto a la comercialización, se efectúa principalmente con dos empresas, la primera es la Compañía Nacional de Chocolates (CNCh) quien compra entre 6 a 8 toneladas de cacao al mes y paga en promedio COP$ 32.495/Kg de cacao corriente.Por otro lado, se encuentra la empresa colombiana Cacao de Colombia S.A.S o Cacao Hunters aliada comercial desde 2022; que demanda cerca de 4 toneladas mensuales de cacao seco especial y paga en promedio COP$ 35.000/Kg por este. Cabe señalar, que muchas veces los productores prefieren venderle su cacao a la CNCh puesto que, para ellos implica menos trabajo en las labores de poscosecha y el precio de compra diferenciado es mínimo entre el cacao especial y el cacao corriente.En la dinámica de venta de las barras de chocolate, se destacó la importancia de la comercialización y las acciones necesarias para posicionar este producto en el mercado local. Para ello, se diseñaron estrategias de marketing que abarcaron desde el producto hasta su promoción. El producto fue creado pensando en un nicho de mercado conformado por consumidores interesados en opciones de alimentación más saludables, con preferencias por sabores intensos. Este segmento valora los productos artesanales, orgánicos o de origen y está dispuesto a pagar un precio diferencial por la calidad y por conocer el origen del cacao.En cuanto a la fijación del precio de venta, se identificaron todos los costos asociados al proceso, incluyendo maquila, diseño, empaques y transporte desde las asociaciones hasta la empresa transformadora. Finalmente, para la plaza y promoción, se seleccionaron sitios estratégicos con un alto flujo de turistas y visitantes, con el fin de exhibir y comercializar los productos de manera efectiva.Después de seis meses de haber iniciado el proceso de comercialización de las barras de chocolate y tras el seguimiento, se identificaron una serie de brechas que han ralentizado el desempeño del negocio. A continuación, se indica las brechas y las oportunidades que presentan para cada una de las asociaciones: Los miembros de la asociación manifiestan ser tímidos y con pocas habilidades de venta, esto limita atraer a nuevos compradores y cerrar negocios. Además, es una desventaja que el porcentaje de jóvenes que participan del proceso de comercialización de las barras de chocolate es bajo, por lo que la comercialización se realiza por medios tradicionales.Identificar personas que tengan disposición y habilidades comerciales para construir un discurso de venta que pueden empezar a practicar en diferentes espacios como ferias y eventos, además fomentar la participación de los jóvenes de la asociación en el proceso de la comercialización de las barras de chocolate, así mismo gestionar la capacitación en manejo de plataformas, fotografía y creación de contenido para redes sociales que permita incrementar las ventas en mercados especializados.A pesar de las recomendaciones iniciales sobre el lugar y la temperatura ideal para la conservación del chocolate (entre 16 y 19ºC), las barras fueron almacenadas en una nevera convencional y en mal estado que hizo que el empaque se humedeciera y se dañara, en total se perdieron 500 cajas.Coordinar con la empresa maquiladora la venta de 500 empaques. Además, encontrar un espacio fresco, seco y alejado de olores que pudieran contaminar las barras de chocolate para su almacenamiento, de ser posible gestionar (con las ganancias de la venta de las barras) la compra de una nevera con regulador de temperatura que permita conservar la calidad del producto.A los eventos que ha asistido la asociación se evidencia la falta de material publicitario para dar a conocer a los clientes interesados más información sobre el producto y detalles de contacto para adquirir el producto. También hay falencias en cómo exhibir el producto en las ferias.Adquirir material para exhibir las barras de chocolate como estantería o mostrador y cajas display para el producto, además crear material publicitario como Flyers o plantillas para redes sociales. En este componente se cuenta con el apoyo de la oficina de emprendimiento del municipio de la Paz.A pesar de encontrar una serie de desafíos, la asociación se encuentra motivada para continuar con el proceso de la comercialización de las barras de chocolate, entre las acciones que han implementado, se destaca la creación de un comité de ventas, conformado por 4 personas, encargadas de la promoción y distribución. Hasta el momento este comité esta activo y está interesado en capacitarse para superar las distintas barreras.En la actualidad, el valor de las ventas supera $1.5 millones de pesos COP, este presupuesto es administrado por el comité y existe un fondo donde se va ahorrando todo el dinero generado por la comercialización de las barras de chocolate. El precio actual de una barra de chocolate es de COP$ 5.000 al por mayor y de COP$ 7.000 por unidad. El empaque actual no refleja completamente la identidad del producto de cacao del Caquetá, carece de información clave para la comercialización como números telefónicos de la asociación para realizar pedidos, esto podría limitar el atractivo y recordación en el mercado. Otro elemento para modificar es el tamaño del logo de Asproabelén, es muy pequeño respecto al resto de elementos gráficos.Buscar asesoría para la reestructuración del diseño del empaque que considere incluir elementos gráficos alusivos a la flora y fauna del departamento y colores que representen la identidad del producto, así como información clara y relevante.A pesar de que existe un comité para la venta de las barras de chocolate (4 personas), en la actualidad solo 2 integrantes están involucrados en la comercialización del producto, lo que limita el alcance y la distribución eficiente del chocolate en el mercado.Incluir a más productores, en especial mujeres y jóvenes, en el proceso de comercialización para diversificar los esfuerzos de venta, aumentar el alcance del producto y mejorar la eficiencia del negocio.En principio se limitó a vender la barra de chocolates entre los mismos productores o entre los familiares, estos se quejaban por el alto precio del producto.Por otro lado, se comercializan en dos tiendas en el aeropuerto (demandan un promedio de 40 barras/mes). No se ha realizado acercamiento a mercados diferenciados como hoteles o restaurantes gourmet para ofrecer el producto y establecer ventas formales y estables.Explorar nuevos canales de comercialización que incluyan mercados diferenciados a nivel regional y nacional para aumentar las ventas y posicionar mejor el producto.En el caso de Asproabelén es importante resaltar que, en los avances encontrados también se conformó un comité de ventas, el cual tiene la función de dinamizar la comercialización de las barras de chocolate y llevar el control del dinero generado por las ventas. En este proceso participan 4 personas, que fueron voluntarias para ejercer este rol. Sin embargo, al momento de evaluar la participación y compromiso se evidencia que solo 2 personas están cumpliendo las funciones del comité.1 Mariana Marines 2 Sandra Patricia Joven 3 Yaneth Andrade 4 Esnever Castro Un aspecto positivo, que ya se considera una ganancia para la asociación, fue la adquisición de una nevera especial para almacenar las barras de chocolate, la cual tuvo un costo de COP $1.930.000. Además, se pagaron COP $980.000 a la asociación por el cacao procesado al inicio del proyecto, todo esto producto de la comercialización de las barras.Es importante señalar que toda la mercancía que se tiene en inventario son ganancias ya generadas para la asociación, además se ha determinado que los recursos generados serán reinvertidos para maquilar un segundo lote. El precio de venta actual es de COP$ 7.000 por unidad y se ha establecido que por compras superiores a 20 barras de chocolate sea de COP$ 6.000 la unidad.Por último, dentro de otros aspectos positivos se encuentra la comercialización de las barras de chocolate en un café de la ciudad de Cali, que hasta la fecha ha realizado dos pedidos con 50 unidades cada uno. Con este cliente se ha dado la facilidad de pago por consignación (pago a 20 días) como estrategia de posicionamiento del producto en el local y para mitigar de alguna manera los gastos en que debe incurrir el cliente por el transporte del producto. Otra de las satisfacciones para la asociación es la puesta del producto en 2 tiendas del aeropuerto, con quienes también hay un acuerdo de pago por consignación.La identificación de las principales brechas que limitan la competitividad comercial de las barras de chocolate permitió reconocer las oportunidades de mejora para las asociaciones Asoproagro y Asproabelén. A continuación, se muestra las estrategias y acciones dirigidas a atender los cuellos de botella definidos por los mismos productores de las asociaciones, en especial por aquellos que hacen parte del comité de ventas para mejorar los índices de ventas, posicionar el producto y tener clientes fijos en mercados especializados.Estrategia 1-Producto:Posicionar la barra de chocolate \"Encanto del Perijá\" como una marca reconocida a nivel regional y nacional que transmita la esencia y autenticidad de su origen, destacando la riqueza del paisaje y biodiversidad del cacao cultivado en esta región. Esta estrategia busca atraer nuevos clientes mediante una propuesta única que resalte los atributos distintivos del cacao local, respaldada por un compromiso constante con altos estándares de calidad y prácticas de manufactura sostenibles y responsables.Continuar con la maquila de producto en Bogotá con una empresa diferente que la escogida en la etapa inicial.Mejorar el almacenamiento de las barras de chocolate.Diseñar cajas contenedoras, ej. 12 unidades.Buscar asesoría para revisar el proceso de registro de la marca de la barra de chocolate ante la cámara de comercio.• Mejorar diseño de empaque e incluir: información de contacto, elementos que representen la asociación y la biodiversidad de la región, también aumentar el tamaño del logo de la asociación.Segundo lote de barras de chocolate.• Espacio adecuado y contenedor especial para guardar las barras de chocolateCajas contenedoras y exhibidoras para eventos.Información sobre los requisitos y pasos necesarios para completar el registro de la marca de la barra de chocolate ante la cámara de comercio, incluyendo la documentación requerida y los costos asociados.Nuevo diseño de empaque.Estrategia 2 -Precio:Implementar una estrategia de precios ajustada que contemple la venta según los costos de producción y el tipo de cliente (al por mayor o al detal), asegurando un margen competitivo y adecuado. Esta estrategia permitirá captar un público amplio y diversificado, maximizando el volumen de ventas y fidelizando distintos segmentos del mercado.Actualizar costos de producción para establecer precio de venta.Implementar precios diferenciales ofreciendo descuentos atractivos a clientes que realicen compras al por mayor, y precios competitivos y accesibles para los clientes que compren en menor cantidad.Nuevo costo unitario de las barras de chocolate.• Control de elementos asociados al costo de producción, es decir, la materia prima, maquila y distribución.• Implementación del esquema de precios diferencial.Estrategia 3 -Plaza:Diversificar y optimizar los canales de comercialización para ampliar la presencia del producto en puntos de venta clave y en canales online para captar distintos segmentos del mercado, aumentando la visibilidad y facilitando la adquisición.Esto permitirá Incrementar las cifras de ventas y conseguir nuevos clientes diferenciales en el mercado regional y nacional.Identificar los mercados para la venta, ej. hoteles boutique, tiendas de artesanías, restaurantes y tiendas de productos naturales.Crear directorio de clientes y agendar visita para presentar el producto.Acuerdos comerciales formalizados con clientes diferenciales.Reunión con gerentes de espacios como hoteles, tiendas de artesanías para ofertar el producto.Estrategia 4 -Promoción:Visibilizar la barra de chocolate \"Encanto del Perijá\" a través de degustaciones en tiendas, eventos y ferias gastronómicas. También diseñar contenido para publicitar en redes sociales destacando los atributos del producto y beneficios para la salud.Participar en ferias y mercados campesinos. Realizar un análisis detallado de los costos de maquila y materia prima en los últimos meses, incluyendo el transporte y otros gastos asociados a la logística de distribución.Definir los precios diferenciales de venta de acuerdo con el tipo de cliente (mayorista o minorista) y frecuencia de venta.Precio de las barras de chocolate actualizado en función de los costos de producción.• Definición de precios diferenciales para mayoristas y minoristas.Corto plazo -2 meses Estrategia 3 -Plaza: Ampliar los canales de comercialización incorporando clientes potenciales de la región y aprovechando medios digitales para promocionar las barras de chocolate, destacando sus características de calidad y valor añadido. Esta estrategia permitirá resaltar las cualidades diferenciadoras del producto, fortalecer la conexión con los clientes y aumentar la probabilidad de fidelización en el mercado.Realizar una lista de clientes potenciales en la región que incluya hoteles, tiendas saludables y tiendas típicas de la región para establecer contacto.• Buscar a través de socios estratégicos como Fedecacao la alianza con mercados potenciales de la región o a nivel nacional para ampliar el portafolio de clientes.Contacto, visita y presentación del producto con clientes potenciales.Alianzas con potenciales clientes a nivel regional y nacional.Corto plazo -6 meses Estrategia 4 -Promoción:Potenciar las ventas de la barra de chocolate en el mercado regional y nacional a través de experiencias gustativas y activación de redes sociales para resaltar la calidad y origen del producto, esto para ir ganando reconocimiento de los consumidores.Participar en ferias, eventos y mercados campesinos para aumentar la red de distribución y ventas.Realizar o llevar degustaciones a sitios estratégicos como hoteles y restaurantes gourmet.Reactivar las redes sociales de la asociación para que Después de realizar el ejercicio de actualización de la comercialización de la barra de chocolate, ambas asociaciones ratificaron su compromiso e interés por continuar en el tema de la transformación y comercialización de productos elaborados con cacao. Para el primer caso la asociación Asoproagro acordó reactivar el comité de ventas y dinamizar sus funciones, así como también se propuso la compra de una nevera contenedora para guardar las barras de chocolate y conservar su calidad. Por otro lado, con el apoyo de la cámara de comercio se busca el rediseño y la mejora del logotipo de la asociación y del empaque y con la oficina de emprendimiento del municipio de la Paz se está a la espera de exhibir las barras de chocolate en su vitrina de productos locales.Entre otros aspectos que se visionan, se encuentran en primer lugar el fortalecimiento de capacidades, esto dado el interés de varias mujeres de la asociación en capacitarse en transformación de cacao para poder elaborar otros productos como chocolate de mesa que ha sido muy solicitado entre la población local, para ello se está buscando con el SENA un curso complementario para transformación de productos a base de cacao.En segundo lugar, la asociación ha visto otras opciones de maquila de barras de chocolate más cercanas, inclusive se encontró una opción con una asociación de cacao en la Jagua de Ibiricó, sin embargo, no se cuenta con la calidad del producto actual, por lo que se decidió continuar con la maquila en Bogotá, pero con otra empresa chocolatera, debido a que la pasada empresa maquiladora incumplió con los tiempos de entrega y la comunicación se tornó difícil.Por último, en este corto tiempo se identifica como una oportunidad para continuar fortaleciendo el tema de la transformación de cacao, la formulación y gestión de proyectos para la adquisición de maquinaria. En este sentido, la asociación Asoproagro presentó ante la Agencia de Desarrollo Rural (ADR) un proyecto para la elaboración de barras de chocolate, este incluyo maquinaria para la transformación, tales como: tostadora, refinadora y una prensa para extraer manteca de cacao. A su vez, la asociación ha identificado con el SENA la oferta de cursos relacionados con la transformación de cacao, por lo que se planea enviar una solicitud formal para impartir esta formación y que beneficie en especial a mujeres y jóvenes de la asociación.Como segundo caso, después de realizar el balance de la comercialización de las barras de chocolate, la asociación Asproabelén enfatizó en que existe mucho potencial para la venta de este producto, esto debido a la buena aceptación de la barra entre los consumidores. En este mismo ejercicio, también se resaltó la importancia de posicionar la barra de chocolate a nivel regional, puesto que visibiliza el trabajo y la calidad de las cosechas de los cacaocultores de Asproabelén.Entre las acciones a implementar a corto plazo se encuentra la maquila de un segundo lote de cacao, sin embargo, al igual que la asociación Asoproagro se está considerando la idea de cambiar la empresa maquiladora, aunque existe el temor de que cambie la calidad o característica de la barra, por lo que se está indagando sobre que otras empresas en Bogotá presentan buenas calificaciones y recomendaciones en el proceso de maquila de productos de cacao.Por último, el comité de ventas de la barra de chocolate de Asproabelén entre sus acciones prioritarias planteó el acercamiento con los gerentes de los hoteles Caquetá Real y Andinos para presentar el producto y ver la posibilidad de colocar en un sitio estratégico del hotel (ej. en la recepción) un exhibidor con las barras para promocionar y facilitar la comercialización de estas, en este aspecto ha sido clave el apoyo brindado por el programa Rutas PDET. Así mismo se resaltó la importancia de la participación de los jóvenes de la asociación para capacitarse y formarse en temas de transformación de cacao y de marketing, esto como estrategia de integración y de generar nuevas formas de empleo en el sector del cacao de la región. Finalmente, los productores reafirmaron su interés en diversificar su producción y comercialización, no solo enfocándose en barras de chocolate, sino también en una variedad de productos derivados del cacao, como bombones, productos cosmeticos, o bebidas artesanales. Además, han expresado su intención de incursionar en el turismo experiencial, ofreciendo servicios de recorridos por las fincas cacaoteras, donde los visitantes puedan vivir de cerca el proceso de cultivo, cosecha y transformación del cacao. Estas iniciativas representan una oportunidad para agregar valor a su producción y fortalecer el vínculo entre los consumidores y las raíces culturales del cacao en la región.Línea de tiempo para implementación de acciones Asproabelen• La comercialización de las barras de chocolate se configura como una alternativa de diversificación del negocio, que, si bien hasta el momento no representa la principal fuente de ingresos de la asociación, es un comienzo de valorizar la producción de cacao. Además, se destaca la motivación e interés de los productores por incursionar y capacitarse en la elaboración y comercialización de productos transformados de cacao.• Es importante mencionar, que para el caso de la asociación Asproabelén ya se presentan ganancias por la comercialización de las barras, así entonces se ha propuesto reinvertir el dinero para continuar con el negocio. Por el lado de Asoproagro es positivo ver como algunos jóvenes de la asociación han comenzado a interesarse e integrarse a la comercialización y promoción del producto, dado que es un tema innovador y les despierta curiosidad las distintas formas de transformación del cacao.• En este periodo de tiempo en el ejercicio de la comercialización de las barras de chocolate, se evidencia una falta de capacidades en temas de marketing y discurso de venta. El desconocimiento del manejo de las redes sociales y sus funciones de venta limitan la comercialización a otra escala y otro tipo de consumidores. Ante esto se recomienda integrar y reconocer a los jóvenes que tienen capacidad y de alguna manera les gusta el proyecto productivo de cacao para que puedan formarse en herramientas digitales y creación de contenido que pueda contribuir a la comercialización del producto.• Para ambas asociaciones, es necesario fortalecer los comités de venta para que cumplan eficazmente con sus funciones. Para garantizar su funcionamiento y eficiencia es fundamental mejorar los procesos de registro y contabilidad. Actualmente, el registro se realiza de forma manual y carece de rigor, lo que dificulta llevar un control exacto de la trazabilidad de las ventas. Además, es importante que algunos miembros del comité asuman la responsabilidad de dar seguimiento a los inventarios y coordinar con los clientes actuales, asegurando un abastecimiento continuo del producto. Esto ayudará a evitar las quejas que se han recibido en ocasiones por problemas en este aspecto.• Hasta el momento la comercialización de las barras de chocolate se ha dado de manera muy territorial, ejercicio que ha sido muy interesante, puesto que entre los mismos productores se está educando sobre el consumo de cacao y sus transformados, inclusive para muchos ha sido impactante descubrir el verdadero sabor del chocolate, puesto que por tradición y por la oferta del mercado estaban acostumbrados a un mayor contenido de azúcar en las barras de chocolate.• Entre las muchas sugerencias hechas por los consumidores y clientes de las barras de chocolate se resalta la importancia de incluir un número telefónico de contacto para hacer pedidos, por esta razón se llegó a la conclusión de ajustar el diseño del empaque para consignar esta información y hacer otros ajustes como incrementar el tamaño del logo de las asociaciones e inclusive cambiar el nombre del producto como es el caso de Asoproagro por presentar posible duplicidad en el registro del nombre. Para ello, las asociaciones buscan apoyo en las oficinas de emprendimiento de sus municipios y con la cámara de comercio, la cual brinda acompañamiento y reforzamiento de emprendimientos en etapa de inicio.• Finalmente, es importante que las asociaciones diversifiquen sus actividades productivas, y una manera de hacerlo es incursionar en temas de transformación de su materia prima con valor agregado, y que además a un mediano plazo puedan contar con su propia maquinaria e infraestructura para la transformación de cacao. Por esta razón es importante, capacitarse de forma constante e integrar a los jóvenes y mujeres para generar capacidades y nuevas formas de empleo que contribuyan a mejorar la calidad de vida de los cacaocultores.• Al igual que no se debe descuidar la parte productiva, porque finalmente será la base para producir y elaborar productos terminados de calidad, así mismo se debe continuar y reforzar las capacidades de comercialización, en especial de los miembros pertenecientes al comité de ventas, para que puedan generar nuevos canales de comercialización en especial en mercados diferenciados, donde es apreciado este tipo de productos realizados por pequeños agricultores. ","tokenCount":"4516"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cb67496988587a83519d5abb44ac862d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cc06a62e-846d-48d2-a6e0-18e42477a428/retrieve","id":"125475960"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"1a3d59b9-909d-40e1-b6b3-f68feed70a5a","pagecount":"1","content":"Estimate the potential market for new hybrid forages of Urochloa and Megathyrsus maximus, which are being developed by CIAT, for East Africa.Of the six countries with the largest dairy herd in Africa, five are in the east of the continent. They are home to about 32 million cattle (FAO, 2022).Hybrid forages adapted to cut-and-carry systems are necessary for the productive systems that prevail in Africa (Maass et al., 2015).Adoption of improved materials is still very low in the region (Creemers et al., 2021).The prevalence of severe food insecurity in East Africa is 27.7%, which is above the African average of 24% (FAO, 2022).Thus, new forage hybrids being are a real alternative to face food insecurity and, in general, to provide livelihoods for the most vulnerable population.Secondary data on cattle heads, geographic information systems, and commercial prices of forage seeds produced by companies such as Grupo Papalotla (FAO, 2022;Oliphant et al., 2019;Grupo Papalotla, n.d.).Through production assumptions consulted with experts, geographic profiling of forage areas, and geometric averages of seed prices, potential market sizes (ha) and values (US$) of hybrid forages were estimated. This was done for two forage species, namely interspecific Urochloa and Megathyrsus maximus hybrids.  ","tokenCount":"195"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b7a62cb263d304aecfab3f8c20ebbd1d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/358b4ab3-3f92-40f2-a9ba-806284b59029/retrieve","id":"-1330970641"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a304995f-d11c-4a85-b6fe-c403c0e8b0c1","pagecount":"4","content":"Governments and donors have challenged crop breeding programs led by CGIAR and national agricultural research and extension systems (NARES) to show the opportunity for impact from investments. Building evidence on the opportunity for impact requires data and insights on the two sides of crop breeding: the business viewand the biological view. Read More →In Kenya, most farmers produce maize under rain-fed conditions and purchase hybrid maize seeds on an annual basis. Two factors are especially important in their decisions on which seed to acquire: where the production takes place (i.e., level of rainfall and altitude) and when it takes place (i.e., long-or short-rains season). Read More →Agnes Gitonga, Clare Mukankusi A key factor that in uences common-bean farmers' decisions on which seeds to acquire and grow is consumer requirements for color and size. In the eight criteria used by Market Intelligence for seed product market segmentation, color is a criterion and size attributes are recognized in the consumer use criterion. Read More → ","tokenCount":"163"}

data/part_1/0365255203.json

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5bc419d65fb781167d67b457465bbfa7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1714283b-c7d0-4498-9012-0d0b14382518/retrieve","id":"-649907358"},"keywords":["Workshop participants and Rabat. Credit: Bioversity International/I.L.Noriega","M.Halewood Bioversity International Headquarters Via dei Tre Denari","472/a 00054 Maccarese (Fiumicino) Workshop participants. Credit: ICARDA/A. El-Mansouri"],"sieverID":"d019fe04-f177-4de0-8c44-128efe549bc1","pagecount":"15","content":"We deliver scientific evidence, management practices and policy options to use and safeguard agricultural and tree biodiversity to attain sustainable global food and nutrition security. We work with partners in low-income countries in different regions where agricultural and tree biodiversity can contribute to improved nutrition, resilience, productivity and climate change adaptation.Bioversity International is a CGIAR Research Centre. CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food-secure future.The workshop was designed to increase participants' understanding of how international laws promoting the conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources and benefit-sharing can apply to the day-to-day management of genebanks, plant breeding programs and other forms of agricultural research and development. Given the direct relevance of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Report on the 'Workshop to strengthen the capacity of scientists from CGIAR Centres and NARS to deal with genetic resources policy issues ', 27-30 November 2017, ICARDA, Rabat, Morocco. 4 Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) to these activities, the workshop focussed on boosting participants' capacity and confidence to proactively engage in the ITPGRFA's multilateral system of access and benefit-sharing, and to use the Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA) as both providers and recipients of genetic resources and related information. Because it is also true that national laws implementing the Nagoya Protocol may govern some activities of genebanks and breeding programs, the workshop sought to increase participants' appreciation of how to comply with Nagoya Protocol, and when the ITPGRFA or the Nagoya Protocol applies in different situations. Another, related objective of the workshop was to promote mutually supportive implementation of the ITPGRFA and the Nagoya Protocol at national levels, in ways that provide much needed policy support for genebankers, breeders, farmers and agricultural research and development more generally. Where relevant, the workshop sought to clarify the differences in how the ITPGRFA and Nagoya Protocol apply to CGIAR Centres, national agricultural research organizations, farmers and companies.The first session of the workshop was dedicated to building-up participants' common understanding of a range of 'baseline' issues, including the rational for the development of the ITPGRFA and Nagoya Protocol, and their current state of implementation. This session also provided an overview, in very general terms, of how the ITPGRFA and Nagoya Protocol apply to the work of national agricultural research organizations and CGIAR Centres as they conserve crop, forage and tree genetic resources, and engage in plant breeding and other forms of agricultural research and development. Information was shared about the ongoing discussions for the reform of the ITPGRFA's multilateral system of access and benefit-sharing. There were presentations from representatives of the Secretariat of the ITPGRFA and the CBD, and National ITPGRFA Focal Points from Benin and Morocco.The second, third and fourth sessions of the workshop focused in more detail on how the ITPGRFA, Nagoya Protocol and related national laws can support or create challenges for the daily operations of genebanks, plant breeders, and researchers in CGIAR Centres and national agricultural research programs. These sessions also considered the complementarity and interplay of access and benefit-sharing laws with the CGIAR's own Guiding Principles for the Management of Intellectual Assets, and with the standard operating procedures that CGIAR Centres' genebanks are developing as part of their Quality Management Systems. In this context the workshop focused considerable attention on how CGIAR Centres and national organizations transfer and receive so-called Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture under Development.Each of these three sessions started with presentations by genebank managers, plant breeders and/or research managers about how their work was being impacted by relevant laws and policies. They also identified situations where they were uncertain how the laws applied, and how to make practical decisions. These presentations were followed by lively question and answer sessions wherein participants compared experiences, raised more questions, and worked toward common understandings of outstanding issues.The participants were divided into small groups to work through pre-scripted scenarios. The scenarios were designed to 'tease out' practical ways to address uncertainties about how the ITPGRFA and Nagoya Protocol could apply to genebanks, breeders, and farmers when the access, use or transfer plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. The participants compared and discussed the results of their small group analysis results. Expert resource persons provided guidance where the small groups raised unanswered questions.The fifth session of the workshop was dedicated to looking at the interplay of ABS laws, and national intellectual property and seed laws and the CGIAR IA Principles when national research organizations use improved lines received from CGIAR Centres for the development and release of new cultivars.The final session focused on how the work of national agricultural research organizations and CGIAR Centres can promote farmers' rights as articulated in Article 9 of ITPGRFA.Throughout the course of the workshop, the resource persons introduced published background materials, decision-making tools and fact sheets in French that the participants could use in the future when faced with similar sorts of 'real life' scenarios in their daily work.It was really useful to have this workshop in French. Most of the CGIAR meetings about the genebanks and genetic resources policy are in English, so lots of us who are not English mother tongue don't ever fully understand all of the concepts. This is the first time in years I really have full clarity about many of these policy issues.Amy Bodian, Institut Sénégalais de Recherches Agricoles-Ceraas/Coraf, Thiès (Senegal)A lot of time we do our jobs without fully understanding the international policy framework. I have a much better understanding about those laws and policies now, and am confident I will be able to direct our operations in future to be in compliance and advance the goals of those agreements in ways that also support our mission.Fatimata Bachabi, AfricaRice, Cotonou (Bénin) I wish that in the coming years, we will have a website we can go to that includes all possible scenarios addressed by experts. That would really help our decision making.Jilal Abderrazek, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Rabat (Morocco)Inspired by their experiences working together, the participants decided to form a network to share questions, experiences and resource materials over the years to come. Furthermore, the small groups' answers to some of the practical exercises will be used to develop additional 'scenarios' to be included in future editions of Mutually supportive implementation of the Nagoya Protocol and the Plant Treaty: Scenarios for consideration by national focal points and other interested stakeholders that has been developed by Bioversity International, the ABS Capacity Development Initiative and the Secretariats of the ITPGRFA and the CBD.The workshop agenda, list of participants, scenarios addressed by small groups, and resource materials shared during the workshop are included in annexes to this report. This is one of a series of workshops organized by the Genebank Platform Policy Module for scientists and research managers from CGIAR Centres and national agricultural research and development organizations.Photo: Amy Bodian (Ceraas/Coraf), Sanogo Diaminatou (Institut Sénégalais de Recherches Agricoles), Catherine Ky Dembele (ICRAF). Credit: Bioversity International/M. Halewood It was a good opportunity for us, tree scientists from ICRAF and national research organizations, to understand how all the relevant laws and policies affect our daily work on tree resources conservation and distribution. ","tokenCount":"1184"}

data/part_1/0369173396.json

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"91d65ae7fbebb6ef7631c3c3aedd6f5f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/cf1f2b24-6456-4a2d-8616-cc81ca894add/retrieve","id":"1301428403"},"keywords":["CIAT","ICARDA","WorldFish"],"sieverID":"e5fce136-50ac-4002-a28e-ac5ddd854bf1","pagecount":"30","content":"CGIAR is a global partnership that unites organizations engaged in research for a food secure future. The CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish aims to increase the productivity of small-scale livestock and fish systems in sustainable ways, making meat, milk and fish more available and affordable across the developing world. The Program brings together four CGIAR Centers: the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) with a mandate on livestock; WorldFish with a mandate on aquaculture; the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), which works on forages; and the International Center for Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), which works on small ruminants. http://livestockfish.cgiar.orgThe Program thanks all donors and organizations who globally supported its work through their contributions to the CGIAR Fund.A. Key MessagesThe vision of the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish is for the health, livelihoods and future prospects of the poor and vulnerable, especially women and children, to be transformed through consumption of adequate amounts of meat, milk and fish and through benefits from improved incomes and livelihood by participating in the associated animal source food value chains. The program seeks to achieve this vision by increasing the productivity of small-scale livestock and fish production systems and improving the performance of their associated value chains.The program proposed a new model for enhancing the relevance, urgency and impact of its research. It is designed to bring together collective capacity within CGIAR to demonstrate how research can develop appropriate solutions as integrated interventions for pro-poor transformation of selected value chains and work towards their implementation at scale by development partners. Through this focus on transforming selected value chains, the program is committed to stimulating large development interventions that will translate our research into impact at scale. The process also defines longer-term research to prepare the future breakthroughs that will be needed to ensure the continued viability and growth of these value chains.This model is a new way of working for the CGIAR and requires reorienting capacity, mobilizing new resources and establishing new types of partnerships to engage effectively in the selected value chains. The program officially began in January 2012 and this first year has been devoted to establishing the institutional and scientific frameworks within which this reorientation is taking place. The program has benefited from a large body of pre-existing research relevant to its mission, and the program has continued to maintain this pipeline, generating a number of exciting results during the year.Momentum has been quickly achieved in three of the nine selected value chains. 1 Bilateral-funded projects in the value chains for smallholder dairying in Tanzania, smallholder pigs in Uganda and aquaculture in Egypt have enabled the program to begin deploying its value chain-based approach. These projects have allowed the program to engage with partners and stakeholders and create support for a joint pro-poor research and development agenda targeting the selected value chain, consolidating related research activities and undertaking a value chain assessment process. The CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) also initiated an associated assessment of the public health dimensions in each of these value chains.The value chain approach requires new methods and scientific rigour to demonstrate its value. A toolkit of rapid value chain assessment instruments was successfully developed in collaboration with the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions and Markets (PIM) and is being adapted to each species and value chain. The instruments guide researchers and development practitioners in a comprehensive characterization of the technical and institutional dimensions of the value chain which describes the baseline situation and permits preliminary identification of opportunities for improving its pro-poor performance. Already reflected in the toolkit is the mainstreaming of gender analysis, which is one of the main objectives defined in the program's gender strategy. The strategy defines a gender agenda that includes both an 'accommodative' approach for developing gender-sensitive technologies and development strategies, and exploring a 'transformative' approach to address the more fundamental inequities that constrain women's full participation in value chain development.The program's agenda on technology research concentrates on the three main technical drivers of animal productivity: health, genetics and nutrition. These have been the core of the research undertaken in the past by the four partner centers, and much of the existing pipeline of work in these areas is being aligned to support improving productivity in the program's selected value chains.To maintain this momentum and orient it to have even greater impact in the selected value chains, the program is aspiring to better integration across the partner centers with shared capacity and understanding for the value chain approach and working towards interventions at scale. Progress was made in 2012 through joint planning to identify the teams and articulate the program implementation strategy. Developing a common evaluation framework in 2013 will be key to consolidating this progress.A.2 Two most significant achievements/success stories Lack of quality seed is a major constraint to both aquaculture productivity and production. WorldFish and partners have successfully used selective breeding approaches to develop the Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia (GIFT) strain of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), now widely used throughout Asia in countries such as the Philippines, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, China and Malaysia. To replicate the successes of GIFT, in 1999 WorldFish and Ghana's Water Research Institute (WRI) initiated a program for the breeding and selection of indigenous Nile tilapia for faster growth in Ghana. After multiple generations of selection, a new fast-growing strain, the Akosombo strain, was produced and recently made available to farmers. The Akosombo strain grows about 30% faster than other farmed tilapia in the region, enabling fish farmers to harvest after six instead of the usual eight months. The Akosombo strain, which also has a higher survival rate, has rapidly gained acceptance by fish farmers and hatchery managers in Ghana. In 2008, WorldFish, WRI, FAO and partners began to work towards extending the benefits of genetically improved tilapias to other countries in the Volta Basin e.g. Burkina Faso. By the end of 2012, there were about 15 medium to large-sized hatcheries and approximately 540 farmers in Ghana using the Akosombo strain. Supply of the Akosombo strain is currently struggling to keep pace with demand. Results from a similar program in Egypt for the Abbassa strain is noted elsewhere in this report. The success of the fish breeding program in Ghana and elsewhere clearly illustrates the significant contribution that selective breeding programs can bring to improving aquaculture value chains for the benefit of poor producers and consumers. The Livestock and Fish Program is seeking how to best support its partners in further developing productive fish strains and in scaling out dissemination to farmers.The second significant achievement is an early success in preparing for impact in the dairy value chain in Tanzania. As work has been initiated there, the focus of the first phase of engagement has been to establish strategic partnerships and align stakeholders to support the program's value chain transformation agenda. In this case, this initial engagement was able to build on ongoing policy collaboration to improve milk safety in The Results Strategy Framework for the program defines intermediate development outcomes (IDOs) based on program logic as outcomes relating to increased productivity, more and better quality food supplies, improved incomes-especially for women, more of the nutrient gap met by animal source foods, lower environment impacts, and a more enabling policy and investment environment. Over a 12-year horizon, the program commits to ensuring these outcomes affect at least 500,000 households in the target value chains: during 2013, an exercise will be conducted to develop more detailed projections by value chain. The IDOs are continuing to be refined as part of the Consortium-wide harmonization effort and as the program's evaluation framework is developed.Two main impact pathways are envisaged. The first pathway is through a process of deliberately orienting research that lead to actionable packages of pro-poor technologies and strategies in each of the selected value chains, to be subsequently implemented at scale as development interventions. This process involves engagement with stakeholders and partners-including development partners, assessing the pro-poor performance of the value chain, identifying and testing potential technical and institutional strategies for upgrading the value chain, and generating an evidence base to attract the development investment needed to take it to scale as an intervention. These interventions will target poor rural households who keep livestock or derive their livelihoods by providing input or market services, together with poor rural and urban consumers and nutritionally vulnerable women and children. Two types of progress will be measured: (i) whether the technologies and institutional strategies being proposed are translating into measurable improvements in the performance and distribution of benefits of the selected value chain to the targeted beneficiaries; and (ii) whether the process just described for the program's value chain development approach is on track and likely to achieve its objectives. Measuring progress on these two levels offers methodological challenges, some of which will be subject of program research, such as methods for monitoring the physical, economic and welfare performance of a value chain. An objective of the ongoing development of program's evaluation framework is to define relevant and feasible indicators for what we are able to measure at present.The second impact pathway seeks to influence practices and policies globally so that research results from the program are taken up more widely outside of the program sites and value chains. Here, key indicators relate to the visibility the program is able to create for its results to foster an enabling environment and enhance their ability to attract investment for their deployment elsewhere.Definition of the IDOs and associated impact pathways has confirmed the need to increase attention to two areas that had not been sufficiently envisaged in the activities described in the Program proposal; these relate to assessing environmental implications of value chain development and better nutritional targeting of the animal source foods produced.The program is currently recording two types of baseline data, which may evolve as the evaluation framework is defined. These include situational analyses for each value chain that describe the current status of the target value chain with measures based mostly on secondary data related to the IDOs, and household and market surveys that provide a snapshot (but are not likely to be generalizable or necessarily appropriate for impact assessment at some later point) of specific indicators.As the various Consortium evaluation frameworks are still under development, the program is relying primarily on tracking its planned activities and milestones to evaluate it progress. It has attempted to respond to the Consortium indicators where possible and will be working to develop its own framework and indicators and to set targets for the Consortium indicators during its planning process in 2013.The program held a series of planning meetings for the Themes and value chains. These meetings were critical for identifying the cross-center teams, developing together detailed implementation plans and longer-term strategies, and agreeing on initial work plans. These planning processes faced considerable challenges, however, due to the ongoing organizational transition within each center to adapt to their participation in the various CGIAR programs. In addition, to align itself with emerging guidelines from the Consortium, the program streamlined its structure, reducing from the original 3 Themes divided into 9 Components to a new structure of 6 Themes without Components. As the result, the planning process was not fully completed in 2012 and establishment of the Program Participant Agreements delayed.As highlighted in Section A, the program was able to begin directly deploying the value chain approach in three of the selected value chains: Egypt, Tanzania and Uganda. The aspiration was to initiate the value chain approach in all nine value chains, but given the structure of funding for the program, fully implementing this approach in a value chain requires first mobilizing adequate bilateral project funding. In the three countries cited, funding had already been secured in 2011 in anticipation of the program, so activities could be initiated immediately. This has encouraged rapid formation and engagement of the cross-center teams responsible for the development of the methodologies supporting the value chain approach. Within the three value chains, the teams have begun close collaboration with strategic research and development partners and the process of stakeholder engagement while implementing the initial assessment activities, including a site selection process and situational analyses of the target sector (e.g. dairy sector in Tanzania). Lower levels of activity have been initiated in the remaining value chains based on existing legacy projects as bilateral funding is sought for more comprehensive activities. In the case of aquaculture in Uganda, a more rigorous re-assessment of the potential for significant growth and impact led to the decision to withdraw, demonstrating the evidence-based nature of decision-making adopted by the program.Establishing a flagship value chain project in each focus country is demonstrating benefits in attracting and creating synergies with complementary restricted projects and other CGIAR Research Programs to address the full range of research that can be applied to value chain development. In Tanzania, for example, the flagship dairy research-fordevelopment project funded by Irish Aid has been able to add value to and benefit from integration with a feed market research project funded by Theme 1 -Animal healthThe objective of this Theme is to generate data and materials to improve the pro-poor management of animal health and food safety in the selected value chains. As part of its initial focus to improve control of the commonly perceived major disease constraints in the value chains selected in sub-Saharan Africa, advances were made in supporting the delivery of the live East Coast fever (ECF) vaccine produced by ILRI through a packaging innovation and genomic tools.This Theme is developing improved strains and breeding strategies that sustainably improve animal productivity in emerging small-scale market-oriented livestock and fish production systems. Research to develop genetically improved fish strains culminated in 2012 with documentation and dissemination of improved strains developed from local populations in six countries: in the selected value chain in Egypt, but also in Bangladesh, Ghana, India, Malawi and Malaysia. In Egypt, the improved Abbassa strain of Nile tilapia G9 was provided to five brood stock multiplication centers in three major aquaculture governorates during summer of 2012 to be reproduced and their offspring used on fish farms during the 2013 growing season onwards. The improved Akosombo strain of Nile tilapia in Ghana is demonstrating potential for uptake in other countries of the Volta River Basin.Within three of the target value chains, initial rapid assessments for improved genetics were completed. To support efficient and sustainable sheep and goat breeding strategies in Ethiopia, a new partnership with EMBRAPA generated initial results in adapting EMBRAPA's tailor-made web-based data recording and management system (DREMS). In Asia, capacity was established in four countries to systematically document national genetic resources to inform future improvement and conservation strategies.This Theme is focusing on developing superior feed and forage options that respond to current and evolving demands to increase meat, milk and fish production while reducing the ecological footprint. An initial activity established a joint Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) network to strengthen the program's capacity for feed quality analysis. Partners were trained in use of the technology and NIRS equations were established for standardizing analysis of crop residues (sorghum, pearl millet, rice, wheat, maize, cowpea, groundnut, chickpea, pigeon pea, lablab), forages (sorghum, pearl millet, Napier, pigeon pea), agro byproducts (bran, oil cakes, hulls and husks, sweet sorghum bagasse) and mixed fodder market samples using open source software and equipment.Using existing feed resources better requires a simple, rapid, but robust diagnosis of feed resources available on-farm and from the market that relates to livestock needs. Support is then needed in deciding which technical options to apply to improve the use of those feed resources. Two tools for feed resource assessment and feed intervention prioritizing to address these challenges were tested and the feed interventions identified were successfully tested in Tanzania, India and Ethiopia. Materials to support their wider dissemination are under preparation. Options for and the economics of improving or supplementing on-farm feed resources through feed and fodder purchase were investigated by a range of fodder market value chain studies completed in India, Nigeria and Mali. It became clear that formal and informal fodder markets play a key role in supporting intensification of livestock systems and there are opportunities to improve their efficiency.Good progress was made towards providing more feed of higher quality from forages, crop residues/agricultural byproducts and new feed ingredients. Analyses demonstrated that selection of crop cultivars with superior fodder quality in the stover, straws and haulms will result in price premiums at fodder markets of between 10 to 25% and the response in meat and milk production is of a similar order. In addition, it was learned that small differences in fodder quality of crop residues of 3 to 5% units in digestibility result in large difference in prices and in livestock productivity due to the additive effect of higher fodder quality and higher voluntary feed intake.CIAT's two Brachiaria breeding programs successfully released 3 new forage varieties for dissemination. With BMZ funding, field testing of alternative forage legume-based feeds generated evidence that pigs can tolerate well up to 33% of Vigna, for instance, with similar live weight gain compared to a conventional diet and at lower cost.The Theme works to develop methods for assessing value chains, identifying and testing technical and institutional opportunities to improve their productivity, efficiency and ability to generate benefits for the poor, and translating proven opportunities into development interventions at scale. This requires the development of an integrated approach that considers the target food commodity system as a whole and the interactions, both biophysical and socioeconomic, between the different parts of the value chain. Cross-center multidisciplinary teams of researchers were formed and began working together in 2012, both to address the cross-cutting methodological challenges and to begin engaging within each of selected value chains. The engagement process in each value chain is critical to cultivate local ownership of the approach and to establish the strategic partnerships among research and development actors to implement it. Stakeholder events to introduce the program have accordingly been organized in each of the selected value chains and the program has established or strengthened project offices in Egypt, Tanzania and Uganda.The initial task has been to develop an integrated toolkit for rapid value chain assessment that adequately captures the range of relevant technical and economic dimensions of the value chain. A generic version is now available, and it has been adapted and tested in several of the value chains. Rapid value chain assessments were completed in Tanzania and Egypt and initiated or planned in the remaining value chains. A key component of this toolkit is a situational analysis that describes the national macroeconomic and sectoral context in which the value chain operates, including the policies, other competing value chains, and auxiliary value chains for inputs and services, and identifies trends likely to influence the viability of the target value chain. These studies provide both a baseline from which changes affecting the value chain can be monitored, and the basis for developing an agenda for policy analysis and engagement to create an enabling environment for pro-poor value chain transformation. Situational analyses were completed in Tanzania and Uganda, and are being prepared for publication.The program is looking to move quickly to test and validate best-bet technologies and institutional strategies to serve as the basis for value chain interventions. In Egypt, Uganda and Tanzania, identification and testing of a number of candidate strategies was initiated, and related legacy activities continued in Nicaragua.Theme 5 -Targeting for sustainable interventionsThe Theme ensures that the program focuses on the appropriate value chains and beneficiaries to have the most impact. It also took on responsibility to assess environmental implications of the value chain development promoted by the program. In 2012, the Theme oversaw an evidence-based selection process to determine the sites in each country where the program will focus its fieldwork. A methodology protocol was produced, analyses conducted using GIS data, and stakeholders were consulted to ground truth the GIS assessments, which was followed by a site evaluation exercise on the ground. This process was applied in all of selected value chains and summarized in reports. The team also began developing the program's environment agenda by initiating collaboration with FAO on a pilot dairy development carbon-credit scheme and preparing a proposal to develop an ex-ante value chain environmental impact assessment framework.Theme 6 -Gender and learningThe principal focus in 2012 was preparation of the Program's gender strategy, the finalization of which was delayed as the partner centers were strengthening their staffing in this area. One of the initial research activities undertaken by the gender team was to mainstream gender into the rapid value chain assessment tools. In Egypt, the program worked with CARE and formed a number of women retailer organizations for fish marketing to empower their members and secure more equitable benefits.The program devotes science to generating novel technologies and effective strategies that support pro-poor livestock and fish value chain development. The following are key research outputs that were generated in 2012: A protocol for producing the ECF vaccine in smaller dose straws will support the delivery of the live ECF vaccine produced by ILRI by facilitating its uptake by owners of smaller dairy herds. DNA sequences for selected genes and other defined genomic sites in a range of T. parva strains were generated. These permit rapid differentiation of strains and isolates, and together with a genomic fingerprint for the live ECF vaccine, provide the basis for cost-effective vaccine quality control and field investigation of vaccine failures, should they occur, to determine if the failure is due to the vaccine not inducing a sufficiently broad immunity. The methods and capacities established to support improved tilapia breeding strategies from local populations were documented in nine major publications. The Domestic Animal Genetic Resources Information System (DAGRIS) was customized for Asian four countries and capacity established in each country to use it to document national genetic resources. FEAST, a feed resource assessment tool, and TechFit, a feed intervention prioritizing tool, were successfully tested. It was shown that the FEAST tool describes accurately overall feed resources and yet is context specific enough to detect differences in feed resources within apparently similar conditions, say neighboring villages in the same agro-ecological zone. CIAT released three new forage varieties for dissemination: Brachiaria decumbens x B. brizantha x B. ruziziensis: Mulato 1 and 2 and Cayman. A package of best aquaculture management practices was delivered to 648 farmers in Egypt; their impact will be monitored. An evidence-based site selection protocol produced and applied in six selected value chains. The program's gender strategy was prepared. The strategy is inspired by the earlier ILRI and the Aquatic Agricultural Systems (AAS) research program gender strategies, and benefited from inputs and guidance from the Consortium Gender Initiative and Network. It includes a commitment to mainstream gender throughout the program's activities, as well as a research agenda ranging from an accommodative approach, i.e. recognizing and addressing the gender implications of the technology development and value chain research, to experimenting with a transformative approach which tackles the fundamental rules and norms of the society that determine women's participation and ability to benefit from the selected value chain.A number of the outputs being achieved by the program or from previous related activities at the partner centers contributed to research or development outcomes during 2012.Two specific outcomes were achieved in promoting the uptake of ECF vaccination in East Africa. ILRI responded to requests to provide 178,000 doses of the Infection and Treatment Method (ITM) vaccine to distributors in Tanzania, Malawi, Uganda and Kenya. This is an indication of increasing uptake of the vaccine and brings the total number of doses from the current vaccine batch produced by ILRI which have been released in the region to 705,000. Also, a critical requirement for more widespread commercial uptake was met by successful registration of the vaccine in Kenya. Kenya is considered the most important market for the vaccine in the region and key to ensuring sustained provision of supplies to the rest of the region.The Southern Agricultural Research Institute in Ethiopia secured public funding and began their own independent program to scale out community based goat and sheep breeding schemes in Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region that follow the prototype scheme developed jointly by ICARDA and ILRI. The program is targeting 1,578 households (of which 98 are female-headed) across 14 communities.Tools to assess feed needs and appropriate feed solutions -FEAST and TechFit -reported in the preceding section were already being taken up and used by development actors in Tanzania, Ethiopia and Uganda independent of program activities.Adoption of lines from the Brachiaria breeding programs at CIAT has been extrapolated through seed sales and supported with periodic impact studies. The results indicate that over the last 10 years, 400,000 to 500,000 ha have been sown with Brachiaria hybrids originating from CIAT; figures for 2011 are estimated at 50,000 to 75,000 additional hectares, with 2012 pending, following a trend of exponential increases over time. Several international (ICRISAT, CIMMYT, IRRI) and national crop improvement programs (sorghum and millet in India, maize in Ethiopia) with support from the Theme started to mainstream phenotyping for straw and stover fodder quality traits in breeding, selection and new cultivars release programs. This means that new crop cultivars released and promoted will be expected to have superior fodder traits in their residues on a larger scale.Selection of study sites during 2012 has followed an evidence-based process in consultation with stakeholders in each target value chain. This approach is enhancing awareness and ownership of the program's efforts in each country which will improve subsequent uptake and scaling out of the intervention strategies under development.The program began developing its theory of change and impact pathways, and expects to complete the process in 2013. The theory of change for the program will help identify the means by which the program's outputs and outcomes are expected to lead to different types of impacts, and this will inform strategic studies to be undertaken by the program to validate the impact pathways.Previous studies by the Asian Development Bank and the Norwegian Government have established the enormous impacts of earlier breeding programs on productivity and the growth of tilapia aquaculture in Asia; similar studies are ongoing or planned for the strains developed more recently and disseminated in 2012 in Africa.Integration of gender is given prominence in the program under its Theme on 'gender and learning. To contribute to the impact pathway on gender and to build consensus among the program partners, a Gender Strategy was created to define key outcomes and outputs in addition to providing a work plan on deliverables for the next 5 years. This strategy is unique with its shared focus on gender accommodative and transformative approaches and working as a team across the four partner centers to expand and deepen this agenda. The first collaborative meeting was held in December 2012 to establish a shared vision and outputs around gender for the program. The strategy includes key research areas related to women's access and control of resources in the selected value chains, gender equitable technologies of both partners and CGIAR centers, as well as new research in gender transformative approaches, and promises synergies with the evolving agendas of other CGIAR research programs. It also aligns with ILRI's current gender strategy to build capacity among both ILRI staff as well as partner organizations.Gender equality targets for the value chain countries will be set as the evaluation framework for the program is developed. Indicators will be identified with partners that align both at the CGIAR Consortium and program levels.Across the program's partner centers, the main challenge identified is lack of staff with gender expertise. At ILRI and WorldFish, hiring of full-time gender scientists is ongoing, and centers are using gender consultants to achieve outputs. Proposals are also being prepared to secure additional funding and opportunities are being explored for working through other funded proposals that align with the agreed gender outputs.Gender mainstreaming is occurring in value chain countries by gender scientists reviewing all existing and proposed projects related to the Program. Gender scientists are participating in developing value chain assessment tools and contributing to capacity development of staff collecting data. They will also be involved in reviewing and analyzing data from value chain assessments to determine key leverage points to achieve Gender Strategy outputs. Process indicators will also be developed during the first half of 2013 in conjunction with the final gender indicators and impact pathway.Effective partnership is a coalition of the willing around livestock development that unlocks the potential of others. At the second Global Conference on Agricultural research for Development, the Program and potential collaborators formulated a list of 7 critical success factors that have formed the basis of our partnership strategy. These state that partnerships must be based on development issues, clearly allocate roles, operate as a team, build enabling culture, share reward for results, learn together and frequently review performance and satisfaction.The program has placed value chain issues before national stakeholders as a basis for alliances for action that can inform research processes. To boost research capability, the program has initiated discussions with two European universities to form strategic partnerships that will serve to fill capacity gaps in value chain and tropical livestock system productivity research. We seek joint applied research programs at apex and country level. In countries of operation, efforts were initiated in 2012 to leverage capacity among research and development collaborators to deliver livestock value chain solutions and test best-bet options.In 6 countries, we have joined forces with national agricultural research systems and ministries. In Tanzania, with partners we have helped establish a Dairy Development Forum to gather private and public stakeholders into a dairy development process. Here, opportunities are being explored to develop collaboration with SNV and Land O'Lakes within the anticipated expansion of the regional Bill and Three major risks that may hinder the expected delivery of results by the program include:1) Mobilizing sufficient restricted project funding: The program relies on securing restricted project grants to fund two-thirds of the overall program budget, especially those portions supporting operational costs. As the program began in 2012, the partner centers had only secured roughly half of the restricted project funding needed to implement the approved program, and had only modest success in mobilizing additional funds during 2012. This means that activities could be initiated in a meaningful way in only a subset of the target value chains and in only a subset of the technology research areas. To address this risk of a continued shortfall in restricted project funding, the program is developing a more targeted resource mobilization effort that builds on the strengths emerging from the first year of research: the early results being achieved in certain value chains and research areas are now providing a stronger basis for attracting additional funding. Also importantly, the program has initiated a request to the Fund Council that would permit the program to access additional W2 funding commitments it is attracting from its members.2) Poor alignment among partner centers: During the first year of implementation, the four partner centers have begun to develop a shared understanding of the program and its value chain approach. Many of the activities in this first year, however, have reflected legacy projects and commitments and so have limited the opportunity to implement the value chain work consistent with the program approach. Effective alignment among the partner centers to the value chain approach will become evident as they propose new activities, identify new funding and allocate their resources. To enhance alignment and integration within the program, it is anticipated that the PPMC, with support from the Science and Partnership Advisory Committee, will take a more direct role in reviewing proposed activities and performance of the center teams implementing the program.3) Weak program management systems: Existing management systems across the partner centers have found it difficult to respond to the needs of the program in terms of providing the types of information needed for timely planning and monitoring, especially with respect to budget and staff time allocation. The development of the CGIAR 'one corporate system' (OCS) is expected to address this challenge, and the program has been engaged in advising on implications of program needs for the OCS design.The indicators reported in Table 1 are derived from detailed data presented in the various background reports, which cite the supporting evidence. The evolving definition of the indicators, however, may contribute to some variation in their interpretation.During 2012, each of the teams for the Themes and the target value chains held planning meetings to begin developing their respective implementation plans. The plans maintained the research directions described in the approved program proposal; no significant changes were made. However, several gaps in capacity among the partner centers were identified that will need to be addressed before the full research agenda can be implemented; in several cases, the partner centers are strengthening their staff resources in the needed areas. These include: gender, herd health and husbandry, macroeconomic and policy analysis, innovation systems, systems analysis, and evaluation.During the program's proposal approval process, it was recommended that a component on environmental issues be developed. This agenda is being pursued mainly in terms of work on the methods to assess both positive and negative environmental impacts associated with the development of the target value chains, and has been incorporated into the 'Targeting sustainable interventions' Theme. Similarly, the program has recognized that to be consistent with its intended impact pathway and theory of change, it will be important to address more directly how increased availability of animal-source foods can translate into nutritional benefits. A strategy for nutrition-related research will be developed in 2013 as part of the 'Gender and Learning' Theme.The program began developing an evaluation framework and will work to finalize it based on the evolving system-wide evaluation framework and definition of Intermediate Development Outcomes. As the result, the indicators have yet to be fully internalized within the program and are only now being benchmarked for the first time.Qualitative reporting for the first year of implementation has made evident significant variation in the program's ability to engage and initiate activities in the various target value chains, largely due to differential success in mobilizing the needed restricted funding. The program is adapting to this reality by focusing its attention on full implementation of its value chain approach in an initial set of value chains where sufficient momentum is being achieved; it will continue to implement a much lower level of preparatory activities in the remaining value chains as efforts are undertaken to mobilize the resources for the full program there.The financial reports are attached as Annex 2.Annex 1. Program Indicators of Progress ","tokenCount":"5774"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3914571bfd2e6b1b7a6b7a0ff64c19ba","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1e298a50-131f-411b-8b0a-ada44991c671/retrieve","id":"-1425772892"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c2446a90-5557-40be-91e6-c6bc19a1c55e","pagecount":"52","content":"Statement from the Board Chair For the year ended December 31, 2015The year 2015 was the second year of the five-year strategy for the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). The Institute continued to implement the strategy as well as the change management initiatives that were initiated in 2014 to deliver on the outputs and products envisaged in the strategy. Some of the themes implemented in 2014 were reorganized based on initial feedback and a changed external business environment. This was the first year of the new performance management system to ensure linking of individual goals with that of the Institute.As the lead center for the CGIAR Research Program (CRP) on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), IWMI witnessed an exciting year as the Institute, under the guidance of the WLE's Steering Committee, implemented the new Innovation Fund and Focal Region Initiative that was fully integrated into WLE. A total of 35 out of the originally approved 36 projects were implemented within an integrated research design to be funded. These projects comprise a portfolio of different initiatives, and represent a robust and comprehensive program of research that will further the agenda of sustainable intensification of agriculture based on an ecosystem service-based approach. The majority of these projects have been led by non-CGIAR partners and each project is obliged to allocate a fixed percentage of funds to other partners. The Independent Evaluation Arrangement (IEA) review was conducted in 2015. The review was positive and the constructive suggestions made were included in the WLE phase II planning which started this year.At consortium level, the Center Management and the Board continued to engage in various initiatives, such as areas related to governance, financing plan, Strategy and Results Framework (SRF) and the second round of CRPs, resulting in considerable investment of the management's time. We look forward to the positive outcomes of these initiatives, which we hope will address some of the most pressing issues in the system and bring much-needed stability.Financially, the changes to the earlier approved financing plan resulted in significantly lower than expected funding to WLE. This, together with the Board's decision to ensure adequate funding to the Innovation Fund and Focal Region Initiative, resulted in a lower funding allocation to IWMI. In 2014, the Board allowed additional funding from the reserves, in order to cover the shortfall due to reduced WLE funding and to ensure research objectives are met. A total of USD 4.45 million was drawn down from the reserve to cover the shortfall. Based on the ongoing funding crisis, the Board asked the management to take steps to reduce costs and this is being implemented in a phased manner. The Board reviewed a new reserves policy in 2014, which requires the Institute to maintain a minimum of 105 days of undesignated reserves and the Institute's current reserves are around this threshold. The Institute's liquidity and reserve levels remain above the CGIAR recommended benchmarks.Although IWMI's financial situation remains stable and its prospects look promising, the Institute is not immune to new financial or operational risks as a result of a reduction in funding. The Board takes an active role in monitoring the Institute's risk management strategy, not only from the perspective of financial elements, but also with respect to research strategies and issues. The Board has adopted a risk management policy that has been communicated to all staff together with a detailed management guideline. The policy includes a framework by which the Institute's management identifies, evaluates and prioritizes risks and opportunities across the organization; develops risk mitigation strategies that balance benefits with costs; monitors the implementation of these strategies; and reports, in conjunction with finance and administration staff, and internal audit, on results to the full Board annually. The Board is satisfied that the organization has adopted and implemented a comprehensive risk management system.The key external risks going into 2016 relate to the outcome of deliberation on the second round of CRPs, the uncertainty around the outcome of the governance issue, and the volatile funding environment and its impact on future funding stability. With regards to internal risks, they relate toThe Board of Governors has the responsibility of ensuring that an appropriate Risk Management Process is in place. Identification of significant risks which can affect the achievement of IWMI's business objectives and alignment with CGIAR principles are an essential part of this Risk Management Process.The Board of Governors has reviewed the Risk Register and the proposed mitigation actions. The Board endorses the current risk ratings based on the analysis provided in the Risk Register.The ongoing change in the Funding Environment, especially with the decrease in CGIAR funding, has significantly changed the business environment as well as the risks within which IWMI operates. These risks include operational, financial and reputational risks. The ongoing change is changing the risks on a regular basis and therefore requires additional measures to manage risk as a whole rather than in parts. Considering this, the Board of Governors has reviewed and approved a Risk Framework in order to further enhance Risk Management and to ensure that mitigation of risks happens for IWMI as a whole rather than addressing specific areas of challenge.Risks include: 1. Misallocation of scientific efforts away from agreed priorities. 2. Loss of reputation for scientific excellence and integrity. 3. Increased competition from non-CGIAR competitors leading to a reduction of resources for IWMI to undertake key priorities. 4. Change in funding channels leading to a reduction in source of funds that IWMI can apply for. 5. Business disruption and information system failure. 6. Liquidity problems. 7. Transaction processing failures. 8. Loss of assets, including information assets. 9. Failure to recruit, retain and effectively utilize qualified and experienced staff. 10. Failure of staff health and safety systems. 11. Failure by the Consortium to execute legal and fiduciary responsibilities. 12. Withdrawal or reduction of funding by donors due to the financial crisis. 13. Subsidization of the cost of projects funded from restricted grants and/or partial non-delivery of promised outputs, due to inadequate costing of restricted projects. 14. Failure by the lead center to comply with the terms of the agreement and/or not delivering on the agreed outputs. 15. Non-prioritization of Natural Resource Management in the CRPs due to lack of funding.The process draws upon risk assessments and analyses prepared by staff of IWMI's business unit, internal auditors, Center-commissioned external reviewers and the external auditors. The Board of Governors has approved the new Internal Audit Charter and the Audit Asia unit has been initiated in order to further enhance the Risk Assessment process. IWMI's Risk Mitigation strategy which includes implementation of internal controls are preventive in nature. Internal control includes having the appropriate infrastructure, controls, systems and people in place. Regular business environment scans, implementation of clear policies and procedures, implementation of transaction approval frameworks, regular financial and management reporting, and the monitoring of metrics designed to highlight positive or negative performance of both individuals and business processes are the key aspects of the internal control system.The design and effectiveness of the risk management system and internal controls is subject to ongoing review by IWMI's internal audit service, which is independent of the business units and reports on the results of its audits directly to the Director General and to the Board through its Finance and Audit Committee.The Board also remains alert to the impact of external events over which IWMI has no control over, except to monitor and, as the occasion arises, provide mitigation measures.Chair, Board of Governors, IWMIThe accompanying financial statements of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), for the year ended December 31, 2015, are the responsibility of the management. IWMI's management also claims responsibility for the substance and objectivity of the information contained therein.IWMI's financial reporting practices follow the 'CGIAR Accounting Policies and Reporting Practices Manual -Financial Guidelines Series No. 2' as amended in February 2006, and the Annual Advisory Note issued by the CGIAR Consortium Office for 2015 financial statements. IWMI maintains a system of internal control designed to provide reasonable assurance that assets are safeguarded, and transactions are properly recorded and executed in accordance with the management's authorization.A system of reporting within IWMI presents the management with an accurate view of the operations, enabling it to discern risks to the assets or fluctuations in the economic environment of the Institute at an early stage and, at the same time, provide a reliable basis for the financial statements and management reports.The Board of Governors exercises its responsibility for these financial statements through its Finance and Audit Committee. The committee meets regularly with the management and representatives of the external auditors to review matters related to financial reporting, internal controls and auditing.Director General   The accounting policies on pages to 21, notes on pages to and supplementary information on pages to form an integral part of the financial statements. The accounting policies on pages 11 to 21, notes on pages 22 to 36 and supplementary information on pages 37 to 48 form an integral part of the financial statements.For the year ended December 31, 2015 The accounting policies on pages 11 to 21, notes on pages 22 to 36 and supplementary information on pages 37 to 48 form an integral part of the financial statements.The In the process of applying IWMI's accounting policies, the management has made the following judgment, apart from those involving estimations, which has the most significant effect on the amounts recognized in the Financial Statements.IWMI reviews all receivables at each Statement of Financial Position date to assess whether an allowance should be recorded in the Statement of Activities. The management uses judgment in estimating such amounts in the light of the duration of the outstanding value and any other factors the management is aware of that may indicate uncertainty in recovery.The key assumptions regarding the future and other key sources of uncertainty of making estimations at the Statement of Financial Position date, which have a significant risk of causing material adjustments to the carrying amounts of assets and liabilities within the next financial year, are discussed below. The respective carrying amounts of assets and liabilities are given in the related notes to the Financial Statements.The cost of defined benefit plans -severance, gratuity and leave encashment -are determined using actuarial valuations. The actuarial valuation involves making assumptions about discount rates, expected rates of return on assets, future salary increases and mortality rates. Due to the long-term nature of these plans, such estimates are subject to significant uncertainty.Accounting Policies (Contd...)Financial Statements -December 31, 2015 13The financial statements are presented in United States Dollars (USD), which is IWMI's functional and presentation currency. All financial information presented in USD has been rounded to the nearest thousand, unless otherwise indicated.IWMI has consistently applied the following accounting policies to all periods presented in these financial statements.Transactions denominated in currencies other than the presentation currency are translated to USD at the exchange rates prevailing at the beginning of the month in which the transaction took place. If the variation in the rates at the beginning and middle of the month is more than 2%, such variations are adjusted in the accounting system in the middle of the month. Monetary assets and liabilities denominated in currencies other than USD are translated to the functional currency at the exchange rate at the reporting date. Non-monetary items denominated in a foreign currency, which are carried at cost, are reported using the exchange rate prevailing on the date of the transaction.All exchange gains or losses resulting from such translations are treated as other revenues and gains in the Statement of Activities.Revenue is the gross inflow of economic benefits during the period arising in the course of the ordinary activities of a CGIAR center, where those inflows result in increases in net assets. The major portion of a center's revenue is derived through the receipts of donor grants -either 'Unrestricted' or 'Restricted'.Unrestricted grant revenue arises from the unconditional transfer of cash or other assets to IWMI.Restricted grant revenue arises from a transfer of resources to IWMI in return for past or future compliance related to the operating activities of the Institute.Gross inflow of economic benefits includes amounts collected on behalf of the principal and do not result in an increase in the net assets, which are treated as 'Agency Transactions' and are not recognized as revenue.Grants are recognized as revenue when the outcome of a transaction involving the rendering of services can be measured reliably. Revenue associated with the transaction is recognized by making reference to the stage of completion of the transaction at the reporting date. When the outcome of the transaction cannot be estimated reliably, revenue is recognized only to the extent of the expenses that are recoverable. Unrestricted grants are recognized as revenue upon unconditional transfer of cash or other assets by donors. Such revenue is recognized in full in the financial year for which the grant is pledged.Accounting Policies (Contd...)As a Lead Center, grants received for the CRPs are recognized in the full amount of grants received from the CGIAR Consortium (Windows 1 and 2), including the amounts passed on to other centers and spent by them. Disbursements to another CGIAR center by the Lead Center are recorded as an 'Account Receivable' until an expenditure report is received from the other center, and the expenditure amount is then liquidated from the advance.Revenue is measured at the fair value of the consideration received or receivable. Fair Value is the amount for which an asset could be exchanged, or a liability settled, between knowledgeable willing parties at an arm's length transaction.(a) Cash grants are recorded at the face value of the cash received or the USD equivalent.(b) Grant revenue, including non-monetary grants at fair value, is recognized when there is reasonable assurance that the:i. organization will comply with the conditions attached to them; and ii. grants will be received.(c) Grants are recognized as revenue over the periods necessary to match them with the related costs, which they are intended to compensate, on a systematic basis.Other revenues and gains are recognized in the period in which they are earned. IWMI discloses the amount of exchange differences included in the net profit or loss for the period under Other Revenue and Gains.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. Expenses are recognized on the basis of a direct association between the costs incurred and the earning of specific items of revenue. IWMI presents, on the face of the Statement of Activities, an analysis of expenses using a classification based on the function and nature of expenses within the Institute.Research Expenses: These are the costs incurred for the activities that result in goods and services being distributed to beneficiaries, project proponents and members that fulfill the purpose of a mission for which the IWMI exists.CGIAR Collaborator Expenses: This is the total expenditure incurred by other CGIAR centers in collaborative research undertaken by them.General and Administration Expenses: These are the expenses incurred for activities of IWMI other than Research Expenses. These expenses are also referred to as 'Governance and central support functions', 'Institutional costs' or 'Administrative costs'. The 'Management and Administration' costs are collectively referred to as indirect costs and include expenses of IWMI's Board of Governors, office of the Director General, Finance and Human Resources departments, internal and external audit costs, Information and Knowledge Group (IKG), and the unrecovered part of services.Direct costs are charged, in particular, to the programs benefited. Indirect costs are allocated to programs based on the total direct cost. The costs of providing the programs, management and general activities have been summarized on a functional basis in the notes. Accordingly, certain costs have been allocated among programs and other services, management and general activities.IWMI is exempt from income tax under the provisions of Section 7 of the Inland Revenue Act No. 10 of 2006 of Sri Lanka, and amendments thereto. The Institute 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).Cash and cash equivalents comprise cash in hand, balances with banks, and short-term highly liquid investments that are readily convertible to known amounts of cash with original maturity periods of 3 months or less, and which are subject to an insignificant risk of change in value.Investments acquired with the intention of disposing the same within 1 year or less from the acquisition date are classified as current investments. Investments classified as current, as distinguished from cash equivalents, are those that are acquired with original maturities of more than 3 months, but not exceeding 1 year.Investments are initially recorded at their cost. Interest or gains related to short-term investments are reported in the Statement of Activities under Other Revenue and Gains.The short-term investments represent time deposits with banks that are collateral against national staff loan schemes and term deposits with original maturities of more than 3 months.All receivable balances are valued at their net realizable amount, i.e., gross amount of receivable balances minus, if applicable, allowances provided for doubtful accounts.Accounting Policies (Contd...)Allowances for doubtful accounts are provided in an amount equal to the total receivables shown, or reasonably estimated to be doubtful of collection. The amount of the allowance is based on past experience, and a continuous review of receivable reports and other relevant factors.When an accounts receivable is deemed doubtful of collection, an allowance is provided during the year the account is deemed doubtful.Any receivable or portion of accounts receivable judged to be uncollectible is written off. Write-offs of receivables are made while making allowance for doubtful accounts after all efforts to collect such amounts have been exhausted.Accounts receivable from donors consist of amounts due from restricted grants that have been negotiated between the donor and the CGIAR center. It also pertains to claims from donors for expenses paid on behalf of projects in excess of cash received.Accounts receivable from employees consist of advances made to officers and employees for travel, benefits, salary, loans, etc.This includes advances made to other CGIAR centers.Under the CRPs, disbursements to another CGIAR center by the Lead Center should be recorded as an 'Accounts Receivable' until an expenditure report is received from the other center, and the expenditure amount can then be liquidated from the advance.Accounts receivable from others consist of advance payments to suppliers, consultants and other third parties.Prepaid expenses comprise of deposits and advances to suppliers. These are future expenses that have been paid in advance. The amount of prepaid expenses that have not yet expired are reported in IWMI's Statement of Financial Position as an asset.Inventories are held in the form of materials or supplies to be consumed in IWMI's operations or in the rendering of services. Cost of inventories is not directly expended at the time of purchase, and these are not held for sale in the ordinary course of business.Net realizable value is the estimated selling price in the ordinary course of business minus the estimated costs necessary to make the sale. Inventories are valued at whichever is lower of acquisition cost or net realizable value, and charged when used. The acquisition cost includes the purchase Accounting Policies (Contd...)price plus cost of freight, insurance and handling charges. Cost is determined by the weighted average method. Provision is made, where necessary, for obsolete, slow moving and defective items.Property, plant and equipment are defined as tangible assets, which are: a) held by IWMI for use in the production or supply of goods or for administrative purposes; and b) expected to be used for more than one accounting period.An item of property, plant and equipment is recognized as an asset when: (a) it is probable that future economic benefits associated with the asset will flow to IWMI; and (b) the cost of the asset can be measured reliably.All individual tangible assets having costs in excess of USD 500 or its equivalent, with an estimated useful life beyond 1 year, are treated as fixed assets and designated as property, plant and equipment. Gains or losses arising from the discontinuation or disposal of property, plant and equipment are determined as the difference between the estimated net disposal proceeds and the carrying amount of the asset, and are recognized as revenue or expense in the Statement of Activities.Property, plant and equipment are initially measured at cost. Subsequent to initial recognition as an asset, property, plant and equipment are carried at cost minus any accumulated depreciation and any accumulated impairment losses. The cost of an item of property, plant and equipment comprises its purchase price and all other incidental costs in bringing the asset to its working condition for its intended use.Depreciation of property, plant and equipment is calculated on the straight-line basis over the estimated useful lives of the assets as follows: Accounting Policies (Contd...)Property, plant and equipment acquired through the use of grants restricted for a certain project are recorded as assets. Such assets are depreciated at a rate of 100%, and the depreciation expense is charged directly to the appropriate restricted project.Leasehold property and improvements thereon are amortized over the lease period or, if shorter, the useful economic life of the property or improvement concerned.The initial lease agreement between IWMI and the Government of Sri Lanka is for 25 years commencing in 1991. IWMI has the right to negotiate for an extension of the lease period under the lease agreement upon expiry of the current lease.Capital work-in progress represents the accumulated cost of materials and other costs directly related to the construction of an asset. Capital work-in-progress is transferred to the respective asset accounts at the time it is substantially completed and ready for its intended use.Accounts payable are amounts due to donors, employees and others for support, services and materials received prior to year-end, but not paid for as at the Statement of Financial Position date.This includes amounts payable to donors in respect of any unexpended funds received in advance for restricted grants.This includes unpaid salaries and bonuses, leave credits and pension entitlements.These include all other liabilities IWMI has incurred and has been billed for, which remain unpaid as at the Statement of Financial Position date.This amount comprises accruals made for suppliers, for which invoices were not yet received as at the reporting date.A provision is a liability of uncertain timing or amount. A provision is recognized when:Accounting Policies (Contd...)(a) a center has a present obligation as a result of a past event;(b) it is probable that an outflow of resources will be required to settle the obligation; and (c) a reliable estimate can be made of the amount of the obligation.The amount recognized as a provision should be the best estimate of the expenditure required to settle the present obligation at the reporting date. Provisions should be reviewed at each reporting date and adjusted to reflect the current best estimate. A provision should only be used for expenditure for which the provision was originally recognized.An employee may provide services to an entity on a full-time, part-time, permanent, contract or casual basis. Employees include directors and other management personnel. Employee benefits are all forms of consideration given by IWMI in exchange for services rendered by employees. Employee benefits include the following:(I) Short-term employee benefits -Salaries, paid leave, bonuses and non-monetary benefits for current employees. These benefits are expected to be settled in full within a year in which the employees render the related services.(II) Post-employment benefits -Pension, other retirement benefits, post-employment life insurance and medical care. IWMI has a 'Defined Benefit' pension plan for its national staff based at its headquarters. This plan was closed in 2004 to new employees. The assets and liabilities of the Plan are valued annually by a qualified Actuary, and the resulting liability is provided in the books.(III) Terminal benefits IWMI's net obligation in respect of severance, gratuity and leave encashment, which are defined benefit plans, are determined based on an actuarial valuation carried out by an independent qualified actuary and are accrued at the reporting date. The liabilities are not externally funded.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 three full years of continuous service. The present value of a defined benefit obligation is determined by discounting the estimated cash flows based on the actuarial valuation carried out by an independent qualified actuary.Payment is made for gratuity benefits under IWMI's personnel policies to nationally recruited staff. Nationally recruited staff qualify for a gratuity payment on completion of 5 years of continuous service with the Institute. The present value of a defined benefit obligation is determined by discounting the estimated cash flows based on the actuarial valuation carried out by an independent qualified actuary.Accounting Policies (Contd...) The present value of a defined benefit obligation is determined by discounting the estimated cash flows based on the actuarial valuation carried out by an independent qualified actuary.In accordance with the terms and conditions of recruitment, internationally recruited staff members and their dependents are entitled to repatriation benefits on completion of the contract period.Provision is made for repatriation payable to all international staff members based on the estimated cost of airfare, relocation and freight charges.Net Assets are the residual interest in IWMI's assets remaining after liabilities are deducted. The overall change in net assets represents the total gains and losses generated by the Institute's activities during the year. Net assets are classified as either undesignated or designated.(a) Undesignated -the part of net assets that is not designated by IWMI's management for specific purposes.(b) Designated -the part of net assets that has been designated by IWMI's management for specific purposes.Property, Plant and Equipment: This is the net book value of property, plant and equipment as at the Statement of Financial Position date.Events after the reporting date are those, both favorable and unfavorable, that occur between the reporting date and the date when the financial statements are authorized for issue. Two types of events can be identified:(a) Those that provide evidence of conditions that existed at the reporting date (adjusting events after the reporting date); and (b) Those that are indicative of conditions that arose after the reporting date (non-adjusting events after the reporting date).Adjusting events after the reporting date: IWMI adjusts the amounts recognized in its financial statements to reflect adjusting events after the reporting date.Accounting Policies (Contd...)The financial statements are prepared on a going concern basis. However, IWMI doesn't prepare its financial statements on a going concern basis, if the management determines that it intends to cease operations or it has no realistic alternative but to do so after the reporting date.The Statement of Cash Flows has been prepared using the 'indirect method'. This is the method whereby a surplus or deficit is adjusted for the effects of transactions of a non-cash nature, any deferrals or accruals of past or future operating cash receipts or payments, and items of income or expenses associated with investing or financing cash flows. The Statement of Cash Flows for a period shall report net cash provided or used by operating, investing and financing activities, and the net effect of those flows on cash and cash equivalents during the period, in a manner that reconciles the beginning and ending cash and cash equivalents.Accounting Policies (Contd...)   Recovery of overhead costs represents the amount recovered from restricted projects based on the rates agreed on and as stated in the grant agreements. Net assets include both the designated and undesignated reserves.Undesignated: Undesignated reserves represent the accumulated surplus of revenue over expenses.Property, Plant and Equipment: This is the net book value of property, plant and equipment as at the reporting date.Capital Acquisition Reserve: This is the reserve for replacement of property, plant and equipment.This reserve is set aside to ensure smooth operations and/or transition in the event of any exigencies arising in regional offices and/or headquarters. This reserve will also cover any unforeseen fluctuations in staff liability arising from the defined pension plan for Sri Lankan national staff and long-term payables which are provided for based on actuarial valuation.Reserve: Funds designated to this reserve will facilitate strategic investment in research which is in line with IWMI's Strategic Plan for which funding may not be available or uncertain or expand its operations into new regions.Notes to the financial statements continued on page 32Notes to the Financial Statements -As at December 31, 2015 (contd.)No events have occurred from the reporting date to the date the financial statements are authorized for issue, which would require adjustment to, or disclosure in, the financial statements. Notes to the Financial Statements -As at December 31, 2015 (contd.)There are no commitments and contingent liabilities at the reporting date.The following The carrying values of financial instruments not carried at fair value are a reasonable approximation of fair values, due to short-term maturity, hence the fair value hierarchy does not apply.Notes to the financial statements continued on page 34Notes to the Financial Statements -As at December 31, 2015 (contd.)25b. Financial Risk Management Overview i) Risk Management Framework IWMI's Board of Governors has overall responsibility for ensuring that an appropriate risk management framework is in place. The management is responsible for the Institute-wide implementation of the risk management system to ensure that risks are identified appropriately, assessed and acted upon in accordance with IWMI's policies. The risk management system and policies are reviewed regularly to reflect the changes in the market conditions and the Institute's activities.IWMI ensures minimum risk either by exercising a high degree of control or not being involved in certain high-risk activities. The Board of Governors takes an active role in monitoring the Institute's risk management strategy, and financial aspects, as well as research strategies and issues. The Board of Governors has adopted a risk management policy that has been communicated to all staff together with a detailed management guideline. The policy includes a framework by which the Institute's management identifies, evaluates and prioritizes risks and opportunities across the organization; develops risk mitigation strategies that balance benefits with costs; monitors the implementation of these strategies; and reports, in conjunction with finance, administration and internal audit staff, the results to the Board, on an annual basis.The annual statement from the Board Chair addresses the Institute's risk management strategy, and identifies key areas of risk and processes in place to mitigate such risks.The Institute has exposure to the following risks from its use of financial instruments:1. Credit risk 2. Market risk 3. Liquidity riskCredit risk is the risk that occurs when a counterparty will not meet its obligations under a financial instrument or donor contract, leading to financial losses and arises principally from the Institute's cash and cash equivalents, investments and accounts receivable.The carrying amount of financial assets represents the maximum credit exposure.The Institute is not exposed to any material concentrations of credit risk other than its exposure to various donors. Donor receivables are reviewed on a monthly basis and regular follow-up actions are carried out to recover the balances due. Receivable balances are monitored on an ongoing basis and provisions are made where necessary for doubtful accounts. IWMI's exposure to non-recoverability is insignificant.Notes to the financial statements continued on page 35Financial Statements -December 31, 2015Notes to the Financial Statements -As at December 31, 2015 (contd.)Cash and cash equivalents are held with reputable local and international financial institutions with good credit ratings. Investments are made as per the Investment Policy of the Institute. Accordingly, short term investments, cash and cash equivalents are invested in a portfolio to safeguard the funds and with an investment objective of maximizing the returns. IWMI's investment policy defines the maximum exposure to a single financial institution, in order to ensure diversification of investments. The policy also states the types of instruments in which the funds can be invested and the types in which investment is not permitted.However, the requirement for impairment is analyzed at each reporting date on an individual basis for grant agreements. Market risk is the risk that occurs due to changes in market prices, such as interest rates and foreign exchange rates, which will affect the Institute's income or the value of its financial instruments. The objective of market risk management is to manage and control market risk exposures within acceptable parameters.Currency risk is the risk that occurs when the value of a financial instrument fluctuates due to changes in foreign exchange rates. IWMI's exposure to the risk of changes in foreign exchange rates primarily affect the Institute's operating activities (when revenue or and expense is denominated in a different currency from the Institute's functional currency) and bank accounts held in different currencies. In order to mitigate the foreign exchange risks, the Institute matches the currency of payment with the currency of donor funds received, wherever possible.Notes to the financial statements continued on page 36Notes to the Financial Statements -As at December 31, 2015 (contd.)The following table demonstrates the effect of a reasonably possible change in the US dollar exchange rate, with all other variables held constant, on the net surplus.(US$ '000)10% 77The movement on the net surplus effect is a result of the cash and cash equivalents denominated in currencies other than the functional currency, (US Dollar). If the US Dollar had strengthened /weakened by 10% against the major operating currencies, with all other variables held constant, there would have been an increase/decrease in the surplus for the year.Liquidity risk is the risk that occurs when the Institute may encounter difficulties in meeting the obligation associated with its financial liabilities that are to be settled by delivering cash or other financial assets.One of the investment objectives of the Institute is to manage liquidity, which is to ensure, that it will always have sufficient liquidity to meet its liabilities when due, under both normal and stressed conditions.December 31, 2015 (in US Dollars) ","tokenCount":"5633"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"afd98920b612565ad24bc52bbc35fe47","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ff6e8c66-6f6e-4d67-9f85-4fe2eff0304c/retrieve","id":"-2001959353"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"02042f6f-6631-486f-a299-e727344302c0","pagecount":"29","content":"Lesson 8• FEAST Data Template -A customized Excel spreadsheet designed to help users quickly and accurately enter data collected from focus group discussions and individual farmer interviews, then produce charts and graphs to inform development of livestock feed intervention strategiesLesson 8 • What do we do with all the data we collect from focus groups and interviews?• How will this data help smallholder farmers improve their livestock feed resources?Discussion Question #1Lesson 8Discuss the following question with one or more of your fellow participants. Be ready to share your thoughts with the class:• How might the data we collected be useful in our efforts to improve the community's access to quality livestock feed?Discussion Question #1 (cont.)Lesson 8Possible Answers:Data collected helps us to:• Assess proportion of high-quality vs. low-quality feed in animal diets• Identify under-utilized sources of feed• Identify and rank the main constraints to feed production. 3. Merge qualitative and quantitative output in final report. Summarize, interpret and make recommendationsFrom FCD Report to implementation • The FEAST Data Template is a set of electronic forms based on Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.• Designed to help users quickly and accurately: Numbers and other data in spreadsheets are stored in cells, which appear as boxes in a grid. ","tokenCount":"203"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3546a59980c36c1beca7894bd77b6a08","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/b8f6f607-f8f0-42a6-b86c-93fc75d61a1b/retrieve","id":"867029222"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d87ef7a4-654a-4960-b683-fa701ca2a9e3","pagecount":"24","content":"Climate change is exacerbating the challenges of smallholder agriculture in Africa • The farmer is the general manager of the farm business• Makes decisions after analyzing the information available to her/him.• The farmers considers climate information/agro-advisory as part of his/her risk management decision making.What is agro-advisory?• Agro-advisory is the delivery of actionable information to users that are relevant to make critical agricultural decisions• Who uses agro-advisories?An opportunity for digitalization of the extension system in particular and agriculture in general.Types of climate agro-advisories Example of Seasonal Forecast (2020 Main season)• Complete land preparation for the main planting season as soon as possible.• The chance of long-dry spells is minimal across the country, and therefore farmers need to plant as soon as the rains start. • Except for some pockets, most areas will receive normal or above-normal rainfall.Hence, farmers are recommended to grow high-yielding varieties that can produce more under favorable rainfall conditions. • The end of the season is also within the expected range, so that farmers need to follow recommended varieties and crop management practices • Farmers in the northwestern part of the country where below-normal rainfall is projected should not be worried about the rainfall conditions as the areas normally have high rainfall conditions. The lower rainfall conditions may be even favorable as it reduces excess water and runoff conditions. • Farmers need to be encouraged to follow the short-term advisories that will be given during the growing season. • In order to exploit the favorable projected seasonal conditions, concerned offices, input suppliers, and dealers need to make sure that agricultural inputs such as seed and fertilizers reach the farmers as early as possible. • DAs rarely update their knowledge and skills (most of them in remote areas)The opportunity of using digital tools is limited (e.g., mobile apps)• Less-versed in using professional tools compared to social media apps.DAs are not well-versed in the use of climate information for agricultural decision making• Need for strong capacity buildingConsiderations in the Training of DAs   ","tokenCount":"332"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c42f2792bdd6c3f615d98af0861a5a95","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0f863d06-b16d-4aea-9d43-c72c1f74d098/retrieve","id":"-1808656304"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8f011d09-2828-420a-8055-18e76f468ffe","pagecount":"20","content":"Chương trình Biến đối khí hậu, Nông nghiệp và An ninh lương thực (CCAFS) Đông Nam Á do Trung tâm Nghiên cứu Nông nghiệp Nhiệt đới (CIAT) chủ trì, với những nhà nghiên cứu hàng đầu thế giới về khoa học nông nghiệp, nghiên cứu phát triển, khoa học khí hậu và khoa học trái đất nhằm xác định và giải quyết các mối quan hệ tương tác, tổng hòa và cân đối giữa biến đổi khí hậu, nông nghiệp và an ninh lương thực. www.ccafs.cgiar.org Tài liệu này là bản dịch có sửa đổi từ bản gốc được Viện Nghiên cứu Tái thiết Nông thôn Quốc tế (IIRR) biên soạn. Các quan điểm được trình bày trong tài liệu này không được coi là các quan điểm chính thống của CGIAR hay Future Earth.Tài liệu này cung cấp những thông tin cơ bản về mô hình \"Cộng đồng ứng phó thông minh với biến đổi khí hậu\" hay \"Làng Nông Thuận Thiên\" cho các cán bộ địa phương và đối tác Việt Nam.• Tại sao cần xây dựng mô hình làng/bản ứng phó thông minh với biến đổi khí hậu?• Tại sao lại gọi là mô hình \"Làng Nông Thuận Thiên\"?• Tại sao các nhà khoa học, cộng đồng địa phương và nông dân đóng vai trò chủ chốt trong việc xây dựng mô hình Làng Nông Thuận Thiên?• Các yếu tố cơ bản của Làng Nông Thuận Thiên là gì?• Biến đổi khí hậu (BĐKH) đang diễn ra và tác động ngày càng tiêu cực đến sản xuất nông nghiệp và cuộc sống của người dân.• Nông dân đã và đang cảm nhận rõ ràng và đối mặt với những biến động bất thường của thời tiết và thay đổi của khí hậu: mưa bão ngày càng khó dự báo, mùa mưa ngày càng ngắn, hạn hán xảy ra thường xuyên, kéo dài và khắc nghiệt hơn…• Có thể nông dân không gọi tên những sự thay đổi trên là \"Biến Đổi Khí Hậu\" nhưng họ đang thực sự phải chịu đựng tác động tiêu cực của BĐKH và tìm cách thích ứng với nó.• Nỗ lực đơn lẻ của một người dân sẽ không đủ để ứng phó với BĐKH và các rủi ro liên quan đến khí hậu. Việc này cần sự chung tay của cả cộng đồng. • Mạng lưới nông dân ứng dụng công nghệ nông nghiệp thông minh.• Tổ chức các \"ngân hàng\" hạt giống và cây giống thức ăn gia súc.• Dịch vụ thông tin thị trường Không nên thay đổi tính thống nhất của mô hình Làng Nông Thuận Thiên -một đơn vị cơ sở của nghiên cứu và phát triển.Cần lưu ý rằng:• Nhân rộng mô hình là một tiêu chí quan trọng của Làng Nông Thuận Thiên.• Các hoạt động thích ứng thông minh với BĐKH được áp dụng phải đưa ra được những bằng chứng rõ ràng. • Khuyến khích người dân từng bước đổi mới, thử nghiệm và điều chỉnh các thực hành nông nghiệp thông minh tại cộng đồng cho phù hợp với điều kiện thực tế.• Những cộng đồng nào đã có kinh nghiệm trong quản lý thích ứng thì thường thích ứng tốt hơn với những thay đổi trong tương lai.• Trong một Làng Nông Thuận Thiên, chúng ta cần phải luôn tự hỏi: ai cần việc ta đang làm?• Mục tiêu giảm nghèo, nâng cao khả năng phục hồi, cải thiện sinh kế và dinh dưỡng nên được coi là những quan tâm chính. Bài báo, báo cáo chỉ được coi là các sản phẩm phụ mà thôi.• Cuối cùng, việc xây dựng mô hình Làng Nông Thuận Thiên không phải là làm kinh tế!","tokenCount":"622"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a2dfb373f8124b7eee842c90d2a7480f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1eadb767-691a-4da0-85cc-bd33dd4302a8/retrieve","id":"-1453224055"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"62040911-8c54-437e-a69d-c9d80e2a82e4","pagecount":"83","content":"Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) is a project that helps deliver a climate-smart African future driven by science and innovation in agriculture. It is led by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and supported by a grant from the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank. Explore our work at aiccra.cgiar.org aiccra.cgiar.orgThis report reviews trends and availability of sex-disaggregated data on various aspects of gender and CSA, including agricultural innovation, decision-making, time use and access to resources. It uses data collected by the CGIAR and other organizations to analyse gender trends at global, regional and national levels. In sub-Saharan Africa, customary laws, cultural values and norms, restrict women's access to agricultural inputs and assets (Sheahan and Barrett, 2017;Huyer, 2016). In Mali and Senegal, it was found that although more than 70% of women are engaged in agriculture, just 5% and 13% of them have access to land (Dankelman et al., 2008;UNDP, 2012). In Bangladesh, women were found to be less likely to buy micro-insurance than their male counterparts because of financial or resource constraints and less access to information and extension (Kumar and Clarke, 2015). Addressing gender inequalities in the agricultural sector is a global challenge that require evidence-based policy decisions towards equality. Global policy milestones and development agenda such as the UN Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) place emphasis on the collection of gender indicators to monitor the achievement of gender equality in all sectors including agriculture. According to Doss et al. (2018), Goal 2 of the SDGs explicitly mentions the need to address the challenges and constraints faced by women farmers calling for the collection of sex disaggregated data on CSA. This is crucial in the quest to identifying research gaps and building the necessary evidence for scaling gender-transformative CSA technologies and practices that can transform and reorient agricultural systems 1 .Data were collected from multiple sources including databases, websites and summarized from project reports (see Table 1). The databases provide information on the structure of research on gender and climate adaptation and mitigation in the agriculture context. Additional data were collected from internet searches and consultation with the scientific literature dealing with climate change and agricultural data.1 See Huyer, 2023b.  Sex disaggregated data collected at the household level is prone to bias, not least because of men's and women's differential understanding of survey questions, but also due to their different roles, responsibilities and influence over on-and off-farm activities. Men and women will have an inherent difference in understanding of the effects of climate change and mitigation simply due to their interactions with different tasks. Various resources presenting considerations for mitigating discrepancies between men's and women's survey responses exist, such as those from the UN Statistics Division (2016) as follows:• Consider the ownership status of agricultural parcels as women are more likely than men to have holdings that are not registered • Lower holding size limits exclude parcels owned by women disproportionately to men, and excludes the economic activities carried out by women on small parcels that are likely to be gendered in nature• Consider intrahousehold surveys to understand labour divisions as opposed to female vs male-headed households as this better represents the experience of women within the household • Employ female survey enumerators to survey women and separate men and women during the survey • Consider all steps in value chain production to account for the different responsibilities of men and women in production.Most available gender data in agriculture is disaggregated by the sex of the household head, making it difficult to assess gender dynamics in households and other aspects of community production. The CCAFS Household Surveys record the sex of respondents and it is possible to disaggregate responses using these data; a useful tool, given the small sample sizes of female headed households in the climate-smart villages. Tables 14 and 15 list the sample sizes for these datasets and while in some cases there is a large sample size for female headed households (e.g., Nicaragua: FHH=70, MHH=350), there is still a statistical disparity.Intrahousehold analyses, such as those conducted in the CCAFS Household Survey Monitoring datasets, allow for more similar sampling sizes. The Monitoring set was conducted using the GeoFarmer app, which collects data directly from farmers and allows for better sex disaggregation.Many sources on gender and climate adaptation and mitigation in agriculture (refer to Appendices A and B) provide sex-disaggregated data, which help to build a cohesive picture of women's constraints to agricultural innovation, decision-making, time use and access to resources. In addition, several databases provide information on the gender-climate change nexus in the agriculture sector. For instance, the African Development Bank (AfDB) Gender Data Portal currently provides data on gender indicators for all countries in Africa. Data on 79 gender indicators from national surveys, statistical estimates and other robust sources are available. The AfDB is leading the production of sex-disaggregated data to assess gender gaps and develop responses. The Data are used by policy makers, development institutions, civil society, and private sector as an important tool to engage in evidence-based policy dialogue and action on the ground. Another database was compiled by Gender and Social Inclusion Unit of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), a list of CCAFS publication containing sex-disaggregated data on climate-smart agriculture. Over 100 publications are categorized by region of data collection. The database covers global data on agricultural issues, access to climate services, climate adaptation/CSA, gender patterns in mobility and agricultural production, including workloads, motivations to change, negative perceptions/give up on adaptation strategies/CSA etc.A review of practical resources also identified several guidance documents and practical tools/methods in the field of gender, agriculture, and climate resilience. There are more guidance resources available in the form of Info-notes and working papers than practical resources including toolkits and methods. Most of the resources adopt quantitative methods, with some mixed methods approaches, and fewer qualitative and participatory approaches.More resources are focused on thematic areas 3 including mapping vulnerability and resilience, evaluating specific agricultural practices, and highlighting opportunities/barriers for innovation. For instance, Table 2 lists the resources for mapping causes and patterns of gendered vulnerability and resilience to climate shocks and stressors, in relation to agriculture. On the other hand, few resources exist on analysing the enabling environment, understanding agricultural research and extension systems, or assessing gendered outcomes (Table 3). For instance Gender and Inclusion Toolbox for Participatory Research in Climate Change and Agriculture (CCAFS, ICRAF, CARE, FAO) (Jost et al, 2014) is a resource at district and landscape level which can support the analysis of the gender dimensions of climate change and agriculture research and extension. This tool is also a useful resource for analysing opportunities, barriers,3 Theme wise list of resources is presented in Appendix A.preferences, and decision-making regarding climate change adaptation innovation and interventions at the household, community, and landscape level. In addition to the above, tools, methodologies and frameworks have also been identified across journal articles. The gender and climate hotspot mapping methodology, for instance, identifies hotspot areas for gender and climate risks. It can be utilised for identification of gender and climate risk hotspot at the sub-national (district) level to enable prioritisation for CSA or climate change and gender focussed interventions. Other usages include identification of subnational hotspots of gender, climate risks and poverty in Nepal. The latest usage of the methodology highlights hotspots of areas where machine-transplanted rice can potentially reduce women's labor in India. The hotspot methodology is a practical tool that can be used by all stakeholders as a first step for prioritising interventions geographically. However, usability of the methodology may be limited for organisations without the required technical skill set (GIS software and experts familiar with GIS) (Chanana-Nag and Aggarwal, 2018, Khatri-Chhetri et al., 2019, Gartaula et al., 2020).Another tool that can be useful to assess the gender impacts of CSA is the \"Gender Empowerment Index\" (Huyer, 2023a;Tesfaye et al, 2021). The index uses both quantitative and qualitative data to measure empowerment levels for men and women farmers at interhousehold and intra-household levels. It is based on sub-parameters covering four major measurable indicators-political, economic, agricultural, and social. Another index, 'the decisionmaking index' has been used as a tool by (Van Aelst & Holvoet, 2018) to highlight how adaptation decisions in Tanzania are affected by women's participation in intra-household decision making.A number of frameworks have been presented that can be useful in assessing and analyzing different outcomes of gender and CSA. For instance, based on literature review and field experiences from Zambia and Mexico, (Beuchelt & Badstue, 2013) present a conceptual framework highlighting pathways for enhancing gender and social equity in nutrition-and CSA projects. Similarly, (Wong, 2016) provides a gender lens to the 'contextual-proceduraldistributive' equity framework, to assess the effectiveness of the implementation process and outcomes of key climate-finance targeted intervention in CSA from a gender equity perspective.The framework can enable stakeholders, especially researchers and policymakers to adopt an inclusive approach by understanding various context-specific challenges of gender equity for implementing CSA. Khalil et al (2020) propose a framework for 'informed autonomous adaptation'. It uses local context understanding and adaptation action to support a range of outcomes through female contributions to the mobilization and acquisition of local knowledge, social capital and network building with the help of outside aid actors, such as NGOs, for grassroots innovation.There is no database platform or data repository on the association between gender and climate change perception. However, climate change perceptions and their individual-level determinants have been extensively studied, with sex-disaggregated data. Perceptions about climate change are mostly determined based on responses to changes in rainfall and temperature patterns witnessed over several years (often beyond 20 years). Generally, evidence from the literature reveals increased awareness of climate change among both men and women as well as its implications for agriculture productivity, food security and livelihoods (Partey et al., 2020;Lawson et al., 2020;Assan et al., 2020). Climate change is often perceived as increased frequency of droughts, changes in rainfall patterns (late onset and unpredictability of rains); increased flash floods, increased strong winds; increased evapotranspiration and spontaneous bushfires (Diarra et al., 2021;Partey et al., 2020;Sanogo et al., 2017;Nyantakyi-Frimpong and Bezner-Kerr, 2015).The literature also attests to the fact that perceptions of men and women about climate change are normally based on experiential knowledge accumulated over 20 years (Partey et al., 2020).Generally, gender differences in climate change knowledge and perception are very context specific. Some studies have shown that women may be typically more likely than men to believe that climate change is happening (e.g., Hornsey et al., 2016;McCright, Dunlap, & Xiao, 2013); worry about its effects (e.g., McCright, 2010;McCright and Sundström, 2013); perceive more climate change risks (e.g., Brody et al., 2008;Hamilton, 2011;van der Linden, 2015); express more knowledge about climate change (e.g., McCright, 2010); and perceive global warming as posing a threat within their lifetime (Hamilton, 2011). Moreover, women are less likely than men to endorse denialist beliefs about climate change (e.g., Feygina et al., 2010;McCright and Dunlap, 2011) and express skepticism about its existence on social media (Holmberg & Hellsten, 2015).In Africa, climate change perception was found to be ungendered (Sraku-Lartey et al., 2020;Assan et al., 2020); except in a few cases such as Sanogo et al. ( 2017) who found that in the Koutiala, and Yanfolila districts of Southern Mali, men were more likely to perceive climate change better as they are the main actors in rainfed agriculture. In Eastern Uganda Kisauzi et al. (2012) reported that male and female farmers' perceptions of climate change did not differ significantly on all the parameters investigated except on frequency of droughts, with women more likely to perceive increased drought frequency compared to men (Table 4). In the same study, it was found that a high percentage of men (63%) and women (53%) expected climate change effects to become more severe, which is consistent with the IPCC predictions.In the Pra River Basin of Ghana, Bessah et al. (2021) found that farmers' observed trends of climatic events in the previous 20 years were similar for men and women. In addition, both sexes had similar sources of weather information (Figure 2). Similarly, Assan et al. ( 2020) found similarities in climate change perceptions between men and women, and rising temperatures, shortened cropping season, and increasing erratic rainfall as the main climatic stressors. Lack of money and inadequate access to labour among women, and inadequate access to extension and old age or poor health among men were the major constraints to mitigating climate change impacts. In Nigeria, women had less access to information and training (Nnadi et al, 2022). Meanwhile, a systematic review by Haque et al. (2023) revealed female farmers tend to be more concerned about climate change. This necessitates the need to understand climate change from a cultural standpoint to assess the level of informed decision-making for adaptation. While climate change perceptions are comparable between men and women in Africa, men's greater engagement in agricultural activities can make them perceive more long-term changes in climate than women. In the 2012 CCAFS/IFPRI/ILRI Gender Survey conducted in Senegal, most respondents stated that they had observed a change in weather patterns over the course of their lifetimes, with changes in drought and rainfall being the most highly reported change in all for both sexes (Table 5). Heat, fire and cold spells were least reported. From the survey, there are clear indications that in predominantly, climate change perceptions do not differ significantly between men and women, except in some cases of perceptions of long-term changes. However, adaption measures may be different. In Asia, studies revealed no significant differences between men and women on climate perception in India (Palanisami et al., 2015), Thailand and Vietnam (Waibel et al., 2018). In Vietnam, male respondents reported that climate variability is due to human and non-human activities at 33% and 44%, respectively (McKinley et al., 2016). Females' responses were similar but with more emphasis on humankind activities. Female respondents reported that climate variability is due to human and non-human activities at 41% and 43%, respectively. There appears to be 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 (McKinley et al., 2016) (Figure 4).With increased awareness of climate change and its impacts on agriculture and livelihoods, one would expect men and women to show the same or similar level of response to minimizing climate-related risks. However, available research reveals gender disparities in the vulnerability and impacts of climate change. The state of vulnerability and adaptive capacity are influenced by factors such as the ownership of/access to land, access to financial credit, level of education, access to employment, wages/income, and decision-making rights. The literature reveals women are normally disadvantaged in relation to these areas, constraining them from adopting agricultural innovations that improve farm productivity and diminishing their adaptive capacity to climate change (Diouf et al., 2019;Huyer et al., 2021).In developing countries, women make up 45% of the agricultural labour force, ranging from 20% in Latin America to up to 60% in parts of Africa and Asia (FAO, 2016) but they often lack substantial access to agricultural inputs, financial credits, labour and land, which are critical for their activities and livelihoods (Doss et al., 2018;Ali et al., 2020). This situation poses as a major threat to food security due to the substantial contributions of women to food production at multiple scales. As in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, customary laws, cultural values and norms, and the role of women in the household are often cited as the major contributors to increasing gender inequalities in access to agricultural inputs and assets (Sheahan and Barrett, 2014;Huyer, 2016;World Bank, 2012). In Mali, the productivity gap between male and female agricultural plot managers in Mali is 20.18% (Singbo et al, 2021); in one site in Tanzania, females made up 25 percent of the sample, had 6 percent lower productivity, provided 64.70 percent onfarm labour and had 0.32 hectares less land compared to males (Nchangi et al, 2021). In respect to access to land, it is reported that traditional laws on inheritance (such as the patrilineal system in most of West Africa) and intra-household dynamics restrict women's access to lands (Agana, 2012;Glazenbrook 2011;Whitehead and Tsikata 2003). Studies also indicate that lands apportioned to women can be lower in quality and lack water sources for irrigation (Agana, 2012). With high aridity and sporadic rainfall patterns, women farmers especially in the Sahel of West Africa become more vulnerable to droughts and suffer high risks of productivity failure due to lack of irrigation facilities. In Table 6, Olaniyan (2017) presents reasons reported by female-led farming households in The Gambia as to why they produce less than their male counterparts. Table 6 Factors responsible for low production in some female-led households in The Gambia (Olaniyan, 2017) Increased gender disparities also exist in employment and wages in developing countries (Heintz and Pickbourne, 2012). In Northern Ghana, Whitehead (2009) reported that women earn about one-third to half of men's wage. In the Fonseca Gulf of Honduras, it was reported that even though women make up to 93% of the labour force of cashew processing companies, they earn on average 68% less than men (Muriel et al. 2020). With comparatively higher wages and access to properties, men are able to meet the collateral requirements of financial institutions to access loans. In addition, the higher income of men mean they can invest in alternative livelihoods that can serve as important safety nets to alleviate risks posed by climate change. In addition to their limited access to assets and agricultural resources, increased workloads as a result of climate impacts increase women's vulnerability to climate change (Jost et al., 2016). For example, women in West Africa invest a great deal of their time in taking care of children, collecting fuelwood, cooking, fetching water, shopping from local markets and indulging in daily running of other household-related responsibilities. In nomadic communities of West Africa where men often migrate with livestock in search of grazing pasture, women must manage activities traditionally handled by men. Limited access to extra labour, means such workloads overburden women and affect the time available for their agricultural activities (Djoudi et al., 2013). Studies show such roles coupled with limited access to agricultural inputs and financial resources also limit women's ability to participate in farm decision-making and adopt innovative technologies for improved adaptive capacity and increased productivity (Jost et al., 2016;Huyer et al., 2021;Murray et al, 2015). Ayilu et al. (2016) reported that despite the dominance of women in fish trading in West African countries such as Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria, gender inequalities limit their participation in strategic decision-making pertaining to fisheries management, fish processing and cross-border trade.In contrast to conventional knowledge, Andersen et al. (2017) found that female headed households in Brazil, Mexico and Peru were slightly less vulnerable and more resilient than male headed households even though the former usually have lower education levels. Vulnerability and resilience indicators were measured by a combination of the level of household incomes per capita and the degree of diversification of these incomes. Households which simultaneously had incomes below the national poverty line and were poorly diversified (Diversification Index below 0.5) were classified as highly vulnerable, whereas households with highly diversified incomes above the poverty line were classified as highly resilient. As an example, Table 7 shows the probability of being highly vulnerable, by household type (%), in Peru. Sex disaggregated data are extremely limited on climate impacts. A review by Goh (2012) provides some evidence on how men and women are impacted by climate change in relation to their agricultural activities, water and energy resources, climate-related disasters etc. (Tables 8 to  13). Generally, the literature reveals that men and women feel the impacts of climate change, but the impacts are local specific. It takes adaptive capacity to minimize climate-related risks and impacts. Where women have adequate farm resources, decision making powers, access to land etc., impacts are minimal than when they do not.    Between the CCAFS baseline and midline household surveys, it is evident that changes to climate have increased as a driver to agricultural crop or land management in male and female-headed households, as seen in Figure 5. Overall, male-headed households reported higher responses to climate drivers in all cases except for markets. Male-headed households reported higher drivers from pests and diseases in the midline survey, however, the percentage of female-headed households reporting this driver did not change much between surveys but was still higher than male-headed households in both surveys. Female-headed households reported much lower incidence of driving change in response to interventions or external projects between the two surveys while male-headed households reported a slightly higher response to this driver.The most common adaptation changes cited by both men and women in the CCAFS/IFPRI/ILRI Gender Surveys were related to crop production, but responses also included soil and water conservation, changes in crop varieties or types, changes in planting dates, and tree planting, as described in Table 14. Table 15 shows common reasons to not implement changes, the most common being that respondents didn't know what to do or didn't have the money to implement changes. Table 15 Top five most common reasons given by men and women for why changes were not made (percent of those who reported not making an agricultural, livestock, or livelihood change in response to climate change) in four locations (Source: Twyman et al, 2014) Generally, the CCAFS Household Surveys reported changes to crop patterns as indicated by responses at the household level. Table 16 shows the types of changes adopted by female and male-headed households in the 15 countries included in the study. The changes that were made the most were introduction of new varieties, planting drought tolerant varieties or planting higher yielding varieties. A major caveat to this dataset is that there were very few femaleheaded households included in the survey. In only seven of the countries (Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Tanzania, Uganda) did female-headed households reach 10% of the number of male-headed households surveyed. In these cases, female-headed households adopted changes at a rate of 10% higher than men only in the case of planting drought-tolerant varieties in Uganda. Otherwise, the number of households making changes to crop patterns was fairly even, or male-headed households adopted more changes more female-headed households. In some contexts, such as Costa Rica and Kenya, female-headed households did not adopt several changes made by male-headed households.In Figure 6 the analysis in Table 16 is presented in graphical form to highlight regional trends. Unlike in West Africa, male-headed households appeared to have made more changes to crop patterns than females in East Africa, Latin America and Asia (Figure 6). In West Africa, femaleheaded households responded to climate shocks by introducing new varieties of crops, planting higher yielding varieties, high quality varieties, improved seeds, disease resistant varieties and short cycle varieties of crops. The regional analysis reveals that adoption of adaptation measures in male-headed compared to female-headed households may be context specific. Figure 6 suggests that female-headed households are making fewer changes to their cropping patterns than male-headed households, with the exception of introduction or testing of new crops in West Africa. This exception should, however, be treated with caution as there were only 27 female-headed households included in the study compared with 664 male-headed households; the biggest discrepancy of the four regions listed. Figure 7 suggests that families are focusing their energy on fewer changes on the farm because they will likely have found specific practices which they like and are invested in, rather than trying a lot of new things (Ouedraogo et al., 2019).  In Figure 8, countries are grouped by region and the same analysis as Table 17 is presented in graphical form. This is an attempt to increase the sample size of female-headed households, however there is still a major discrepancy between female and male-headed household sizes in this caseObserving trends from East Africa and Latin America, which have the closest sample sizes, the general trend is that changes to crop patterns occur at a similar rate in both regions, but there is a tendency for male-headed households to adopt changes more than female-headed households to a higher degree than the inverse. In both regions the most adopted changes are planting new varieties and higher yielding varieties, while East Africa also has a high rate of adopting drought-tolerant varieties.Table 17 presents the climate-related reasons that influence households' decisions to change their crop patterns. It is evident that nearly all households reported changing their crops because of more erratic rainfall. Differences were evident between male-headed and femaleheaded households. For most female-headed households in Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nicaragua and Uganda, less overall rainfall was the key driver for changes in crop patterns. Meanwhile, male-headed households in Mozambique reported higher reasons for changes for all changes except erratic rainfall (which was 100% of all households in the survey). All other countries which reported higher sex-disaggregated rates of climate-related reasons for changing crop patterns should be investigated individually to take context into account.Consistent with Table 17, Figure 9 shows that most decisions to change cropping in the last 10 years were rainfall related. Erratic rainfall appears to be the greatest factor influencing crop changes in the last 10 years. Decisions influenced by erratic rainfall were comparable for maleand female-headed households in Latin America and East Africa. In Asia and West Africa, however, decisions to change crops were predominant in male-headed households. P l a n t i n g h i g h e r y i e l d i n g v a r i e t y P l a n t i n g b e t t e r q u a l i t y v a r i e t y P l a n t i n g p r e -t r e a t e d / i m p r o v e d s e e d P l a n t i n g s h o r t e r c y c l e v a r i e t y P l a n t i n g l o n g e r c y c l e v a r i e t y P l a n t i n g d r o u g h t t o l e r a n t v a r i e t y P l a n t i n g f l o o d t o l e r a n t v a r i e t y P l a n t i n g s a l i n i t y -t o l e r a n t v a r i e t y P l a n t i n g t o x i c i t y -t o l e r a n t v a r i e t y P l a n t i n g d i s e a s e -r e s i s t a n t v a r i e t y P l a n t i n g p e s t -r e s i s t a n t v a r i e t y    Figure 10 shows factors influencing changes in livestock production, disaggregated by sex and by region. The sample sizes of female-headed households are very small in Asia and West Africa so that results are not reliable. In East Africa, factors reported are high in all areas and comparable between male and female headed households, but male-headed households reported factors relating to projects and policy at notable higher levels. In Latin America, similar trends are seen between male and female-headed households, but market and productivity factors are reported at greater rates by male-headed households. Table 18 shows changes to agricultural practices made by female-and male-headed households in the 10 years prior to the household surveys undertaken by the CGIAR. The sample sizes of female-headed households are low in Asia and West Africa but more comparable in Latin America (20%) and East Africa (42%). In the latter two regions, the rate of reporting reasons for  changing crops between FHHs and MHHs were generally similar with some exceptions. In Latin America, men reported changing crops due to pests and diseases more than women, and in East Africa, having sufficient labour to make changes as well as government/project intervention and resistance to pests and diseases were reported more by MHHs than FHHs. No significant difference (<5% difference)Women more than men reported this reason Men more than women reported this reasonFigure 11 shows some income sources of households in the CCAFS Household Surveys (baselines), disaggregated by region. In all regions except for West Africa, female-headed households received significantly more remittances than male-headed households. None of the households in these regions received significant payments for environmental services. Women receive fewer loans from formal sources in all regions except Latin America, but in the case of informal sources, women consistently accessed fewer loans.Between the baseline and midline household surveys, the households surveyed by the CGIAR reported changes to their off-farm income (Figure 12). Male-headed households obtained paid employment more than female-headed households, but in both cases the percentage of households reporting this income source decreased between the baselines and midlines. The inverse of this is true for business other than farm products. Female-headed households reported receiving remittances or gifts to a much higher degree than men in both surveys, but male-headed households received payment from projects/government significantly more than female-headed households. Additionally, male-headed households received loans significantly more than female-headed households. Education and household size play an important role in the number of income sources a family has. Table 19 shows the results of a multiple regression analysis to determine how important these influences are. The regression also included the sex of the household head, though this was not found to be a significant factor in any case. The highest level of education in a household was the most commonly significant factor.  Receiving assistance in response to a loss from a climate-related shock helps families get back on their feet. Table 20 shows intersections between marital status and decision-making power of households and their support networks. Divorced, single or widowed male-headed households have poor support networks in this dataset in that they are not accessing sources of assistance.Table 21 shows the group activities that enabled households to recover from shocks; however rates of group membership were low. Collective savings and credit were the most helpful group activities. Data show that female-headed households receive more information from friends and family (Figure 13) than male-headed households, but they have less access to extension information.  Figure 14 clearly shows that more female-headed households receive no climate forecasts than male-headed households, especially in West Africa. Though Figure 15 shows more information being relayed to both men and women, especially with respect to rain forecasts, men are still much more likely to be the sole recipients of forecasts.  Figure 16 shows changes in recipients of weather-related information in Ghana, with both women and men receiving more information except for the 2-3-month weather forecast. In all cases, however, women are more frequently the sole recipients of forecasts, even if only marginally.  At the regional level, Figure 17 still shows trends in receiving weather/climate forecasts being more favourable for male-headed households or being of a near equal degree to female-headed households. Female-headed households do not receive more forecasts in any case. Female headed-households report receiving more forecasting information in the midline CCAFS household surveys than in the baseline survey (Figure 18) across the Ghana, Kenya, India and Nepal sites. In fact, more female-headed households reported receiving this information than male-headed households.   (2010)(2011)(2012)(2019)(2020) In the CCAFS/IFPRI/ILRI datasets, in Kenya women made the most use of weather forecasts, but men received more information in Uganda. In Senegal, the ratio of access to weather forecasts and acting on them is quite evenly distributed between men and women (Table 22). In Table 23, men were receiving the most information from different sources in Nyando and Rakai. Women accessed a comparable amount of information from different sources in Wote, but in Kaffrine there was no particular pattern. Table 22 Percent of men and women who have access to and make use of different types of weather and agricultural information (Source: Twyman et al, 2014) Table 23 Percent of men and women reporting access to different information sources (Source: Twyman et al, 2014) The percentage of female-headed households who accessed information on crops was higher than for men (Figure 19) in the CCAFS monitoring dataset, especially in West Africa. This is likely an outlier due to the small number of female-headed households there. A higher percentage of households didn't access any information, or otherwise accessed it but didn't use the information.Figure 20 explores reasons why users who accessed agricultural management advisories didn't use the information. The most notable pattern is that female-headed households consistently did not implement the CSA option more than male-headed households because they did not understand the information provided by the advisories. This pattern is also true for households responding that they didn't know what decisions to make, with the exception of surveyed households in West Africa. Figure 21 shows the same information as Figure 20 with results disaggregated by the sex of the respondent. In this case, the main patterns were that women reported not understanding the information more than male respondents, and male respondents reported not trusting the information as a reason they were unable to use climate forecasting in all regions. More men reported not having the resources to use forecasting information and more women reported not knowing what decisions to make in response to forecasts in Latin America and West Africa. The inverse was true in East Africa.  With climate projections pointing to economic damages in agriculture, forestry, fishery, energy, and tourism (high confidence), and decreased water availability and other eco-system effects (IPCC, 2022), addressing climate impacts will require considerable changes in agricultural practices to improve adaptive capacity and sustain food security.Varying results of CSA preference and adoption among men and women are reported in the literature under different contexts and geographies. As CSA adoption is influenced by needs and interplay of factors, it may be difficult to develop a unified set of gender-responsive CSA practices and technologies across and within regions. Differences in the adoption of CSA practices and technologies between men and women may be related to factors such as state of climate vulnerability; agricultural production system (e.g. livestock, crop, fisheries); profit (return on CSA implementation); awareness of CSA options; access to labour, land, irrigation, social capital; essential inputs (e.g. improved seeds, fertilizer); and access to credit (Partey et al., 2018).As with any innovative agricultural technology, men and women may be confronted with different needs, opportunities and challenges in implementing CSA (Kristjanson et al., 2017;Jost et al., 2016). It is these needs as well as expected benefits of CSA options and ease of implementation (based on available resources) that are paramount in determining CSA adoption.The available scholarship shows that women and men may need similar CSA options based on crop type, livestock, challenges (e.g. drought, low soil fertility, erosion, limited feed etc.) and expected outcome (e.g. increased income, improved yields, animal growth etc.). However, what normally creates the difference is the financial resources needed to acquire inputs and access  land. In The Gambia for instance, Olaniyan (2017) found that both men and women viewed vaccination of animals, restricted grazing, and domestication of fast-growing small ruminants as climate-smart options for improving the resilience of their livestock systems. However, women were constrained from implementing these CSA options because of limited financial resources. In Northern Benin, Yegbemey et al. (2013) reported that even though CSA options such as crop diversification strategies, revised farming practices and farming calendar adjustment are the most common adjustment of both men and women, women usually do not have the resources for implementation. In Togo, Ali et al. (2020) reported that women's access to credit, membership in farmer association, access to extension and training increased their likelihood of adopting technologies that improve the production of soybean and adaptation to climate change and variability. It was evident from the study that women could lose about 0.3% of soybean revenue for non-adaptation to climate change (Ali et al., 2020). In Southern Africa, women combined CSA adoption with increased manual labour to make up for lower levels of resources (Mutenje et al, 2019). In the Upper East Region of Ghana Kumasi et al. ( 2019) found that most CSA practices were common to men and women. Some such as changing herd composition and fertilizer/pesticide application were male dominated, while water harvesting was female dominated (Table 24). Ouedraogo et al. ( 2018) reported gender differences in the prioritization of CSA options in the Lawra and Jirapa districts of Ghana. Among the top ten ranked CSA options, they found four -(a) use of drought-tolerant/short cycle variety, (b) use of improved seed, (c) use of composting and (d) weather information) were common to both men and women. Meanwhile, farmer-managed natural regeneration of trees (FMNR) was ranked by men only while earth-bund was ranked by women only. These differences were attributed to the different needs of men and women.Similarly, because of their access to degraded lands, women farmers in Kampa-Zarma, Niger adopted zaï techniques for the production of cassio tora and cowpea. This practice markedly improved land productivity and empowered rural women to participate in community resources management (Ouedraogo et al., 2018). As clearly demonstrated in the literature, those women who are able to access land, are often allocated marginal lands (Amigun et al., 2011;Patel et al., 2014), closer to the homestead. This may push them to adopt soil and water conservation practices. In Nigeria, Oyawole et al. ( 2020) found the probability of women adopting soil restoring CSA practices such as green manure and agroforestry was higher than for men. It was however also found that due to their access to land, male plot managers were more inclined to adopt crop rotation practices.Figure 22 Awareness of CSA practices among men and women in Senegal (Kristjanson et al. 2015).Gender trends in awareness of CSA also affect adoption of climate smart practices. A household survey conducted in Senegal, by Kristjanson et al. (2015) found that awareness of men and women differed repecting some CSA practices (Table 25). Men were more aware of CSA practices such as crop residue mulching, improved high-yielding varieties, composting, water harvesting, improved feed management etc.In the CCAFS/IFPRI/ILRI Gender Surveys from 2012, men were more aware of CSA practices than women, especially in Kaffrine, Senegal. Table 26 shows this, with the exception of Nyando, where men and women indicated similar awareness of CSA. In the cases that women are more aware, they are more likely to adopt CSA practices as shown in Table 27. This could be because their access to information is much less than men's overall, and so their benefits from one source could be greater (Abdur Rashid Sarker et al., 2013; Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund and University of Reading, 2014).Table 25 Awareness of CSA practices among men and women in Senegal (Kristjanson et al. 2015).Table 26 Percent of men and women aware of various CSA practices in each site (Twyman et al, 2014) Table 27 Percent of men and women adopting CSA practices in each site (of those who are aware) (Twyman et al, 2014) In the monitoring dataset for the CCAFS Household Surveys, the most common motivation for implementing CSA options was listed as being 'because of learning or training' (Figure 23). Climate-related drivers are the next most motivating factors, with few gender differences. Figure 24 shows the main reasons households stopped implementing CSA options, with labour inputs constituting a major factor, especially in West Africa. Climate change is affecting farming practices and driving farmers to adopt Climate-Smart Agricultural practices to mitigate the effects. Table 28 shows the options adopted by male and female respondents from a CGIAR monitoring survey using the GeoFarmer app. Most practices are site-specific, accommodating the needs of the communities, but agroforestry, improved varieties, water and soil conservation and water harvesting were practiced in all regions. Few practices were characterised by significant gender differences.  The factors affecting women's use of CSA are illustrated through a set of sex-disaggregated databases that help to build a cohesive picture of constraints for women to agricultural innovation, decision-making, and access to resources, as well as constraints related to their daily activities and time use.Reliable decision-making data are very difficult to obtain due to perceptions from respondents influencing their answers. Some studies have tried to quantify this. Table 29 lists some examples where these data are present. Some country/site specific projects exist to quantify the decision-making power of men and women in the agricultural sector. Figure 25 shows one example of this from the Madhya Pradesh Climate-Smart Village in India, where men are reported to have more autonomous decisionmaking power than women over all crop and livestock-related decisions. However, households reported sharing decision-making responsibilities in the majority of cases. As discussed in the methods section of this report, it is very difficult to obtain reliable and unbiased data on decision making at the household level. In the literature, men are thought to have more powers in household decision making due to their control over financial resources and readily access to land and farm resources (Kristjanson et al., 2017;Jost et al., 2016) while women tend to report \"joint\" decision-making in the household more frequently (Liaqat et al., 2021). One notable inclusion in availability of decision-making data is from the African Development Bank. Figure 26 shows the sex-disaggregation of agricultural holders in 24 African countries with the year of latest data availability. The FAO defines the term 'agricultural holder' as a person or group who exercise management control and makes major decisions over an agricultural holding (FAO, 2015). In the case of the data from the African Development Bank, there are significantly fewer female than male agricultural holders in all countries listed except for Cabo Verde.Figure 26 Agricultural holders disaggregated by sex in 24 African countries and most recent year of data availability. Source: African Development Bank (1990Bank ( -2012) ) b) Access to resources Access to and ownership of resources is a major constraint to women's ability to adopt agricultural innovation. Household-level data exists to attempt to quantify this, some examples of which are in Table 30. In most developing countries, women have limited access to land, financial credits, labour, improved seeds etc. (Jost et al., 2016). For example, in West Africa patrilineal systems of inheritance restricts allocation of lands to women (Agana, 2012). Moreover, lands normally available to women may be characterized by low fertility and may be located far from water sources (Quan et al., 2004).  The Asian Development Bank published data on agricultural land ownership in 2017. Figure 27 demonstrates men own more land than women in the three countries listed (Georgia, Mongolia and Philippines). This is also characteristic of the trend in Africa where farmlands is predominantly male owned. The World Bank Living Standards Measurement Study-Plus (LSMS+) presents individualdisaggregated survey data collected in low and middle-income countries, including sexdisaggregated data on landowners without rights to sell or bequeath. Data in four countries in Africa shows that overwhelmingly when women are landowners, they tend not to have the ability to sell or bequeath rights to the land (Figure 28). Table 31 shows a summary of women's participation in integrated water resource management by region, compared with community participation. In 5 of the 7 regions listed, women's participation is lower than user/community participation. Considering their role in household  In terms of land management and irrigation, little data exists on the total area managed by women and men, though some studies (such some of those listed in Table 30) list irrigation as a household resource that is included in household-level studies.Across low-and middle-income countries (LMICs), 81% of women now own a mobile phone compared to 87% of men (GSMA, 2023). Even though 60 million additional women owned one in 2022, 440 million still do not (compared to 290 million men). Growth in mobile ownership for both women and men has remained relatively flat and the gender gap has seen little change as a result. Women are currently 7% less likely than men to own a mobile phone, which translates into 130 million fewer women than men owning one. This gender gap in mobile ownership varies significantly by region (Figure 29).For example, the gender gap is 2% in East Asia and Pacific, but 13% i For example, the gender gap is 2% in East Asia and Pacific, but 13% in Sub-Saharan Africa. South Asia still has the widest gender gap in mobile ownership at 15%, but this has narrowed significantly over the past five years, down from 28% in 2018. Of all the countries surveyed by GSMA in 2022, Pakistan recorded the widest gap in mobile ownership at 35%, followed by Ethiopia at 27% (Figure 30). According to the GSMA Mobile Gender Gap Report 2023, more women in low-and middleincome countries (LMICs) are using mobile internet than ever before, but their rate of adoption has slowed for the second year in a row. While 61% of women across these countries now use mobile internet, only 60 million women started using mobile internet in 2022 compared to 75 million in 2021. Men's rate of adoption also slowed in 2022, highlighting that progress on digital inclusion for all has stalled across LMICs. This gender gap has seen little change since 2017 and the 440 million women who still do not own a mobile phone are proving difficult to reach (Figure 31). As revealed by the report, gender gaps in mobile internet use are wider than gender gaps in mobile ownership in all markets. Even in countries with relatively small gender gaps in mobile ownership, such as Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and India, the gender gap in mobile internet use can be substantial. For example, in Ghana, women are 7% less likely than men to own a mobile phone, but 26% less likely to use mobile internet (Figure 30).The GSMA survey cited affordability; literacy and digital skills literacy; and relevance as the top barriers to mobile ownership for men and women. In rural Africa, the cultural settings and women's limited control of household financial resources are cited as potential barriers (Partey et al., 2018). In rural Kenya, Krell et al. (2020) such barriers including limited technical literacy as constraints to women's patronage of mobile services for agricultural activities. Women are therefore likely to have limited access to extension services and agricultural information delivered through mobile phone platforms and hence stand higher chance of facing climaterelated risks.The cultural setting of rural Africa and women's limited control of household financial resources are cited as potential barriers (Partey et al., 2018). In rural Kenya, Krell et al. (2020) such barriers including limited technical literacy as constraints to women's patronage of mobile services for agricultural activities. Women are therefore likely to have limited access to extension services and agricultural information delivered through mobile phone platforms and hence stand higher chance of facing climate-related risks.ITU figures are somewhat older but provide useful information on access to internet through different digital technologies. Internet access is gendered where men are more likely to use the internet than women. In Figure 31, this is the case for most of the countries listed, with a significance of p<0.05. In the case of broader regionality, such as those presented in Figure 32, the internet is used more by men in most contexts, but the comparison is very small in the Americas, Small-Island Developing States and in Developed countries. The gap is highest in developing countries. Table 32 shows the sex wage gap data available from 2009 to 2020 for workers in skilled agriculture, forestry and fishery. These data indicate that the wage gap is positive, meaning that women make less than men, in all countries listed except for Argentina, Belarus, Belize, Brunei, Dominican Republic, Israel and Russia (7/22 countries). With comparatively higher wages and access to properties, men are more able to meet the collateral requirements of financial institutions to access loans in many countries. In addition, the higher income of men mean they can invest in alternative livelihoods that can serve as important safety nets to alleviate risks posed by climate change.   Recently-published (2021) data from UN Women show that, in all countries listed, femaleheaded, small-scale producers earn less income than their male counterparts. None of the exceptional countries from Table 34 were listed for comparison with these results which are shown in Figure 33.Financial capacity is explored in the Global Findex Database, where Figure 31 shows income sources such as (a) saving money, (b) borrowing money, and (c) receipt of payment for agricultural products disaggregated by sex and by country income level. In this dataset, women save less money, borrow less money are receive less money from agricultural products than their male counterparts at all levels of country income. The data on borrowing are mirrored in the results of Table 34 which shows female-headed households using less credit than their male counterparts in Kenya. Another source of potential income rather than selling agricultural products is in renting assets.In Table 35, the percentage of female and male headed households renting assets shows that male-headed households are renting their assets more. These data, however, do not include information on the amount received for renting which would be a valuable descriptor.  Control over income is another highly gendered issue in agricultural households. Figure 35 shows the breakdown of income control based on votes from household-level surveys in Bangladesh. The only avenue in which women have comparable control over income is in income in livestock in this case, but women otherwise have significantly less control over income in all other areas in this context. Reliable sex-disaggregated data are critical for understanding the community and intrahousehold dynamics of how individuals respond to climate change. The ability for small-scale farmers to adapt to climate change is contingent upon several variables which are highly gendered including access to resources, decision-making power and prevailing gender divisions of labour and responsibilities.This review has synthesized available data and presented the current state of available data on the nexus between gender, agriculture, food security and climate change. In order to advance the gender agenda, further research needs to be conducted to fill data gaps and ensure the representation of all people in all contexts and at all socio-economic intersections.Gender intersects with other factors such as age, marital status, intrahousehold dynamics and education. It is an important aspect for understanding women's access to environmental services and participation in climate change mitigation. Acosta et al. (2021), for example, describe the relationship between education level and use of climate forecasts as conditional on age. In other climate-related sectors, quantitative indicators can provide robust evidence of gender disparities such as disaster recovery time or sex-disaggregation of time spent on activities which are disaster-related, but not many examples of this exist. Simelton et al. (2021) conducted a multiple regression analysis to determine the relationship between income, sex and plot-level data on disaster recovery time, and this work could be taken further. Not many disaster datasets exist, and they are most often highly generalized at the country level and not sex-disaggregated.The EM-DAT disaster database tracks natural, technological and complex (health) disasters from 1900 to the present across the world, however there is no associated understanding of the effect of these disasters on agricultural productivity.Some platforms are available which track sex-disaggregated data (Table 30) but there are still gaps that need to be addressed to fill gaps in agriculture and climate change mitigation. By observing surveying techniques that allow respondents to feel comfortable and accurately represented, as well as standardizing survey collection that focuses on the individual rather than household representation, more robust and reliable sex-disaggregated data can fill in the research gaps and lead to better representation of gender dynamics in climate change mitigation.Time-use information that is quantitative and comparative within and between households remains an important gap (e.g. time spent on tasks performed by female vs male household members; time and labour distributions throughout the day; focus on time-poverty and improving time-saving practices). Time-use could be used to better understand gendered resource ownership, access and gender norms. Quantifying income from same tasks instead of listing tasks is another approach to highlighting gender differences in agricultural production.  (Gumucio et al., 2018) Using natural areas and empowering women to buffer food security and nutrition from climate shocks: Evidence from Ghana, Zambia, and Bangladesh (GCAN, IFPRI) (Cooper, 2018) ","tokenCount":"8801"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"53dadd4cf3981956b43d132d15c04cae","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5c285d1d-91ef-49ee-a68f-4aae6e83ede0/retrieve","id":"2013613019"},"keywords":["Seasonal forecast","Climate services","PICSA","Communication"],"sieverID":"dd12eb0b-45d0-4992-a806-bff151bdd19a","pagecount":"22","content":"CCAFS Workshop Reports aim to disseminate interim climate change, agriculture and food security research and practices and stimulate feedback from the scientific community.The training program (Appendix 2) was organized around a workshop process that has been developed by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) and employed to help groups of farmers in several countries (Kenya, Senegal, Tanzania) understand and use fully probabilistic downscaled seasonal climate forecasts (Hansen et al. 2004(Hansen et al. , 2007(Hansen et al. , 2015;;Ndiaye et al. 2013;Njiru et al. 2015). The main steps are: defining and discussing key concepts, understanding and time-series graphs to develop probability-of-exceedance graphs, interpreting probability distributions, using El Niño as a basis for understanding how seasonal forecasts shift probabilities, and presenting and discussing the current seasonal forecasts. A final component of the workshop was action planning for the communication and use of seasonal forecasts for the upcoming September-December 2016 agricultural season (2017 Season A).The workshop began with an introduction to downscaled forecasts in probability-ofexceedance format, and discussion of plans to make these forecasts available through the Meteo-Rwanda maprooms. The new format has several advantages over the more commonly used tercile maps for presenting seasonal forecasts. First, it matches local historic climate variability and hence the information that decision makers would use in absence of forecast.Second, it provides probabilities associated with any threshold (e.g., minimum rainfall to meet crop demand) that might be relevant to management options. Third, it conveys the accuracy and uncertainty of forecasts in a clear, transparent manner. Finally, well-developed participatory methods make it feasible for farmers and other agricultural decision-makers to understand and apply probabilistic forecasts in this format. The project plans to integrate the approach used in this training into the PICSA curriculum.Five key concepts about seasonal climate information were explained, and their equivalent terms in Kinyarwanda were discussed (Table 1). The translation of key concepts in Kinyarwanda was meant to make sure that facilitators or trainers understand the terms and use the words/terms that match what farmers have in mind. Using graphs to understand rainfall variability and probability  Second, on a blank graph with quantity (e.g., seasonal rainfall) on the x-axis and frequency (e.g., \"Years with at least this much rain\") on the y-axis, participants sorted the time series of observations into frequency, sorting from lowest to highest (if using probability of exceedance). Changing the y-axis from \"number of years…\" to percentage results in a probability distribution, in probability-of-exceedance format (Fig. 2).Involving participants (farmers or intermediaries) in a hands-on process of developing graphs seems to help them understand the graph formats. Once farmers have gone through the process of deriving a time series and probability-of-exceedance graph based on the past five years of data, they can understand computer-generated graphs that incorporate more years of data. Interpreting probability-of-exceedance graphsTrained intermediaries are expected to be comfortable interpreting probability-of-exceedance.Following instruction on this, participants were divided into their four home districts, provided with historical October-December rainfall probability-of-exceedance graphs for their districts, and requested to answer a set of questions, designed to reinforce their ability to interpret probability-of-exceedance graphs:1. The median is the middle of the distribution, meaning that 50% of years are wetter and 50% of the years are drier (for the September-December season). Find the median rainfall.2. Suppose that the risk of a particular crop disease greatly increases, and fungicide application is recommended, if seasonal rainfall is more than 400 mm. What is the probability that this will happen?3. Suppose that yields of a high yielding bean variety are likely to fail if seasonal rainfall is below 250 mm. What is the probability that this will happen?4. Seasonal rainfall forecasts are sometimes expressed as the probability of experiencing \"below normal,\" \"normal\" and \"above normal\" rainfall. \"Below normal\" refers to the driest 1/3 of years, \"normal\" is the middle 1/3 of years, and \"above normal\" is the wettest 1/3 of years. What is the range of September-December rainfall that would fall in the \"normal\" category?Participants agreed that the answers (Table 2) reflected key differences in the climates of the four districts. Using El Niño to illustrate seasonal forecasts as a probability shiftA discussion about El Niño was used to introduce the concept of a seasonal forecast, build confidence that there is a physical basis for seasonal forecasting, reinforce the probabilistic nature of seasonal forecast, and prepare participants to accept the new seasonal forecast format. Prior experience in Kenya and Tanzania suggests that most farmers have heard of ElNiño, and that it can therefore be used to illustrate how knowing something about sea surface temperatures-widely used directly or indirectly in seasonal climate prediction-can shift the probability distribution of rainfall during an upcoming season.A globe was used to explain that El Niño refers to warmer-than-normal surface temperatures over a large portion of the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. By highlighting past El Niño years in a rainfall time series graph, participants recgnized that El Niño shifts the probability distribution towards wetter conditions (Fig. 3). Showing a probability-of-exceedance graph for El Niño against the probability-of-exceedance for all years confirmed this, as seen in the case of Nyanza (Fig. 9). Although the seasonal forecasts that Meteo Rwanda prepared, with IRI technical support, are not based only on El Niño-related sea surface temperatures, the shifted probability distribution shown in Figure 4 is close to the new format for the seasonal forecasts that the project introduced.  Training activities up to this point were designed to help intermediaries understand the concepts and format of the downscaled seasonal forecast, and a process they can use with farmers. Then, forecasts of total rainfall for the September-December season (2017 Season A), downscaled for one location in each of the four target districts (Siebert et al. 2016), were presented and discussed (Fig. 5). The forecasts show a weak (Burera, Ngororero) or moderate (Nyanza) probability shift towards dryer conditions, except for Kayonza where the forecast aligns closely with the historical probability distribution. The presentation of the current forecast was followed by a discussion of the approach that was presented in the workshop, how the forecast system performs, and how to present the historical and forecast information to farmers. Participants agreed that the new format is more useful than the conventional tercile seasonal forecast maps. Most participants agreed that a time series would be easier to understand by farmers if presented as a bar graph rather than a line graph. Participants from agricultural extension recommended using large format printouts instead of computer-based projections when bringing climate services information to farmers.Participants agreed that hands-on involvement of farmers in developing graphs, based on a small (~5-year) subset of recent data, would help build their understanding, trust and confidence.Participants from Meteo-Rwanda and from farmer organizations offered differing perspectives about presenting farmers with time series graphs of hindcast and observed rainfall. Participants from farmer organizations argued that they could increase farmers' trust in the forecasts, while participants from Meteo-Rwanda expressed concern that the hindcast time series could be misunderstood and lead to confusion.In the plenary discussions, several questions were raised about bringing the historic and seasonal forecast information to farmer end-users in the form of probability-of-excellence graphs. Participants noted that probability-of-exceedence graphs are initially difficult tounderstand, yet are very useful. The response from farmers to the use of graphs, in the PICSA process so far, has been overwhelmingly positive. Participants recommended developing explanations for the probability-of-exceedance graphs and related concepts, in Kinyarwanda.They also proposed developing a plan to train intermediaries at least to the Sector Agronomist level, and potentially the Farmer Promoter level, to understand and interpret these graphs.The question of whether farmer end users should be trained to understand historic and forecast probabilities, in the form of probability-of-exceedance graphs, was raised but not resolved. One suggestion was to focus on shifts in the probability of exceeding climatic thresholds associated with particular management options, but not the graphs, when bringing the information to farmers. However, the training facilitator (James Hansen, who is also project leader) noted that farmers in Kenya, Tanzania, and Senegal have been able to understand and make use of historical and forecast probability-of-exceedance graphs, and that Rwanda farmers have consistently responded well to the graphs used in the PICSA process.Noting that farmers consistently identify climate variability as their greatest concern, participants recommended including information about the timing of rain, and timing of planting, and rainfall distribution and intensity, in addition to seasonal rainfall totals. Short, intense rain is not as good as rainfall that is evenly distributed throughout the growing season. Participants agreed that information about dry spells could capture part of this concern. The facilitator noted that the project plans to expand the existing Meteo-Rwanda maprooms to include these additional information products.Action plans for communicating and using the seasonal forecastsThe session on developing action plans around the seasonal forecast began with a quick refresher on the PICSA process, and how PISCA is being integrated into the existing Twigire Muhinzi agricultural extension approach led by RAB. Participants reviewed the main management options that farmers discussed during earlier training activities (in July) for each of the pilot districts: Kayonza (maize, beans and cassava), Nyanza (maize, RAB provision of hybrid seed as a statutory condition), Burera (potatoes, beans and wheat), and Ngororero (maize, potatoes, beans and tea).Although the objective of the session was to develop action plans for rolling out the new, downscaled seasonal forecasts with farmers engaged in the PICSA process, the discussion covered several other aspects of planning in the target districts. This included a request todevelop plans to roll out the PICSA approach to more farmers in the four pilot districts.Sector Agronomists were requested to put in place rain gauges in each sector and supervise the data collection, to contribute to the validation of forecasts provided by Meteo-Rwanda.Agronomists were also encouraged to contribute to districts plans by providing timely information on seasonal forecasts and crops requirements. Participants recommended packing climate information with agronomic advisory information (e.g., types of inputs, seeds, mineral and organic inputs, pesticides).In the final closing remarks, Moussa Senge spoke on behalf of participants to thank the facilitators and to remind everyone to always think of the farmer and find ways to give them right information on climate. Participants committed themselves to always provide climate or weather forecast information to farmers to help them improve their livelihoods.The workshop involved a core group of intermediaries who had been involved in previous was some debate about how much detail about probabilistic seasonal forecasts should be provided to farmers, and whether probability-of-exceedance graphs of seasonal forecasts should be packaged with time series of hindcasts and observations.The workshop only partially achieved its objective of producing action plans for rolling out the new, downscaled seasonal forecasts with farmers engaged in the PICSA process.Planning discussions touched on extending the PICSA process to more farmers in the four initial pilot districts, providing rain gauges in each sector to help validate forecasts, bringing climate information into district planning, and packing climate information with agronomic advisory information.","tokenCount":"1818"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"3b1cea46d95f1fc64f7782d8426709ab","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e596ec4b-85a4-4f97-b20c-03ec4a3132b2/retrieve","id":"403140558"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6f58c564-7340-44cd-94b6-e42556cd9c81","pagecount":"2","content":"between animals and humans), research on livestock for development is central to some of the most important challenges facing us today. determining how to balance different objectives and needs in livestock livelihoods, and how to do so equitably and sustainably, requires research by many different kinds of scientists and the engagement of many different parts of society.Holding back livestock development in poor countries are inappropriate policies, scarce livestock feeds, devastating diseases, degraded lands and water resources, and poor access to markets. research by iLri and its partners is helping to alleviate these problems by developing new knowledge as well as technological and policy options.PoVErtY FocuS iLri's strategic intention is to use livestock as a development tool, one that widens and sustains three major pathways out of poverty: (1) securing the assets of the poor, (2) improving smallholder and pastoral productivity and (3) increasing market participation by the poor. iLri conducts research in three themes-improving market opportunities; Biotechnology to secure livestock assets; and People, livestock and the environment-and two cross-cutting programs-Sustainable Livestock Futures and Poverty, gender and impact. iLri also coordinates the Systemwide Livestock Programme of the consultative group on international Agricultural research (cgiAr). goVErnAncE iLri is guided by a board of trustees comprising 12 leading professionals in relevant research, development and management issues. the institute is supported by the cgiAr, an association of more than 60 governments and public-and private-sector institutions supporting a network of 15 agricultural research centres working to reduce poverty, hunger and environmental degradation in developing countries.Funding iLri is funded by some 80 private, public and government organizations of the north and South. the institute's expenditure for 2008 was uS$41.31 million. Some donors support iLri with core and program funds; others finance individual research projects. in-kind support from national partners such as Kenya and Ethiopia, as well as that from international collaborators, is substantial and vital. this mix of generic, specific and in-kind resources is essential for the partnership research we conduct.international Livestock research institute Better Lives through Livestock the international Livestock research institute (iLri) works at the crossroads of livestock and poverty, bringing high-quality science and capacity-building to bear on poverty reduction and sustainable development. iLri works in Africa and Asia, with offices in eastern (nairobi, Addis Ababa), western (ibadan, Bamako) and southern (Maputo) Africa, South Asia (new delhi, Hyderabad, guwahati), Southeast Asia (Bangkok, Jakarta, Vientaine, Hanoi) and East Asia (Beijing).iLri is a non-profit-making and non-governmental organization with headquarters in nairobi, Kenya, and a second principal campus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We employ nearly 700 staff from about 34 countries. About 80 staff are recruited through international competitions and represent some 30 disciplines. More than 600 staff are nationally recruited, largely from Kenya and Ethiopia.All iLri work is conducted in extensive and strategic partnerships that facilitate and add value to the contribution of many other players in livestock research for development work. iLri employs an innovation systems approach to enhance the effectiveness of its research. We believe fundamental change in culture and process must complement changes in technologies to support innovations at all levels, from individual livestock keepers to national and international decision-makers.WHY LiVEStocK rESEArcH For tHE Poor? Farm animals are an ancient, vital and renewable natural resource. throughout the developing world, they are means for hundreds of millions of people to escape absolute poverty. Livestock in developing countries contribute up to 80 percent of agricultural gross domestic product; nearly 1 billion rural poor people rely on livestock for their livelihoods. globally, livestock are becoming agriculture's most economically important subsector, with demand in developing countries for animal foods projected to double over the next 20 years. the ongoing 'livestock revolution' offers many of the world's poor a pathway out of poverty.Livestock not only provide poor people with food, income, traction and fertilizer but also act as catalysts that transform subsistence farming into income-generating enterprises, allowing poor households to join the market economy.Livestock sustain most forms of agricultural intensification-from the Sahelian rangelands of West Africa to the mixed smallholdings in the highlands of East Africa and the drylands of southern Africa to highly intensified wheat production in South Asia and rice production in Southeast Asia.Because domesticated animals of one kind or another are a vital resource of poor people practicing virtually every farming system in every agro-ecological zone in the world, and because animals play a key role in such global issues as climate change (largely through their production of methane, a greenhouse gas) and disease transmission (more than 60% of all human diseases, and 60-75% of all emerging human diseases, are passedSecuring assets to reduce vulnerability Where to go?How to get there?Innovation systems, impact assessments, gender analysisIncreasing productivity ","tokenCount":"772"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5fbc4e09fdc2473e65891659dd7e1aae","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/aa0a180b-8b20-46bf-8d16-12aa62a27d22/retrieve","id":"115712141"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"6776632c-ce00-4059-94b6-98048a8b5bb7","pagecount":"4","content":"Rangelands and pastoralism must be valued and supported for their contribution to achieve local and global goals -particularly towards reaching Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN)More than half of the world's land mass is rangeland -and yet these landscapes and the people who inhabit and manage them have been largely neglected. They are a main source of food and feed for humanity, and yet they are also the world economy's dumping ground. It is time to shift perspective -from 'a rangeland problem' to 'a sustainable rangeland solution'. It is time to commit globally to halt indiscriminate rangeland conversion, to pass judicious policies and laws. It is time to reach a global consensus to upgrade rangelands, set stronger LDN targets and allocate funding.The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has designated 2026 the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP 2026) to enhance rangeland management and the lives of pastoralists. With this declaration, UN Member States are called upon to invest in sustainable rangeland management, to restore degraded lands, to improve market access by pastoralists, to enhance livestock extension services, and to fill knowledge gaps on rangelands and pastoralism. This brief summarizes the findings of a comprehensive science review undertaken by a team of experts from the IYRP International Support Group, a coalition of more than 320 organizations worldwide, to determine key issues to address in rangelands and pastoralism and targets to set in the LDN work proposed by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) to maintain or enhance the world's land-based natural capital.Rangelands occupy more than half of the Earth's land surface. Pastoralism has been practiced for millennia on rangelands as a way for communities to adapt to climatically highly variable environments with a great diversity of natural resources. More than two billion people today depend directly or indirectly on pastoralist livelihoods, value chains and foods. Pastoralism remains the most viable way to manage rangeland ecosystems for the benefit of both people and the environment. In addition to producing nourishing milk, dairy products and meat from livestock herds, pastoralism on rangelands and farmlands provides essential ecosystem services by enriching soils, capturing carbon, dispersing seed, shaping landscapes, protecting downstream areas from floods and drying up of rivers, and conserving biodiversity, including the many endangered wildlife species that make rangelands their home.The main threats to the world's rangelands and pastoralism are conversion to land uses other than grazing and degradation of the remaining rangelands. Increasing human pressures and climatic stressors are together forcing millions of traditional rangeland users to cope with livestock production losses, water and forage scarcity, land use conflicts, displacement, sedentarization and poverty. The major drivers behind this suite of problems are poor governance and institutional weaknesses, policy neglect, underinvestment, and large knowledge and technology gaps. In some countries, the encroachment of mining activities and of poorly planned largescale renewable energy interventions are damaging pastoralist livelihoods and rangeland health, and compromising pastoralists' access rights. Worldwide, policies prioritizing the industrialized livestock sector are undermining sustainable pastoralist practices. A persistent lack of appreciation for pastoralism as a viable and sustainable land use that contributes to many ecosystem services, has left rangelands and their pastoral stewards marginalized and overlooked in global agenda setting. If continued, this deteriorating situation will have dire consequences for pastoral lands and peoples and for the whole planet.Despite these significant threats, implementation of many innovative policies and good practices has enhanced the wellbeing of rangelands and pastoralists in different parts of the world. Those demonstrable successes inform our calls to action below. These eight calls to action demand a shift in view -from regarding pastoralists and their livestock as part of 'the rangeland problem' to seeing them as part of a time-honored and nature-based solution for the health of rangeland agro-ecosystems.A similar level of global commitment is needed to halt indiscriminate rangeland conversion as there has been for halting deforestation. LDN as a global commitment and tool must increase attention to rangelands through stronger targets, action, and funding.Judicious policies and practices for sustainable rangeland management and restoration can go far in meeting national and global commitments to mitigating climate change, to meeting the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Managing rangelands sustainably is a commitment many countries have made to reach LDN. Achieving LDN as defined by UNCCD is keeping the balance between the amount of land being degraded and the amount being restored or improved. #3 Innovate and implement beneficial economic policies and technologies: Re-assess economic policies that harm rangelands and pastoralists. Replace subsidies for supplemental feed that lead to rangeland degradation with economic alternatives, such as support for ecotourism and environmental services, livestock insurance and mobile abattoirs. Lift market barriers, encourage animal diversity, livestock health and locally adapted breeds. Support decentralized and small-scale renewable energy production and access. Set up legal frameworks for organic certification of pastoral products.#4 Promote integrated, multifunctional land use: Employ sustainable rangeland management practices and policies that seek integrated objectives, such as silvopastoralism and other agroforestry schemes, wildlife-livestock integration and eco-tourism to achieve multiple sustainability benefits through multifunctional land use.#5 Strengthen participatory land governance and equity: Incorporate pastoralists in all decision-making on the use and management of rangelands and ensure they have well-defined legal and customary tenure and access rights. Support participatory governance practices that recognize pastoralists are at the heart of rangeland stewardship. Build on traditional pastoralist knowledge and promote equity by facilitating the participation of marginalized pastoralist groups such as women, youth, elders and indigenous peoples.#6 Increase rangeland and pastoral projects under the LDN Fund by 30%: Invest in rangeland restoration and traditional rotational movement, transhumance and other cost-effective and sustainable rangeland management practices, by calling on the LDN Fund to increase its support to rangelands and pastoralist projects by 30% by 2026, year of the IYRP.  ","tokenCount":"953"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"628c2d664386ee59c4d9c3452d61413f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5f55ce3a-c039-42bd-9925-7c8db903d74b/retrieve","id":"765227873"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ebdbdc9d-0707-459c-882e-01065e629194","pagecount":"4","content":"Participants were introduced to a farming-as-a-business simulation game, which encompassed a wide range of topics vital for effective farm management. These topics included identifying investment opportunities, business modeling, planning and budgeting, strategic decision-making, profit and loss analysis, cash flow management, and understanding the three key financial statements: the income statement, statement of accounts, and balance sheet. This module equipped farmers with the skills to approach their farming activities from a business perspective, enabling them to maximize profitability and ensure long-term sustainability.The managing climate resilience module focused on techniques to mitigate the impacts of climate change on agricultural operations. Farmers were taught to adopt appropriate farming methods, practice environmental protection and soil conservation, and utilize weather reports to make informed decisions.The training also emphasized the importance of Conservation Agriculture (CA), which includes minimal soil disturbance, crop rotation, and maintaining soil cover as essential strategies for building resilience against climate variability.As part of addressing climate change, farmers were encouraged to adopt climate-smart technologies in their operations, such as producing and using Kafue Soybean Seeds, known for being drought-tolerant and highyielding. Additionally, they were trained in Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) for soybean production, covering topics such as quality seed selection, early planting, the use of inoculants, fertilizer application, weed management, and harvesting technologies.","tokenCount":"210"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1cf21dde194b0a0d97afc052ab984052","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/143849f4-5feb-4bd2-be34-91572d326479/content","id":"-364666447"},"keywords":["Ethiopia","Wheats","Seed","Varieties","Seed industry","Seed production","Food supply","Production policies","Credit policies","Economic analysis","Socioeconomic environment","Demography","Input output analysis","Extension activities","Farming systems","Cropping patterns","Crop management","Small farms","Highlands","Technology transfer","Innovation adoption","Consumer surveys","Analytical methods","Statistical methods","Sampling: Simulation models","Research projects Logit analysis","CIMMYf AGRIS category codes: E14 Development Economics and Policies EI0 Agricultural Economics and Policies Dewey decimal classification: 338.16"],"sieverID":"655b705c-153e-431c-995e-47d34c497f77","pagecount":"49","content":"Verkuijl and Wilfred Mwangi are with the Economics Program of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.CIMMYf is an internationally funded, nonprofit scientific research and training organization. Headquartered in Mexico, the Center works with agricultural research institutions worldwide to improve the productivity and sustainability of maize and wheat systems for poor farmers in developing countries. It is one of 16 similar centers supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). The CGIAR comprises over 50 partner countries, international and regional organizations, and private foundations. It is co-sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).Financial support for CIMMYf's research agenda currently comes from many sources, including governments and agencies of Australia,Table 2.Table 3. Table 4.Table 5. Table 6.Table 7.Table 8. Table 9.Table 10.Table 11.Table 12.Table 13. Table 14.Table 15.Table 16. Table 17.Table 18.Table 19.Table 20. Table 21.Table 22.Table 23.Table 24.Table 25.Table 26.Table 27.     Despite the crucial importance of improved seed in bettering the livelihoods of small-scale farmers, in Ethiopia access to this invaluable technology is still constrained by many factors. One important factor is the-underdeveloped seed industry. Independent studies have estimated a large annual demand for seed, which is never met or (in the case of hybrid maize and sunflower) is met only through imports. Consequently, the government has increased its efforts to develop plant breeding research networks and a complementary seed production, multiplication, processing, storage, marketing, and distribution system. The private sector, including non-governmental organizations (NGOs), has been encouraged to participate in the development of the national seed industry.This study was initiated in Enebssie area of Amhara Regional State with the following objectives:(1) to identify farmers' seed acquisition and transfer mechanisms;(2) to explore problems related to farmers' seed acquisition and transfer mechanisms;(3) to document the status of previously released bread wheat varieties; and (4) to describe the seed system in Ethiopia and to explore the effectiveness of the current seed testing and release mechanism.Multistage stratified sampling design was employed in this study. Based on informal asessment and secondary data sources, the major wheat-growing woredas of Enebssie area were purposively classified into two strata: proximity to seed suppliers and agroecological zone. Five Peasant Associations (PAs) were selected from each stratum using probability proportional to size. From each PA, 10 farmers were selected using the constant fraction method, for a total sample size of 200 farmers. Farmers were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and a logit model were used to analyze the resulting data.The Ethiopian seed industry is composed of formal and informal sectors. The formal sector includes federal and regional agricultural research establishments, universities, the Ethiopian Seed Enterprise (ESE), and a few private companies. The informal sector embraces NGOs, relief organizations, and millions of farmers who continue to practice seed selection and preservation just as their ancestors did centuries ago. Today, over 80% of the national seed demand is met through this informal system of local seed maintenance and exchange.The bread wheat seed industry comprises varietal development, testing, and release, followed by seed multiplication, processing, certification, marketing, and distribution. At a minimum, seven years are required to re1ease a variety. Release may be unnecessarily delayed because of the stringent variety release mechanism.The study area is located in northwestern Ethiopia, which accounts for 24% of Ethiopia's wheat area and 20% of the annual wheat production. Farmers used to grow large areas under a local bread wheat variety (Zembolel/Israel) and many local durum wheat varieties. Most of these durum varieties were grown on black soils. The area under local wheat varieties has declined because of problems with stripe rust, drought stress, and soil fertility, although these abandoned varieties are still found in mixtures with the dominant wheat varieties. The current varieties grown are Zembolel, Tekencher, Key Sinde, Enkoy, and ET-13. Wheat is used to prepare bread, injera, tella (local beer), and araki (local spirit). It is also an important cash crop, and its straw is used to feed livestock and construct houses.Middle-aged farmers dominate the farming population. The average family size is about 5.5 persons in both the intermediate and highland zones. The size of the land holding in each zone is about 6 timmad. Off-farm employment opportunities are limited. The proportion of female-headed households was about 8%. About 39% of the farmers in the intermediate zone and 45% in the highland zone were illiterate, whereas 61% in the intermediate zone and 55% in the highland zone had received some kind of eductation. Farmers in the intermediate zone had larger numbers of cows, bulls, and donkeys than farmers in the highland zone.The popularity of individual varieties, measured by the area they occupy, has changed over the years.The area under the bread wheats Zembolel and Dashen has declined because of their susceptibility to stripe rust, while the area under Tekencher is increasing because of its disease resistance and reasonable yield. Enkoy was preferred for its good cooking qualities, taste, and reasonable yield under poor soil fertility, but the area planted to Enkoy is sharply declining because it has become susceptible to stem rust. The area under ET-13 is increasing because of its high yield. The new varieties HAR-1709, HAR-1685, and HAR-604 have outstanding performance, but they have been introduced only recently. The adoption of improved varieties increased after 1990 for two main reasons: the policy reform of 1991 discouraged collective farming and liberalized the grain market, and most improved varieties began to be introduced after 1990.Farmers reported that they knew about 13 wheat varieties; the most widely known varieties were Enkoy, Zembolel, Key Sinde, Tikur Sinde, Tekencher, and ET-13. As mentioned previously, farmers had stopped growing most of the wheat varieties because of stripe rust, drought stress, and soil fertility problems. Farmers reported that the disadopted varieties had several advantages compared to varieties currently ~own: better food quality or flavor in indigenous dishes, better performance on poor soils, and white grain color, which is in high demand in the market.In the intermediate zone during the 1997 cropping season, most farmers used seed obtained from other farmers (56.7%) or retained from the previous year's harvest (24.7%). In the highland zone, viii farmers also used seed obtained from other farmers (39.8%) or saved from the previous harvest (33.7%). Farmers' initial sources of new wheat varieties in the intermediate zone were mostly other farmers (46.8%) and the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) (32.5%), while in the highland zone the main initial sources were the local market (40%) and other farmers (38.3%).About 45% of farmers in both zones cleaned seed, and of those who cleaned seed, most cleaned it at planting (98% in the intermediate zone and 89.3% in the highland zone). Only 6% of farmers in the intermediate zone and 4% in the highland zone reported maintaining separate fields for seed production. Weed seed was the most important impurity that farmers in the intermediate (47.4%) and highland zones (48.9%) removed when they cleaned seed. Chaff was another important impurity in the intermediate (24.4%) and highland zones (27%).Thirty-seven wheat seed samples were analyzed in the laboratory to assess the purity of farmers' wheat varieties. The samples contained 81 % pure wheat seed, 13% seed of other wheat varieties and crops, and 6% inert matter (stones and weed seed). For farmers, the presence of seed of other wheat varieties and crops do not constitute impurities, because mixtures have advantages: they may minimize risk, have value for household use, and produce high yields.Important factors influencing farmers' awareness of new wheat varieties included: the agroecological zone, access to credit, contact with information sources (such as an extension visit in the year preceding the survey), and membership in an organization. The adoption of improved wheat varieties was significantly influenced by cultivated area, contact with information sources (e.g., extension), membership in an organization, number of oxen owned, and farming experience.The weighted average age of wheat varieties in the Enebssie area in 1997 was 11 years, surpassing the global average of seven years. This relatively slow varietal turnover reflects a poorly developed seed industry and ineffective extension services. From farmers' responses, it was estimated that the mean number of years farmers used wheat seed without replacement was three to six years. Farmers replaced seed when the proportion of foreign matter became too high. In general, most farmers used recycled seed, which had a high weed seed content and low germination rate. About 77% and 81 % of the farmers in the intermediate and highland zones, respectively, ran out of seed every year, mainly because of insufficient yield (mentioned by 33% of intermediate zone farmers and 42% of highland farmers). In the intermediate zone, farmers also ran out of seed because their seed was full of weed seed, destroyed by pests, mixed with other varieties, or spoiled by heavy rain.ix Improved wheat varieties have to a large extent replaced landraces in the study area, and care must be taken to ensure that farmers do not grow varieties that share a narrow genetic base. Currently, only three or four varieties are in production because of the disease, drought stress, and soil fertility problems that make it difficult to grow other varieties. Farmers must grow a more diverse array of varieties, both over time and space. Breeders should maintain the older varieties because they might possess desirable traits that are lacking in the new varieties, and ways to maintain the indigenous varieties should be found to promote genetic diversity.The seed industry suffers from problems of uncertain seed quality and an uncertain seed market.Most farmers obtain seed from informal sources, especially other farmers. Some farmers were not only producing their own seed but also selling seed to other farmers. Their efforts show that, given the necessary advice, farmers can produce and preserve replacement seed, once they obtain fresh stock of a variety. The extension system should strengthen its advisory role to farmers, especially on how to produce and preserve replacement seed. Such an initiative will also require farmers' institutions, such as service cooperatives (SCs), to be strengthened.The extension system should pay greater attention to informing farmers about the precise characteristics of their varieties and their correct adaptation zones. This will decrease the adoption lag by enabling farmers to avoid experimenting with one or more varieties. Also, more extension effort should be directed towards farmers in the highland zone relative to farmers in the intermediate zone, who have better access to information.Credit and extension were the most important factors influencing farmers' awareness and adoption of improved wheat varieties. The extension package program has demonstrated the importance of formal credit in increasing production through increasing the uptake of improved technologies. At present farmers depend on informal sources of credit, however. The formal credit system needs to be strengthened and made appropriate for small farmers.The research system is confronted with the need to increase the rate at which it releases varieties, as the disease resistance of recent releases has tended to deteriorate quickly. To be successful, however, such efforts must be supported by greater overall development of the seed industry. Before the economic reform of 1991, publicly owned and collective farms benefited most from the limited certified seed that was available, and they also tended to receive new seed more quickly. This preferential treatment generally limited the impact of breeding gains for farmers and the national economy at large. Recent changes in the seed industry, such as the entry of private firms, creation of the National Seed Industry Agency, and strengthening of the national extension service, should bring about considerable positive change. Another positive step would be to review the current stringent mechanism for rel~asing varieties. The release committee should include not only breeders and officials from the public sector but also farmers and representatives of the private sector. These changes would be even more effective if policies and an institutional and legal framework could be developed to link the formal and informal seed sectors so that they could function in a complementary way.The strength and efficiency of support services such as extension, credit, and input supply can condition the effectiveness of research results emanating from experiment stations. The role of improved varieties of crops, particularly wheat and rice, in alleviating poverty has been widely debated (Dasgupta 1977;Singn 1990). Ellis (1993) outlined the social and economic impact of improved varieties in countries where they have been widely grown, and it is commonly observed that the dissemination of improved seed and complementary inputs has removed the shadow of famine from the lives of millions of poor farmers. Because improved seed embodies the genetic potential of a plant, it determines the upper limits on yield and even the productivity of other inputs (Jaffee and Srivastava 1992).Despite the crucial importance of improved seed in bettering the welfare of small-scale farmers, access to this invaluable technology can be constrained by many factors, including an undeveloped seed industry. A seed industry essentially consists of all enterprises that produce or distribute seed (Pray and Ramaswami 1991), and at a minimum the industry has four components: 1) plant breeding research, 2) seed production and multiplication, 3) processing and storage, and 4) marketing and distribution. The industry's overall performance depends on the efficiency of each component, and each component possesses different economic and technical characteristics that determine the roles that public and private organizations will play in the seed industry. These characteristics include economies of scale, externalities, excludability, and problems of information or quality.The development of new varieties and hybrids can be profitable for specialized research and development firms. However, because of the high fixed costs of entering the industry, the externalities associated with plant breeding, and the difficulty of excluding non-paying farmers or firms from benefiting from new varieties of seed, the amount and direction of private sector investment in these activities may be insufficient or inappropriate to meet society's objectives. The significance of these difficulties will vary depending on whether the seed is of hybrid or self-pollinating plants. Northwestern Ethiopia (NWE), particularly Gojam Region, is among the important wheat-growing areas of the country (Aleligne Kefyalew 1988;Amanuel Gorfu et al. 1991). Northwestern Ethiopia accounts for 24% of Ethiopia's wheat area and 20% of annual wheat production (CSA 1996). Wheat production in NWE has more than doubled over the past 17 years (Figure 1), mainly because of the introduction of high-yielding varieties, rising market prices for wheat, and greater consumption of wheat by farm households. Wheat is the second most important crop in Enebssie area, and it is produced by small-scale farmers with fragmented land holdings. Eighty-seven percent of the farmers in Enebssie area grow wheat on one to three plots with an average size of 0.5 ha.3 , 5 0 0 . -----------------------, -3 5 0 3,000 o Area (000 hal ------------6----------------300  \",1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 Figure 1. Area and production of wheat in northwestern Ethiopia. 1980-97.Note: Right axis is for area (000 hal.At one time, farmers grew large areas of the local bread wheat variety Zembolel/Israel and many different local durum wheat varieties (many of the latter were grown on black soils). Most of the durum varieties no longer popular because of problems with stripe rust, drought stress, and soil fertility. Some of these varieties are still found in mixtures with the dominant wheat varieties, however. The bread wheat varieties currently grown are Zembolel, Tekencher, Key Sindc, Enkoy, and ET-13. Wheat is used to prepare bread, injera, tella (local beer), and araki (local spirit). It is also an important cash crop, and its straw is used to feed livestock and construct houses.The main technologies used in Enebssie area are improved wheat varieties and their complementary inputs, which have been developed through research. In NWE, seed of improved varieties of bread wheat, teff, and maize has been extended to farmers for a decade (Aleligne Kefyalew 1988;Aleligne Kefyalew and Regassa Ensermu 1992;Aleligne Kefyalew, Tilahun Geletu, and Regassa Ensermu 1992). In the study area, the rapid evolution of rust pathogens makes it important that farmers replace their wheat varieties more often than is currently done. The availability of new varieties is mediated, however, by frameworks governing varietal testing, release, and distribution. The adoption of new varieties is also affected by many factors, including the genetic and physical qualities of the seed itself, and extension, credit, input supply, and other farmer support services.This study was designed to explore the hypothesis that a limited number of institutions are involved in local wheat seed supply and that their performance is weak, particularly in relation to serving peasant farmers. For this reason, farmers lack a dependable supply of fresh, certified wheat seed and commonly recycle seed from one season to another, which leads to low germination percentages and weed problems. Specifically, the objectives of the study were to:• describe the wheat seed system in Ethiopia, • identify how farmers acquire and exchange wheat seed, • explore problems related to farmers' seed acquisition and transfer mechanisms, • document the status of previously released wheat varieties, and • explore the effectiveness of the current seed testing and release mechanism.The study area, Enebssie, is located about 100 km southeast of Adet Agricultural Research Center (Figure 2), between 100 27' Nand 11 05' N latitude and 37 0 40' N to 38 0 22' N longitude. Enebssie Province is located in East Gojam Zone of Amhara Region; East Gojam is the leading wheat-growing zone in NWE, accounting for 51 % of the wheat area and 52% of wheat production (CSA 1995). Enebssie Province comprises Goncho-Siso-  Metereology stations at Mertu-le-mariarn and Gundowoin towns were used to obtain rainfall and other climatological data for the study area. The available data show a unimodal rainfall pattern in which the rainy season extends from May to September. The five-year mean annual rainfall recorded in Mertu-le-mariam was 992 mm, while that in Gundowoin was 1,025 mm (Figure 3). Most of the rainfall (50-60%) occurred from July to August. In general, the daily mean maximum and minimum temperature was higher in Mertu-le-mariam than in Gundowoin. Farmers categorize their soils based on color, fertility status, and water-holding capacity. More than 10 soil types were reported. The dominant soil types are keyatie (red soil) and sheda (black soil).Wheat production in Enebssie area has a long history. The woreda capital, Mertu-le-mariam, and its 14th century church both obtained their name from wheat produced in the area (\"mertu-le-mariam\" means \"the best wheat for Saint Mary\"). Enebssie was selected for this study because it is the major producing area for local and improved wheat in East Gojam Zone.Agriculture in Enebssie is characterized by mixed farming systems in which crop and livestock production are equally important. The major crops grown and area allocated to each crop in 1997 are shown in Table 1 for both the intermediate and highland agroecological zones. Crops and livestock are important cash sources for farm households, and oxen are used for draft power. The main cropping season extends from June to November. During the Belg season (short rains), crops like barley, chickpea, and guaya (a bean used to prepare a local dish) are grown. Three major recommendation domains have been identified for the survey area: the highlands, intermediate zone, and lowland zone. Some differences between these zones are shown in Table 2. The lowland zone did not feature in the farm survey because wheat is not a major crop there.Farm size in Enebssie has declined because of population pressure. When the former government (the Derg) was in power, land was commonly redistributed each year. In the past six years, no land has been redistributed, which has created disparities in the size of holdings among households. Some land was reallocated in 1996, however, from former Peasant Association (PA) officials to landless farmers.The division of labor within households is based on gender and age. Children who are less than eight years old and family members who are older than sixty do not provide labor for agricultural production. In addition to their household activities, women participate in weeding at the time of \"Gulgualo,\" transporting the harvested crop to the threshing ground, preparing the threshing ground, and transporting produce from the field to the homestead. More than 90% of the sampled farmers reported women's assistance in farming activities. Children between eight and fourteen years look after livestock and assist in weeding, harvesting, and collecting produce. The busiest period for most farmers is between July and December, when farmers share their labor with other farmers (woberal debo), hire labor, or exchange oxen for labor. The major wheat-growing areas in NWE were selected based on an informal survey and secondary data sources. The major stratifying parameters were proximity to seed suppliers, agroecological diversity (i.e., variations in elevation, rainfall, and temperature), and institutional factors (i.e., access to input and output markets). Goncha-Siso-Enebssie and Enebssie-Sar-Midar woredas were purposively selected because they are major wheat-producing areas. The PAs in the two woredas were stratified based on agroecological zone (Table 3). As noted earlier, lowland PAs were excluded from the study because wheat is not an important crop there.Out of 73 PAs, 5 PAs were selected from each agroecological zone using simple random sampling. Farmers were then selected using the constant fraction method, which fixed the number of farmers to be interviewed per zone. The constant fraction was calculated from the total number of farmers to be interviewed per zone per district divided by the total number of farmers in the five selected PAs.The total number of farmers to be interviewed in the PA was the constant fraction multiplied by the total number of farmers in the PA. A list of farmers was obtained from the respective local finance offices in the woreda capital. The number of farmers selected from a PA was proportional to the total number of farmers in the PA. The total sample size was 200 farmers. They were interviewed using a structured questionnaire.The two most common functional forms used in adoption studies are the logit and the probit models. The advantage of these models is that the probabilities are bounded between 0 and 1. Moreover, they compel the disturbance terms to be homoscedastic because the forms of probability functions depend on the distribution of the difference between the error term associated with one particular choice and another. Usually a choice has to be made between logit and probit models, although the statistical similarities between the two models make such a choice difficult (Amemiya 1981). The choice of model may be evaluated a posteriori on statistical grounds, although even here, in practice, there will usually not be strong reasons to choose one model over the other. We selected the logit model because it is computationally easier to estimate. Following Pindyck and Rubinfeld (1981), the model is written as:where: divided by the probability of not being aware of a new variety (1-Pl. The model was estimated using the maximum likelihood procedure of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (Version 6.1).Formation of the model was influenced by a number of working hypothesis. Several variables were hypothesized to influence farmers' awareness and adoption of improved wheat varieties in the study area.Compared to highland zone farmers, farmers who live in the intermediate zone have better access to the main road, market, extension, and the district capital.Hence it was hypothesized that farmers in intermediate zone are more likely than highland farmers to receive information on the new wheat varieties that are available.Farmers who have access to credit can relax their financial constraints. It is expected that access to credit will increase the probability of adoption.Farmers who have extension contact may have better information about improved agricultural technologies. This will increase the awareness and adoption of improved wheat varieties.During the Derg regime, PCs were the most important organizations for introducing improved technologies to farmers. Farmers belonging to PCs received more training, inputs, and resources than other farmers; thus farmers who were members of PCs may have good knowledge and information about improved wheat varieties.Formal schooling enhances farmers' ability to perceive, interpret, and respond to new events in the context of risk, so education is hypothesized to increase the probability that farmers will be aware of new wheat varieties.Population pressure in the study area is causing a land shortage, and the scope for increasing land productivity lies with increasing cropping intensity. Farmers will have to allocate their limited land area to newer and better yielding wheat varieties. Hence, the size of a farmer's cultivated area is hypothesized to increase a farmer's awareness of new wheat varieties.Younger farmers have had greater access to education, and thus they will be more aware of new wheat varieties. It is hypothesized that farmers with more experience will be less likely to be aware of new wheat varieties.Oxen ownership (X s ): Next to teff, wheat requires more oxen labor for seedbed preparation. Also, farmers who have oxen are able to acquire land through sharecropping and are easily eligible to host an extension demonstration. It is hypothesized that oxen ownership positively influences the adoption of new wheat varieties.Labor (X 9 ) : Farmers who have access to more labor will be in a better position to adopt the laborintensive wheat technologies.Off-farm income generates cash that gives farmers better access to new wheat technologies. Hence it is hypothesized that off-farm income is positively related to the awareness and adoption of new wheat technologies.3.1 Seed Industry Structure Douglas (1980), in his life cycle model of seed industry development, showed that seed supply systems in most countries pass through four evolutionary stages characterized by increasing technological and organizational complexity.• During the first stage, farmers save their own seed from crop to crop by selecting the most productive plants. They also exchange seed with a few farmers. The supply of seed is constrained by the inefficiency of public seed enterprises, poor seed promotion, poor transportation, and inappropriate agricultural and pricing policies. Moreover, because high-yielding varieties perform well with fertilizers, the limited availability of fertilizers constrains demand for improved seed. As a result, in the peasant sector most seed is still produced by farmers themselves (Hailu Gebremariam 1992). The Ethiopian seed industry is thus characterized by formal and informal sectors. The formal sector includes research institutions, agricultural ministries, development projects, and public and private seed enterprises. The participants in the informal sector are farmers, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and relief agencies.The Institute of Agricultural Research (JAR), Alemaya University of Agriculture (AUA), Addis Ababa University (AAU), and regional state agricultural research organizations handle varietal development in Ethiopia. Virtually all plant breeding has been done by these public institutions, although Pioneer Hi-Bred International has done some varietal development. Before a variety can be recommended for release, it must 'be evaluated in farmers' fields for disease resistance, productivity, stability, and quality. After on-farm verification and evaluation, the National Variety Releasing Committee (NVRC) officially releases varieties. This procedure is sometimes violated. For instance, in 1991, Pioneer tried to produce 144 ha of hybrid maize and 60 ha of sunflower using imported seed that had not been tested. The company harvested only 71.1 t of maize seed, whereas the sunflower did not even set seed.The Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), particularly the Bureau of Agriculture (BOA) and Ministry of State Farm Development (MSFD), have undertaken a limited amount of seed production and distribution since the late 1960s. The MSFD, for example, produced seed to meet its own requirements. In NWE, the BOA is mainly responsible providing agricultural extension services to small-scale farmers, and it is also responsible for assessing the demand for and distribution of improved seed, fertilizer, and other complementary inputs. In the 1996/97 cropping season, the total amount of improved seed required by Amhara Region was estimated at 86,000 quintals (1 qt = 100 kg), but only 36% of the total requirement was obtained (wheat accounted for 76%). The seed suppliers were Ambassel (41%), ESE, and BOA. Again, some of the problems farmers faced with seed supplied through the formal seed sector included receiving the wrong seed because of shortages, poor seed quality, and a high seed cost relative to the grain price.Incorporated in 1979 to produce, process, and market seed, ESE initially supplied improved varieties only to state farms and pes, which were the foundation of the socialist economy. Now ESE is governed by an interministerial Seed Board and has been given autonomous status to function as a profit-making enterprise. This organization was the only seed enterprise in Ethiopia until December 1990, when it entered into partnership with Pioneer Hi-Bred International (Hailu Gebremariam 1992).2The ESE is supplied with breeder and basic seed by IAR and AUA and multiplies this seed at two of its basic seed farms. The ESE also produces seed under contractual arrangements with state farms and private producers, The organization maintains five processing plants, from which it also distributes seed. From 1980 to 1991, on average, ESE produced and distributed 23,065 t of seed per year (Table 4). Although there are no supporting data, it is believed that ESE will presently distribute more than this amount of seed, given the high demand for improved varieties and the strong, government-supported extension program.In There is no independent national seed quality control and certification scheme, although ESE has its own internal quality control facilities. As a result, none of the commercial seed distributed by ESE is certified, and farmers and development workers have sometimes disputed the purity and quality of seed supplied by ESE (Hailu Beyene 1993). Adugna Haile, Workneh Negatu, and Bisrat Retu (1991) observed that very few improved wheat varieties released or recommended by the research system have reached farmers, mainly because of the poor seed dissemination mechanism.In NWE the private sector includes Ambassel, Almesh, and Asrat. Ambassel is involved in the distribution of inputs, mainly fertilizer. In the 1996/97 cropping season, Ambassel supplied improved seed to farmers, distributing 41% the total supply in the region, but it incurred a financial loss of 300,000 Birr because of the uncertainty of the seed market. The effective demand was very low compared to the actual order and the seed remained unsold. In 1998, Ambassel withdrew from the seed market.In general, the formal sector's contribution to supplying improved seed has been very low, but it is improving. Seed distribution by IAR and Debre Zeit Agricultural Research Center (DZARC) through onfarm testing, demonstration, and popularization, and through the Plant Genetic Resource Center (PGRC) and community levellandrace conservation initiatives, is minimal. Even so, these efforts have contributed to the distribution of improved varieties through farmer-to-farmer seed exchange, although distribution is limited to the immediate vicinity of the research centers. In NWE, Adet Agricultural Research Center was established in 1986 as a branch of IAR with the objective of improving the living standard of smallholder farmers in NWE through research. Since its establishment, it has generated a number of improved agricultural technologies, including crop varieties, agronomic practices, and crop protection methods.In NWE, some NGOs have distributed seed for relief, rehabilitation, and extension. For example, Agri-Service Ethiopia, the Canadian Physician Agency for Relief (CPAR), Food for Hunger International (FHI), and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC) are engaged in some seed production and distribution. The role they play is difficult to assess. Their activities are dispersed and uncoordinated, because their operations are mainly aimed at providing emergency relief and replacing seed lost as a result of natural disasters or civil disorder. Initially, NGOs were assumed to be responsible for acquiring and providing early generation seed to SCs at cost, including transport. In fact, the distribution of free seed by NGOs and relief agencies has had several negative effects, creating dependency on free services, disrupting the informal farmer-to-farmer seed exchange system, and weakening sustainable development in the seed subsector (Hailu Gebremariam 1992). Nevertheless, NGOs have tended to work well with small-scale, resource-poor farmers, who are mostly located in remote and inaccessible areas.Ethiopian farmers have been practicing seed selection and preservation for centuries, and the bulk of the national seed requirement is still met through farmers' informal system of local seed maintenance and exchange. Out of the total annual seed requirement of about 0.42 million tons, 15% is produced by the formal sector as improved seed stock, whereas local varieties from the informal farmer-tofarmer exchange system contribute 85% of the total seed requirement (Table 5).In NWE, informal seed sources include the farmer's own seed, seed obtained from other farmers, and seed bought in markets. In the 1997/98 cropping season, these informal sources accounted for about 95% of the total wheat seed supply in Enebssie area. In general, farmers preferred informal seed sources because the seed price was lower, seed was available on time, and there was Jess bureaucracy compared to formal seed sources. In 1997, only 4% of intermediate zone and 7% of highland farmers in the study area acquired wheat seed from formal sources. The only formal seed source that farmers knew about was the existence and location of the BOA district offices. Potential seed users in the study area can be categorized into several groups: small-scale farmers, state farms, contractual farmers (who are coming into the picture since the economic reform of 1991), and private enterprises. Each group has slightly different seed sources (Figure 4); for instance, state farms depend mostly on formal seed channels. The bread wheat seed industry comprises several processes, beginning with varietal development, testing, and release and proceeding to processing, distribution, and marketing.Bread wheat research in Ethiopia depends mainly on introduced germplasm, because the stock of local bread wheats is too limited in number and variability to constitute a viable, economic breeding program. Introduced materials may be used as parents for further breeding research or included in the Advanced Observation Nursery (AON). Materials evaluated in the AON are evaluated further (mainly for yield, disease resistance, and other desirable traits) in the Preliminary Yield Trial (PYT) and the Pre-National Variety Trial (PNVT) for two years. Promising genotypes are included in National Variety Trial (NVT) for further evaluation for two to three years.At this stage, some of the promising lines in the NVT may be included in the Cooperative Variety Adaptation Trial (CVAT) and tested for three more years at more than 20 locations in major wheat growing environments of the country. The best materials from the NVT and CVAT are included in the Variety Verification Trial (VVT), conducted both on-station and on-farm under recommended and farmers' levels of management for one to two years. The objectives of the VVT are to obtain farmers' pre-and postharvest assessment of varieties, to evaluate the performance of the varieties in a real production system, and to assist in the decision of the variety release committee. The committee is composed of professionals from different research and seed user organizations (e.g., JAR, MOA, ESE). The committee considers mostly biological factors in deciding to release a variety, and there is no guarantee that farmers' preferences and priorities are fully represented. In general, seven years are required to release a variety. Sometimes release of the variety may be unnecessarily delayed because of the stringent release mechanism.After a variety is released, it is included in Breeder Seed Increase (BSI). Breeder seed is then provided to ESE for further multiplication on large plots.Aside from producing seed to meet local demand, ESE is also responsible for importing seed.Between 1986 and 1991, ESE imported nearly 3,000 t of seed (Table 6), mostly hybrid maize from Kenya and hybrid sunflower from Argentina. After ESE established a joint venture with Pioneer Hi-Bred International in 1990, it imported more seed. Increasing seed imports may have a negative impact on national efforts to develop adapted, high-yielding varieties and hybrids, on creating a sustainable seed supply that would foster self-sufficiency, and on the conservation and sustainable use of indigenous germplilsm (Hailu Gebremariam 1992). On the other hand, increased imports reflect ESE's inability to meet domestic seed demand.Demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of sample households by zone are shown in Table 7.In the intermediate zone, farmers' mean age was about 41 years; it was 44 years in the highlands.The farming experience of the household head was 23 years in the intermediate zone and 26 years in the highlands. These differences were not significant. The average family size in the intermediate and highland zones was 5.3 and 5.5, respectively (also not a significant difference). Females headed about 8% of the sampled households. Out of the 15 female-headed households, 60% of the respondents were widows, 20% were divorced, 15% were married to soldiers who lived off of the farm, and 5% were registered in the PA.The average land holding of a farm household was 6.2 timmad in the intermediate zone and 5.8 timmad in the highlands. There was no significant difference, but a significant difference was found (p<0.05) in the area cultivated in the intermediate zone (5.9 timmad) and highlands (4.9 timmad). Farmers in the intermediate zone allocated a larger proportion of their holdings for crop production (90%) than highland farmers (83%). Highland farmers kept larger areas for grazing (1.0 timmad) and fallow (2.8 timmad) than intermediate zone farmers (0.7 and 1.9 timmad, respectively).About 57% and 50% of the intermediate and highland farmers, respectively, rented in land. Under the rental agreement the output is shared by the tenant and landlord, but the cost of fertilizer and other inputs is left to the tenant. Farmers in the intermediate zone rented in more land (2.6 timmad) than farmers in the highlands (2.3 timmad). About 9% and 12% of the farmers in the intermediate and highland zones, respectively, rented out land (an average of 2.9 and 2.5 timmad, respectively). About 7% of the farmers in the intermediate zone and 5% in the highlands were involved in off-farm work. The type of off-farm work was trading, making handicrafts, or working as a casual laborer.  Ninety-two percent of farmers in Enebssie area used oxen for land preparation and planting. Farmers in the intermediate zone (1.5) and highlands (1.4) owned an equal number of oxen, but intermediate zone farmers had significantly more cows, bulls, and donkeys than highland zone farmers [fable 9). Farmers prefer to grow these varieties when fertilizer is not available and the performance of improved varieties is not superior.The number of improved wheat varieties introduced in the region in general and in Enebssie area in particular is small compared to other parts of Ethiopia. Improved wheat varieties, particularly Enkoy and the K-varieties, were introduced in 1979 through the PCs and SCs, which were the Derg's institutional means of providing fertilizer, improved seed, and other complimentary inputs to farmers. However, these varieties disseminated only among members of PCs. Enkoy has remained popular for more than a decade, but it is now vulnerable to stripe rust and faces declining yields because of low soil fertility. Dashen, another bread wheat, was popular until two to three years ago, when it was devastated by stripe rust. Farmers used to call this variety Kebetu, which means \"white and high yielding,\" but after the disease epidemic they called it Keletu, which means \"useless.\" The most popular improved bread wheat varieties were ET-13 in the intermediate zone (78%) and Enkoy (91%) in the highland zone. The varieties HAR-1709, HAR-1685, HAR-604, and HAR-710 were not widely known to farmers because they are recent releases.In the intermediate zone, farmers' main sources of seed for Zembolel were other farmers (50%) and seed retained from last year's crop (38.9%), while the main source of seed in the highland zone was last year's crop (69.6%). Seed retained from last year's crop was the main source of seed for Enkoy in the intermediate zone (83.3%) and highlands (46%). The main seed source for Dashen in the intermediate zone was seed retained from last year's crop (67%), and in the highlands it was the local market (50%). Seed of ET-13 was obtained from other farmers (77.8%) in the intermediate zone and from MOA (33.3%) or bought at the local market (33.3%) in the highland zone. Other farmers were the main source of seed for Tekencher in the intermediate zone (59.1%) and highlands (63%). On the whole, in the intermediate zone, most farmers obtained seed from other farmers (56.7%) or recycled it from the previous harvest (24.7%). In the highlands, most farmers also obtained seed from other farmers (39.8%) or planted seed saved from the previous year's harvest (33.7%) (Table 11). However, farmers in both zones mainly purchased seed of ET 13 and Tekencher in the local market and retained seed of Zembolel and Enkoy from the previous year's harvest. About 40% and 43% of the sample farmers in the intermediate and highland zones, respectively, had stopped growing an improved wheat variety. In the intermediate zone, the reasons that farmers gave were susceptibility to disease (34.0%), problems with crop rotation (37.5%), and lack of seed (12.5%). Farmers in the highland zone reported susceptibility to disease (30.0%), problems with crop rotation (32%), and poor performance of the varieties without fertilizer (17%) as their main reasons for abandoning improved wheat varieties.About 33% of the farmers in the intermediate zone and 37% in the highlands grew more than one wheat variety. In the intermediate zone, farmers' main reasons for growing more than one variety was that different varieties were suitable for different soils (31%), varieties were grown for different purposes (21%), or growing more than one variety minimized risk (20%). In the highland zone, farmers said that different varieties were suitable for different soils (24%), grown for different purposes (26%), or they minimized risk (25%). The popularity of each variety, measured by the area it occupies, has changed over the years (Table 13). The area under Zembolel and Dashen has declined because of susceptibility to stripe rust, while the area under Tekencher is increasing because of its disease resistance and reasonable yield. Area planted to Enkoy, once preferred for its quality in food preparations'[ and reasonable yield under poor soil fertility, is rapidly shrinking because of the variety's susceptibility to stem rust. The area under ET-13 is expanding because it yields well. Although the new varieties HAR-1709, HAR-1685, and HAR-604 yield well, they have been introduced only recently and, as mentioned earlier, still occupy a small area.Although improved wheat varieties were first introduced in 1979 in the study area, there are only about ten improved wheat varieties altogether, so the proportion of improved varieties grown is low.Only about 55% of the farmers in both zones have ever grown an improved wheat variety. Farmers' main reason for adopting an improved wheat variety was its superior yield, mentioned by 40% of intermediate zone farmers and 36% of highland farmers. Other reasons that intermediate zone farmers gave for adopting improved varieties were that local varieties were prone to disease (25%) and that improved varieties matured earlier (13%), received a higher price in the market (8%), and were easy to use at home (7%). Farmers in the highland zone had similar responses: they adopted improved wheat varieties because the local varieties were prone to disease (35%) and improved varieties matured earlier (14%), received a higher price (5%), and were easier to use at home (5%).Table 14 shows the cumulative adoption of improved wheat varieties in the intermediate zone and highlands. Farmers first began to adopt improved varieties when the PCs and SCs were established, but even so, only about 3% of the farmers in both zones had adopted improved wheat varieties before 1990. The adoption of improved varieties increased after 1990 because most improved varieties were introduced after 1990, and because the policy reform of 1991 discouraged collective farming and liberalized the grain market.Significantly more farmers in the intermediate zone (70%) than in the highlands (27%) used fertilizer (X 2 = 36.5; p<O.Ol). The average amount of fertilizer applied to wheat in 1997 was 33 kg/timmad in the intermediate zone and 45 kg/timmad in the highlands. Shortage of cash was the main reason that farmers in the intermediate zone (51%) and highlands (34%) did not use fertilizer (Table 15). Some intermediate zone farmers said that their field was not suitable for fertilizer (16%), whereas some highland zone farmers said that the high fertilizer price (16%) and lack of knowledge about fertilizer use (13%) prevented them from using fertilizer.  16. Other farmers were the main source of information about improved wheat varieties in both the intermediate (55.1%) and highland zones (60.3%). In the intermediate zone, advice from extension agents was also an important source of information (25.6%), while in the highland zone only about 6% of the farmers got their information from extension agents. Normally one would expect the extension service to be the main supplier of information about new varieties, but in Enebssie extension agents are occupied with input distribution and other activities aside from providing information to farmers. Other farmers were the main initial sources of improved seed for farmers in the intermediate (48.5%) and highland zones (37.5%) (Table 17). In 1997, the MOA supplied improved wheat seed to 31% of sample farmers in the intermediate zone and 21% in the highland zone. In the same year, the local market supplied initial improved wheat seed to 41% of the farmers in the highland zone and 21% of the farmers in the intermediate zone. The Ministry of Agriculture mainly supplied seed of ET-13, while seed of Dashen and Enkoy was distributed mainly through other farmers. The greatest problem with seed obtained from other farmers is uncertainty about seed quality, which explains why farmers prefer to exchange seed with farmers they know. Most survey respondents reported that they had some kind of relationship with the farmers who provided seed to them (84.8% in the intermediate zone and 78.4% in the highlands) (Table 18). In the intermediate zone, farmers often exchanged seed for teff (69.6%) or wheat (23.9%), while in the highland zone farmers often exchanged seed for wheat (55.6%) or teff (22.2%). Seed was exchanged at an equal rate (in other words, for 100 kg of teff seed, a farmer would receive 100 kg of wheat seed). Farmers in the intermediate zone obtained on average about 44 kg of wheat through exchange, while farmers in the highland zone obtained about 35 kg. The farm size of the source farmer was greater than that of the recipient farmer, for about 67% and 51 % of the farmers in the intermediate and highland zones, respectively. Farmers in the intermediate zone traveled 5.5 km to obtain Enkoy seed and 4.9 km to obtain ET-13 seed, whereas highland farmers traveled 9.2 km and 9.6 km, respectively. The distance traveled by farmers in the highland zone to obtain these varieties was significantly longer (p<O.l) because their farms were located farther from markets, roads, and the extension centers. The average amount of wheat seed purchased in the 1997 cropping season was 38 kg in the intermediate zone and 35 kg in the highlands. The varieties purchased from the market were mainly ET-13 in the intermediate zone and Zembolel in the highland zone. Farmers spent an average of 50 Birr in the intermediate zone, and 38 Birr in the highland zone to purchase improved wheat seed (Table 19). As Table 20 shows, farmers in both zones rely mainly on crop and livestock sales and their own cash to purchase new wheat seed. Farmers in the intermediate zone (36.4%) also used credit from other farmers to purchase seed. There are various measures of the rates at which farmers replace the varieties they grow; in this paper, we use the weighted average age (WA) because it is simple and unambiguous (Brennan and Byerlee 1991). This measure is based on the average age of varieties grown by farmers in a given year (measured in years since release), weighted by the area planted to each variety in that year. This measure, WA t is computed for a given year, t, as follows:where Fit is the proportion of area sown to variety i in year t, and R it is the number of years (at time t) since the release of variety i.The WA of wheat varieties in Enebssie area for 1997 was about 11 years. Brennan and Byerlee (1991) found that the WA of wheat varieties varied from less than four years in the Yaqui Valley in Mexico to over ten years in the Punjab of Pakistan, with a global average of seven years. Slow varietal turnover in the Enebssie area reflects a poorly developed seed industry and ineffective extension services, which in turn explains why farmer-to-farmer seed exchange is the common practice in the study area and elsewhere in Ethiopia. Similar findings have been reported by Bishaw et aI. (1994), who found that 21% of wheat farmers saved seed for 6-10 years and 14% saved seed for 11-15 years. The slow varietal turnover is also reflected in the major problems with wheat varieties in NWE, including the loss of disease resistance and reduced yield. According to Brennan and Byerlee (1991), the optimal seed retention period depends on the yield gain of the variety, yield losses from old varieties, and the risk involved in changing from one variety to another. In Pakistan, the useful life of a wheat variety before its disease resistance broke down averaged 5-6 years (Heisey 1990).On average farmers in the study area used wheat seed for 3-6 years before replacing it, despite the recommendation to replace seed every 2-3 years (Hailu Gebremariam 1992). Farmers replaced seed when the proportion of foreign matter became too high. Nearly all farmers use recycled seed, with its high levels of weed seed contamination and low germination rate. About 77% of intermediate zone farmers and 81% of highland farmers ran out of seed every year, usually because of insufficient yield (as stated by 33% of intermediate zone farmers and 42% of highland farmers).In the intermediate zone, farmers also ran out of seed because seed was full of weeds, attacked by storage pests (termites, weevils), mixed with other varieties, or spoiled by heavy rain (  Seed was usually cleaned at planting. Significantly more farmers in the intermediate zone (98.0%) cleaned seed at planting compared to farmers in the highlands (89.3%) (X 2 = 6.1, p<0.05). The most important impurity that farmers removed from seed was seed of the weeds woTben and enkirdad (Table 23). Another important impurity in the intermediate (24.4%) and highland zones (27%) was chaff.The purity of 37 samples of farmers' wheat seed was analyzed in the laboratory. The samples consisted of 81% pure wheat seed, 13% seed of other wheat varieties and crops, and 6% inert matter (stones and weed seed). Farmers do not regard seed of other wheat varieties and crops as impurities, because they regard mixtures as having advantages such as minimizing risk, being good for household use, and giving high yields. Elsewhere it has been observed that losses over time caused by intermixtures or loss of germination are less important in inducing farmers to change wheat varieties than the disease loss that is actually experienced (Heisey 1990). 7.9 27.0 2.8 13.5 5.4.3 Farmers' criteria for high quality seed Farmers' criteria for high quality seed are summarized in Table 24. The most important criteria in the intermediate zone were good grain filling (27.2%), purity (17.4%), and a variety's adaptability to the locality (17.8%). Farmers in the highland zone reported good grain filling (28.2%), purity (21%), and lack of disease (19.9%) as the most important criteria for high quality seed. Almost all farmers in both zones reported that the quality of the seed produced varied from farmer to farmer. Hardworking farmers were delivering good quality seed for farmers in the intermediate (54.1 %) and highland zones (56.9%). Wealthy farmers also delivered high quality seed, according to 22% of intermediate zone farmers and 19% of highland farmers, while educated farmers were delivering good quality seed for 13% and 12% of the farmers in the intermediate and highlands zone, respectively.  Adoption of improved wheat varieties was analyzed as a two-stage process in which farmers first become aware of an improved variety and then adopt it. A \"new wheat variety\" is a variety released or introduced into the study area between 1992 and 1997 (the year of the survey). Many variables can influence farmers' awareness and adoption of new wheat varieties: human capital variables such as literacy; farm size; information sources such as agricultural extension or the research station; and distance from seed sources. The variables used in this analysis were defined in section 2.2. Since these variables are unlikely to operate independently, a variable-by-variable analysis of relationships with farmers' awareness of new wheat varieties is likely to be misleading (Feder, Just, and Zilberman 1985). For this reason, we have chosen logit analysis, which uses a number of independent variables, to predict the probability of these factors in influencing farmers' awareness and adoption of new wheat varieties.Some explanatory variables were omitted from the model because they were highly correlated with other variables: contact farmer, distance from the capital or main road, radio ownership, and farmer's age.Contact farmers: Contact farmers have a higher level of education, and they actively utilize information. They are frequently in contact with extension agents for advice and assist in disseminating information to other farmers. This variable was not included in the model because it was highly correlated with extension visits.Distance from the capital and the main road: Most demonstrations of improved wheat varieties were conducted near the capital or the main roads, and nearness to the capital increased farmers' access to the market. These variables were highly correlated with the zone in which the respondent lived. Farmers in the intermediate zone were closer to the capital or main road than farmers in the highlands.Radio ownership: Ownership of a radio and listening to agricultural programs was expected to influence farmers' awareness of new wheat varieties. Chilot Virga, Shapiro, and Demeke (1996), who used ownership of a metal-roofed house and/or a radio as a proxy of the farmer's wealth, showed that radio ownership positively and significantly influenced adoption of improved wheat seed. However, given that only five farmers in the sample owned a radio and only two of them listened to agricultural programs, radio ownership was not significant and was not used in the model.Farmer's age: Tj;1e farmer's age was correlated with the farmer's awareness of wheat varieties, but because of multicollinearity with farming experience, this variable was not used in the model.Table 26 indicates that the model explained about 75% of the total variation in the sample for farmers' awareness of improved varieties. The chi-square indicates that the parameters included in the model are significantly different from zero at the 1% level.The maximum likelihood estimates for the logistic regression are presented in Table 26. The negative sign on zone (highland) and the positive signs on credit, extension visit, and membership in a PC were as expected. Farmers in the highland zone were more isolated from seed sources and information about new wheat varieties, and therefore they had a lower probability of being aware of improved wheat varieties compared to farmers in the intermediate zone.Extension agents visited farmers to disseminate information about new wheat varieties, and extension visits had a positive effect on the probability that farmer would be aware of improved wheat varieties. Farmers discuss agricultural practices when they meet at the PC, and membership in a PC had a positive effect on the probability that a farmer would be aware of improved wheat varieties.Table 26 also indicates that the model explained 71% of the total variation in the sample for farmers' adoption of improved wheat varieties. The chi-square indicates that the parameters included in the model are significantly different from zero at the 1% level. The negative sign on farmer's experience was expected, while the negative sign for PC membership was not expected. The positive signs for cultivated area, extension visit, and oxen ownership were as expected. Older farmers in the study area were less receptive to new wheat varieties, and farmers who were PC members also had a lower probability of adopting improved wheat varieties. Although earlier members of PCs and SCs and PA officials had knowledge of improved varieties, the current government reallocated their land to landless farmers, leaving them with one hectare, irrespective of family size. It would appear that this land redistribution measure has discouraged adoption of improved wheat varieties. Note: *= significant at p<0.1; **= significant at p<0.05; ***= significantat pc 0.01.Farmers with more land had a higher probability of adoption, probably because they are wealthier and have more land to experiment with improved wheat varieties. Extension visits also resulted in a higher probability of adoption by raising farmers' awareness of new wheat varieties and providing information about agricultural practices to accompany them. Oxen ownership increased the probability that a farmer would adopt improved wheat varieties. Oxen owners usually participate more frequently in demonstrations, which gives them access to information on new technologies.The regression coefficients and the model were used to calculate predicted probabilities of technology adoption for changes in the significant explanatory variables. Probabilities were calculated keeping other variables at their mean levels. The predicted probabilities were then calculated by changing the value of the significant variables (Table 27).In the intermediate zone, the probability that a farmer would be aware of an improved variety increased from 73% to 89.5% if a farmer received an extension visit, while in the highland zone the probability changed from 57% to 81%. The probability that a farmer would be aware of an improved variety increased from 73% to 96% and 87% for farmers in the intermediate zone who were members of a PC or used credit, respectively. In the highland zone, the probability increased from 57% to 92% and 77% for farmers who were members of a PC or used credit, respectively.The probability that a farmer in the intermediate zone would adopt an improved variety increased from 51.5% to 81% if a farmer got an extension visit while it decreased to 21 % if the farmer was a member of a Pc. Cultivated area and oxen ownership increased the probability of adopting an improved variety, while farmers' experience decreased the probability of adopting an improved variety. Wheat is the second major crop in the study area, and farmers knew about more than 13 local wheat varieties, though at the time of the survey only three or four varieties were under production. Disease, drought stress, and soil fertility problems had caused farmers to take the others out of production. The most widely grown local wheat varieties were Zembolel, Key Sinde, and Tekencher.The number of improved wheat varieties that have been introduced to the region is small relative to other regions of Ethiopia, although the trend is for improved wheat varieties to replace indigenous varieties. ET-13 and Enkoy are the widely grown improved wheat varieties. The recently introduced varieties are not yet popular. To promote genetic diversity, ways should be found to maintain the indigenous varieties.Farmers obtain seed through informal and formal channels. The formal seed sector comprises ESE, BOA, state farms, and private firms, but the contribution of formal sources is small. The seed industry remains in an early stage of development, characterized by farmer-to-farmer seed exchange, uncertain seed quality, and an uncertain seed market. More than 50% of the farmers in the study area run out of seed every year and obtain additional seed from informal sources. For this reason, it is essential to recognize and strengthen these informal seed sources through different strategies. It is also important to strengthen ESE's capacity to multiply seed on farmers' fields on a contract basis and (through favorable policies) to encourage the involvement of private investors, farmers, and joint ventures/cooperatives in seed production and marketing.Under the former regime, farmers' main source of improved varieties, fertilizer, other complementary inputs, and consumer goods were the PCs and SCs. These institutions played a significant role in providing all necessary inputs to farmers. Since they were abolished, however, farmers have resorted to informal sources of information on improved wheat seed, even though such information may not be reliable. Seed obtained from other farmers and the market is of questionable purity.The [ow rate of varietal turnover in Enebssie area and the country in general is an indication of a poorly developed seed industry, poor extension services, and low impact of wheat breeding research.The low turnover rate is also influenced by the seed release mechanism. One positive step would be to review the current stringent mechanism for releasing new wheat varieties. The release committee should include not only breeders and officials from the public sector but also farmers and representatives of the private sector.The extension system should pay greater attention to informing farmers about the precise characteristics of their varieties and their correct adaptation zones. This will decrease the adoption lag ... by enabling farmers to avoid experimenting with one or more varieties. Also, more extension effort should be directed towards farmers in the highland zone relative to farmers in the intermediate zone who have better access to information.Farmers' method of seed selection is to retain the first grade of the harvest and to clean seed at planting. Nearly all farmers recycled seed for three to six years, so their seed had a high level of impurities and a low germination percentage. Training farmers in seed production and management is necessary. Farmers, through long years of experience, have adopted a strategy of planting a mixture of varieties or more than one variety per season to minimize risk and maximize benefits. Extension should strengthen farmers' practices.C and extension were the most important factors influencing farmers' awareness and adoption of improved wheat varieties. The extension package program has demonstrated the importance of formal credit in increasing production by increasing the uptake of improved technologies. Credit is more problematic, as farmers presently depend almost exclusively on informal sources of credit. The formal credit system needs to be strengthened and made appropriate for small farmers.The research system is confronted with the need to increase the rate at which it releases varieties as the disease resistance of recent releases has tended to deteriorate quickly. To be successful, however, such research efforts must be supported by greater overall development of the seed industry. Before the economic reform of 1991, publicly owned and collective farms benefited most from the limited certified seed that was available, and they also tended to receive new seed more quickly. Thus preferential treatment has generally limited the impact of breeding gains for farmers and the national economy at large. Recent changes in the seed industry, such as the entry of private firms, creation of the National Seed Industry Agency, and strengthening of the national extension service should bring about considerable positive change. These changes would be even more effective if policies and an institutional and legal framework could be developed to link the formal and informal seed sectors so that they could function in a complementary way.","tokenCount":"10449"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"719bc742ca6780fc6dadcab324daaaf7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/963964df-5241-4970-9f34-59161453c586/retrieve","id":"-520167252"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0028ebeb-e924-494a-98af-831b58eb07a1","pagecount":"1","content":"✓ Generating recommendations domains for sustainable intensification technological packages ✓ Establish regional relevance of Africa RISING technologies by mapping zones with relatively similar biophysical and socioeconomic context ✓ Spatial monitoring of implementation of Africa RISING technological packages (What is implemented where by who?)This poster is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence. September 2018We thank farmers and local partners in Africa RISING sites for their contributions to this work. We also acknowledge the support of all donors which globally support the work of the CGIAR centers and their partners through their contributions to the CGIAR system▪ Mapped locations of AR-technologies for spatial monitoring ( ","tokenCount":"108"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"19aec3ad638ece41ca4c96dc7af11edb","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/33eeef7c-a125-4467-9f5b-d16d5c33f887/retrieve","id":"1627992068"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8ca6e4ff-d692-4ad0-ae96-745a76cb1856","pagecount":"2","content":"Uttarakhand State is richly endowed with hydropower potential of 27,000 MW, which is 18% of the total hydropower potential of India. However, only 3,970.95 MW (14.7%) is currently harnessed. Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited (UJVNL, the state owned hydropower company) declared that development is at a standstill despite the favourable hydropower policies developed by the State and Central Governments. The CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) combines the resources of 11 CGIAR centers, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and numerous national, regional and international partners to provide an integrated approach to natural resource management research. WLE promotes a new approach to sustainable intensification in which a healthy functioning ecosystem is seen as a prerequisite to agricultural development, resilience of food systems and human well-being. This program is led by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), a member of the CGIAR Consortium, and is supported by CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future.We would like to thank all donors who supported this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Fund (http://www.cgiar.org/about-us/our-funders).International Water Management Institute (IWMI) 127 Sunil Mawatha, Pelawatta, Battaramulla, Sri Lanka Email: [email protected] Website: wle.cgiar.org It is therefore recommended that local institutional mechanisms be created for addressing grievances, distributing power locally, sharing revenue, and enforcing policy guidelines.Hydropower projects studied suffered cost and time overrun due to local agitations and protests. In the 3 MW Agunda-Thati project, a single affected village is fighting six court cases after seven years of project operation. In the Bhilangana (22.5 MW) project, agitated local people were taken to custody three times. In the Bhilangana III (24 MW) project, there was a hunger strike for 18 days. These protests caused delays in construction leading to increased costs for developers.There is no notable enhancement of livelihood or living standard for local communities where hydropower projects have been developed.Hydropower developers are dissatisfied and further investments in hydropower development are not forthcoming.Affected people resist hydropower development in their backyard. There are conflicts over compensation, drying out of springs, impacts on livelihoods and on water use for irrigation, festivals and cremations.Existing policies related to hydropower development have not looked to find solutions for the local issues. There is no authorized platform where all the disgruntled parties could come and discuss their grievances and find a possible solution.There is a lack of clear communication, participation, transparency and accountability. E.g. after nearly two years of notification of the 'Policy for developing small hydropower (less than 25 MW) in Uttarakhand', the district administration, local administration, local people and power developers are not aware that this policy exists.","tokenCount":"434"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f0da3ad74168d1b8332151424026f5cf","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/1b9e5e4b-1ae2-4738-93e5-4e5d73efd127/retrieve","id":"-667745772"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a72728ce-c71a-4af3-ae25-45120eb8f20d","pagecount":"29","content":"G es t o r es d e I nn o va c ió n e n A gr oin d us t ria R u r al U n a A lia n z a pa r a la I nn o va c ió n e n C a d e n as P r o d u c t ivas G es t o r es d e I nn o va c ió n e n A gr oin d us t ria R u r al U n a A lia n z a pa r a la I nn o va c ió n e n C a d e n as P r o d u c t ivasH e r r amie n t as A c o n t in u a c ió n p r ese n t amos las h e r r amie n t as q u e lo a c ompa ñ a r á n d u r a n t e la le c t u r a d el p r ese n t e ma n u al A c o n t in u a c ió n p r ese n t amos las h e r r amie n t as q u e lo a c ompa ñ a r á n d u r a n t e la le c t u r a d el p r ese n t e ma n u al Estas piezas, que están hechos para encajar tan bien entre sí como los de una Cadena Productiva, contienen sugerencias y reflexiones que podrían serle útiles si se decide a explorar la ruta que le proponemos eslabones P r ese n t a c ió n P r ese n t a c ió n a búsqueda de la competitividad del sector campesino implica laLcol ocación en el mercado de productos de buena calidad. Por otro lado, las nuevas demandas del consumidor, tanto urbano como rural, están abriendo nuevas oportunidades para la agregación de valor, mediante la transformación de productos agrícolas en bienes intermedios o finales. Para la agroindustria rural tradicional es esencial mejorar la eficiencia de los procesos de producción y la calidad de los productos, modificando su presentación de acuerdo a las exigencias del consumidor.En las últimas décadas se invirtió significativamente en el desarrollo de tecnologías apropiadas para el procesamiento de productos agrícolas, sin embargo, el uso comercial de la tecnología desarrollada es aun incipiente. Entre otros factores que contribuyen a esta situación, se encuentra la forma en la cual las tecnologías han sido desarrolladas. En muchos casos hubo poca participación de los clientes, sean agricultores o pequeños agroempresarios, en el desarrollo mismo de la tecnología, lo cual trajo como resultado tecnologías que no están ajustadas a las necesidades de los usuarios.Ante este panorama, es necesario el desarrollo de métodos participativos de generación de tecnología de manejo y procesamiento poscosecha para mejorar la eficiencia y la calidad de los productos de la agroindustrias rurales existentes, y para el establecimiento de agroindustrias rurales nuevas.La Alianzas para la Innovación en Cadenas Productivas se han desarrollado para convertirse en una alternativa metodológica participativa, que le permite a los actores de las cadenas productivas desempe papel significativo en la transformación y/o la recuperación de la producción agroindustrial local para que sta llegue a condiciones de competitividad técnica, económica y social, que faciliten el despegue y el desarrollo rural en forma integral y sostenible. Por un lado sus productos tradicionales pierden valor en un mercado cada día más globalizado y, por otro, su base de recursos naturales se reduce a causa de presiones de sobrevivencia que premian la comida de hoy frente a la existencia del recurso para mañana. C omo resultado, muchas familias han abandonado el campo en busca de mejores opciones en las ciudades, capitales y hasta en el extranjero, sin poder lograr medios de vida dignos para sus miembros.U n n u e v o e n f o q u e pa r a el D esa r r ollo 1 E mp r esa rial R u r al Frente a esta realidad existen organizaciones donantes que apoyan proyectos de desarrollo rural enfocados hacia el aumento de los ingresos de las familias rurales. Sin embargo, muchos de estos proyectos contemplan una sola parte de la cadena productiva y, por ende, tienen una efectividad limitada. U n ejemplo clásico de este enfoque es el proyecto que logracon mucho esfuerzo y recursosaumentar significativamente la productividad de los pequeños productores, pero se estrella contra la falta de un mercado para este producto adicional, dejando así a los productores desilusionados y, a menudo, con menores ingresos que antes. Esta situación se debe no a la falta de recursos o de apoyo a las poblaciones rurales, sino a un desconocimiento sistemático de conceptos como la identificación de mercados, la visión de cadena y la agregación de valor, que resultan claves para enfocar mejor los proyectos de desarrollo rural.El Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, CIAT, mediante su proyecto de Desarrollo Agroempresarial Rural y sus socios locales en H onduras, N icaragua, C olombia y Perú, ha venido desarrollando metodologías que pretenden responder a las necesidades de las entidades de desarrollo rural en el campo del Desarrollo Empresarial (DER). En la actualidad, el Centro cuenta con un enfoque territorial para el DER compuesto por cuatro pasos metodológicos interconectados que buscan promover la creación de capacidades locales en procesos sostenidos de desarrollo empresarial. Los cuatro elementos son: (a) la conformación de grupos de trabajo locales en el tema DER, (b) la identificación de oportunidades de mercado, (c) el análisis de cadenas productivas y la generación de estrategias para aumentar su competitividad y (d) la facilitación de mercados de servicios de desarrollo empresarial en zonas rurales. En cada uno de estos elementos hay momentos de organización y planeación y otros de acción. Los primeros de organización y planeación sirven para generar, sistematizar y compartir información y conocimientos con el fin de construir consensos para orientar las acciones y, a la vez, aumentar las probabilidades de éxito de dichas actividades. La relación entre estos momentos aparece en la siguiente tabla.Ta bla 1 Pla ne ación, org a niz ación y acción: Momentos cla ves p ara el desarrollo empresarial rural Al finalizar este proceso, el territorio debe contar con un grupo de trabajo compuesto por varias organizaciones con capacidades para:(a) identificar oportunidades de mercado relevantes para el territorio y sus diversos grupos poblacionales o ecosistemas; (b) analizar desde múltiples puntos de vista las cadenas de valor y proponer acciones concretas en investigación y desarrollo para aumentar su competitividad, y (c) coordinar continuamente ofertas y demandas para servicios de apoyo e incentivar la formación de mercados para ellos.A pesar de presentar este enfoque territorial como un proceso con contenidos fijos, se esperan adaptaciones e innovaciones importantes, según las condiciones del territorio donde se implemente esta metodología, las capacidades e interés de los participantes y las necesidades que surjan de esta interfaz.E l e n f o q u e t r a d i c io n al d e p r o d u c t ivi d a dTradicionalmente, las intervenciones que buscan apoyar el desarrollo del sector agropecuario se han centrado en el aumento de la productividad de los sistemas de producción. Este tipo de intervenciones, por lo general, ha resultado en un aumento en la producción y la productividad del sector medida en kilogramos producidos por área cultivada, lo que ha permitido mejoras sustanciales en la oferta de productos básicos agropecuarios.Sin embargo, estos aumentos en producción han generado reducciones significativas en los precios pagados por estos productos, como resultado de la ley de oferta y demanda. Lo anterior no es suficiente para aliviar la pobreza, es necesario pensar en rentabilidad ($/ha), valor agregado, diversificación y sostenibilidad de los medios de vida.\" N osotros, con un trapiche movido por bestias, si nos levantamos a la una de la mañana y trabajamos hasta las diez de la noche, podemos sacar, en un día, seis arrobas de panela, trabajando muy duro. Entonces, el negocio no es rentable. Por eso queremos cambiar el sistema, pero no va a ser fácil porque faltan recursos, aunque la idea no es que nos den el pescado, sino que nos enseñen a pescar\"Presidente Asociaci n de Productores y Procesadores de Panela de Su rez, Cauca -C olombia. 9 8 7Además, la tendencia mundial hacia la globalización y el libre comercio requiere de un cambio del enfoque de \"productividad\" por un enfoque de \"competitividad\", y en esa búsqueda de competitividad se está propiciando una mayor integración de las cadenas productivas para garantizar un abastecimiento continuo, calidad y precio Para el logro de esta competitividad, la organización empresarial, tanto a nivel de la empresa como de sus vínculos hacia adelante y hacia atrás, y el acceso a información y tecnología se hacen cada vez más N ecesarios.H ay que pasar de una estrategia que aprovecha ventajas comparativas basadas normalmente en recursos naturales, mano de obra barata, subsidios estatales y productos poco elaborados, fácilmente replicables por otras zonas o países, hacía una estrategia de ventajas competitivas. Este tipo de ventajas se basan en el conocimiento del consumidor y del mercado, la elaboración de productos más complejos, la agregación de valor, la organización empresarial y la generación de alianzas estratégicas entre los actores que realizan las distintas etapas de la cadena productiva Por lo anterior, los sistemas agroalimentarios están en una etapa de cambio rápido. Se observa cada vez una mayor integración vertical con el objetivo de garantizar calidad, abastecimiento continuo y precios más competitivos.Frente a estos antecedentes existe una problemática rural que, aunque varía según el país y la región, tiene ciertas características básicas:1. Enfoque de producción o de comercialización pero no de mercadeo En las zonas rurales, la mayoría de los productores tiene un enfoque hacía la producción y la comercialización de sus productos, lo cual quiere decir que saben producir y vender sus productos mas no mercadearlos. El concepto de mercadeo pretende buscar ventajas más competitivas por medio de estrategias como la diferenciación del producto, la segmentación del mercado y el desarrollo de nichos específicos de clientela.2. Desarticulación de la cadena productiva. Los distintos eslabones de la cadena productiva (producción, manejo poscosecha, mercadeo y servicios de desarrollo empresarial) se encuentran desarticulados, lo que genera un flujo deficiente de información que es aprovechado por los agentes del mercado y genera ineficiencias sistemáticas a lo largo de la cadena.3. O rganización empresarial débil e incipiente. Las organizaciones rurales existentes son, en su mayoría, débiles en términos empresariales. Tienen capacidades limitadas para identificar y analizar puntos críticos en sus cadenas productivas y, por lo tanto, para encontrar estrategias o acciones claves para mejorar su negocio. 4. Tendencia hacía el individualismo y no hacía la búsqueda de la competitividad sectorial. Dada la incertidumbre que caracteriza al sector rural, es normal encontrar que los actores buscan soluciones individuales de corto plazo en vez de pensar en iniciativas que promuevan la competitividad del sector en el mediano o largo plazo. Esto se traduce en relaciones de poca confianza con otros actores de la cadena productiva y una capacidad limitada para asumir iniciativas estratégicas.Enfoque de producción o de comercialización pero no de mercadeo Desarticulación de la cadena productiva O rganización empresarial débil e incipiente Tendencia hacía el individualismo y no hacía la búsqueda de la competitividad sectorial N i t a n c e r c a q u e q u eme al Sa n t o ni t a n lejos q u e n o lo alumb r e N i t a n c e r c a q u e q u eme al Sa n t o ni t a n lejos q u e n o lo alumb r e Este enfoque de cadena permite:1. Tener una visión amplia de la cadena y de sus diferentes actores y por lo tanto, un manejo más completo de la información.2. El acceso a una información más completa que facilite la identificación de los puntos críticos que impiden el desarrollo de la cadena, y la ubicación de alternativas de solución más efectivas y de mayor impacto para lograr una cadena más competitiva.3. La cadena es un escenario apropiado para la búsqueda de alianzas y sinergias entre los diferentes actores productivos ya que reúne actores con intereses comunes, lo cual disminuye los costos de interacción y permite un uso más eficiente de los recursos disponibles.Por otra parte, el enfoque de cadena deja por fuera, o por lo menos no identifica explícitamente, dos aspectos que son claves para entender el comportamiento de una cadena: el grado de desarrollo de las organizaciones empresariales y los servicios de apoyo.C omo respuesta a estos vacíos, se propone usar una visión ampliada de la cadena productiva que retoma la definición inicial con sus bondades e incluye, como aspectos adicionales, el análisis de organización empresarial y el sistema de apoyo existente.   -Planeación y organización de los factores de producción -Accede a insumos y recursos -Producción -C osecha -Traspaso del producto Funciones:-Planeación y organización de los factores de producción -Accede a insumos y recursos -Producción -C osecha -Traspaso del producto Producción Producción 5. Poca o nula coordinación y enfoque parcial de losservicios de apoyo. Los servicios de apoyo al sector agropecuario se han caracterizado por ser puntuales y enfocados hacia un solo eslabón de la cadena. M ás aún, estas actividades llegan a los productores en forma poca co ordinada, lo que se refleja en una duplicación de esfuerzos en unas áreas y vacíos en otros. C omo resultado, el apoyo recibido por el sector agropecuario no es lo suficientemente efectivo para mejorar su competitividad.E l e n f o q u e d e C a d e n a P r o d u c t iva U n primer intento de responder a esta problemática fue el desarrollo del enfoque de cadena productiva o análisis sub-sectorial con el fin de ver la totalidad de la cadena agroindustrial desde la provisión de insumos y la unidad productiva hasta el mercadeo del producto final, pasando por la etapa de manejo poscosecha y procesamiento. Los eslabones y sus funciones aparecen en el siguiente gráfico:Poca o nula coordinación y enfoque parcial de losservicios de apoyo $500 $500 \"Si uno saca una buena cantidad del producto, pero éste no presenta buenas prácticas de manufactura, no se va a lograr un buen precio, y ahí está la pérdida. Para tener un comercio asegurado hay que contar con buena calidad. M ientras no se mejore la calidad del producto, los recursos tampoco van a mejorar; eso lo hemos entendido como GIAR\"Productor y procesador de caña panelera Participante de la experiencia en Cauca, C olombia Cuando se intenta analizar y mejorar la competitividad de una cadena productiva de esta manera, se está hablando de diseñar e implementar una estrategia de competitividad.La propuesta de estrategias de competitividad pretende responder a los vacíos identificados en el enfoque tradicional de cadenas de la siguiente manera:1. La experiencia ha mostrado que el éxito o fracaso de cualquier intervención para el desarrollo de cadenas productivas depende de los actores y las organizaciones empresariales que participan en ésta. Estos actores y sus organizaciones económicas pueden compararse como el \"soft w are\" de las computadoras, el cual hace posible que el \"hard w are\" (tecnología, información, etc.) se aproveche para el logro de los resultados deseados.2. Por medio del análisis y de la elaboración de estrategias de competitividad se busca identificar intervenciones que generen una distribución equitativa de los beneficios y la posibilidad de llegar a la población meta. En muchos casos también permiten buscar estrategias que logren beneficios para los productores con menos recursos.3. El uso del término \"estrategia\" permite el diseño y la ejecución de varios proyectos paralelos o complementarios con actividades coordinadas para el desarrollo de planes concretos, los cuales buscan el logro de objetivos claros y comunes.Por medio de la estrategia se busca generar consenso y sinergias entre los distintos actores y grupos de interés involucrados en la cadena y se facilitan la gestión de recursos para la implementación de proyectos y actividades tendentes a mejorar la competitividad de la cadena.El Proyecto de Desarrollo Agro-empresarial Rural del CIAT ha venido trabajando con las sig uientes definiciones de estrategias de competitividad: La visión amplia de la cadena pretende abarcar no solamente la parte funcional (producciónposcosechamercadeo) de la cadena sino también incluir y entender a las organizaciones empresariales y servicios de apoyo conexos al sector. La visión ampliada se expresa en siguiente gráfico:Grá fico 3 Visión a mplia d a de la ca den a productiv a L os t r o p e z o n es le va n t a n lo s d e d os D ic en qu e er ra r es hu m an o, pe ro a la m ay or ía de lo s hu m an os no no s gu st a eq ui vo ca rn os . Pa ra ap re nd er a ca m in ar , un ni ño de be de sc ub rir có m o po ne r su s pi es so br e el pi so y có m o av an za r sin pe rd er el eq ui lib rio , pe ro ¿c uá nt as ve ce s se ca e el ni ño m ie nt ra s ap re nd e, y aú n as í se le va nt a pa ra se gu ir in te nt an do ? H ay co sa s qu e só lo ap re nd em os cu an do no s eq ui vo ca m os ; po r es o, eq ui vo ca rn os no no s ha ce m en os ca pa ce s o m en os in te lig en te s. Lo im po rt an te es ap re nd er la le cc ió n. El sa bi o pu ed e se nt ar se en un ho rm ig ue ro , pe ro só lo el ne ci o se qu ed a se nt ad o en él .cadena para el logro de objetivos comunes, alrededor de los cuales se articulan una o más organizaciones empresariales y grupos de interés, con un enfoque ampliado de cadena productiva.¿P a r a q u é u n a es t r a t egia d e c omp e t i t ivi d a d?U na estrategia de competitividad busca fortalecer o establecer una cadena productiva, la cual ha sido priorizada con base en su potencial de mercado, la producción sostenible y la capacidad de generar ingresos y empleo para la población rural.¿ C ómo se eje c u t a u n a es t r a t egia d e c omp e t i t ivi d a d?U na estrategia de competitividad se ejecuta a través de acciones de corto, mediano y largo plazo, las cuales pueden ser de desarrollo e investigación en funciones de producción, manejo poscosecha y procesamiento, mercadeo y organización empresarial, de acuerdo con un análisis de los puntos críticos de la cadena productiva con el objetivo de mejorar su competitividad.Estas definiciones deben ser tomadas como guía y no como la última palabra sobre estrategias de competitividad. De hecho, cada actor o grupo de trabajo local puede tener su propia definición de estrategia de competitividad, sus objetivos y cómo se ejecuta, de acuerdo con la experiencia que haya tenido al aplicar la metodología.El término 'innovación' tiene diferentes significados:1. Es el proceso de invención en el que nuevas cosas, ideas o prácticas son creadas;2. Las nuevas cosas, ideas o prácticas desarrolladas; 3. El \"proceso por el cual una innovación existente se convierte en parte del estado cognitivo del innovador y de su repertorio de conocimiento \" (traducido de Zaltman, Duncan & H olvec, 1973 p. 7-8).Basado en G oldsmith y Foxall ( 2003), para este estudio definimos el proceso de innovación de manera amplia, como el proceso mediante el cual una 'buena idea' surge dando origen a un 'prototipo' que se evalúa, ajusta y aplica en los procesos de producción, manejo poscosecha, procesamiento, comercialización, mercadeo y/o gestión para mejorar la competitividad.El término innovación incluye innovaciones tecnológicas pero también innovaciones de proceso y de mercado. Las innovaciones de proceso se definen como aquellas que motivan la innovación tecnológica y de mercados y además son esenciales para que estas últimas funcionen, ya que permiten superar las limitaciones para innovar.¿ C ómo se c lasi f i c a n las inn o va c io n es?Las innovaciones pueden clasificarse de acuerdo con el grado de cambio que producen en: innovaciones continuas, dinámicamente continuas y discontinuas.1. Las 'innovaciones continuas' son aquellas que tienen los menores efectos en los patrones de producción, comercialización o consumo. En estos casos las innovaciones son alteraciones pequeñas de productos existentes.  Las 'nuevas ideas', o llámese 'promesas posibles', son claves, sin embargo, no son suficientes para lograr una innovación. D outh w aite (2002) desarrolló la tesis de que la innovación es 'un proceso de aprendizaje', que está basado en 'una promesa posible', pero que además requiere de:1. U n 'campeón' y socios innovativos y motivados que están dispuestos a asumir cierto nivel de riesgo 2. Ser catalizado por una 'necesidad sentida y real' 3. M ecanismos de selección abiertos y no sesgados. Esto último nos lleva a concluir que, por un lado, las patentes matan los procesos de innovación, mientras que por el otro, los procesos participativos donde intervienen diferentes actores motivan y nutren la innovación.Esta última conclusión del trabajo de D outh w aite (2002) es la que justifica los procesos de 'investigación participativa' como mecanismos más efectivos para promover la innovación, que aquellos procesos de investigación tradicionales en los que la investigación la realizan los 'científicos expertos en el tema', y solamente cuando estos sienten que la tecnología está lista para ser utilizada, se buscan mecanismos para su difusión y adopción.De acuerdo con D outh w aite ( 2002), los investigadores que adoptan procesos de investigación participativos tienen al menos seis ventajas, sobre aquellos que piensan que pueden desarrollar tecnologías terminadas por ellos mismos;1. Pueden aprovechar de un amplio pool de talento innovador en forma gratuita 2. Pueden beneficiarse de innovaciones que ellos, por sí solos, no pueden desarrollar 3. Los socios claves trabajan para mejorar el medio ambiente para la tecnología 4. La probabilidad de que la gente adopte y recomiende la tecnología es mayor 5. U na opinión pública en contra de la tecnología es menos probable 6. La investigación se mantiene relevante y práctica.Las innovaciones también se pueden clasificar en dos tipos, de acuerdo con su capacidad de producir cambios en los medios de vida de los productores. El primer tipo comprende a las 'innovaciones básicas o de medios de vida', las cuales contribuyen directamente a mejorar los medios de vida y/o a hacerlos más sostenibles.El segundo tipo son las 'innovaciones de proceso o sociales', que alimentan (construyen, mantienen o sustentan) la motivación, conducen a la innovación básica y son esenciales para que ésta última funcione. Además, permite a los individuos superar sus limitaciones para innovar -como la falta de acceso a tierra, crédito, mercados y otros recursos productivos-y aumenta así las oportunidades que tienen los actores sociales de realizar 'innovaciones básicas o de medios de vida' de manera efectiva.  E l f a c ili t a d o r es la persona u organización encargada de acompañar, interactuar con los participantes de la Alianza y potenciar sus capacidades, así como de gestionar los recursos necesarios para el desarrollo de la alianza. Al D ema n d a n t e lo representan los actores de una cadena productiva que identifican oportunidades de mercado o requieren ser más competitivos para mantenerse en el mercado, razón por la cual requieren del desarrollo de nuevas tecnologías y / o la eliminación de puntos críticos en la cadena.L os G es t o r es d e I nn o va c ió n e n A gr oin d us t ria R u r al ( G I A R) son considerados un mecanismo de participación activo en un proceso investigativo (de innovación tecnológica) en tecnología y gestión empresarial, del cual hacen parte actores de cada uno de los componentes de la cadena, quienes tienen la capacidad de planificar, validar y transferir resultados en agroindustria rural. Los GIAR deben responder a oportunidades de mercado identificadas y se perfilan también como un mecanismo de creación y fortalecimiento organizativo. 4 Las cadenas agroindustriales y los temas investigación que trabajan los GIAR parten de la identificación de oportunidades de mercado (estudios de mercado existentes, contactos, sondeos y giras) y buscan dar respue sta a requerimientos de éste.4 Los GIAR pueden partir de cadenas agroindustriales establecidas o cadenas nuevas identificadas en los estudios de mercado.4 Los integrantes de un GIAR comparten el interés por una misma cadena productiva 4 Las tecnologías y/o prácticas que son objeto de innovaci ón para los GIAR están basadas en los principios del desarrollo sostenible 4 Los GIAR intervienen en todos los componentes de la cadena productiva (producción, procesamiento y mercadeo), pues son conscientes de que la alteración de cualquiera de los eslabones de la cadena afecta el producto final.4 Las técnicas y/o prácticas que desarrollan los GIAR se adaptan a las necesidades y posibilidades de los agroempresarios locales y no al contrario.4 El trabajo de los GIAR está dirigido al incremento de la capacidad local de gestión comunitaria, de identificar problemas, planear estrategias y mejorar procesos que contribuyan a posicionar sus productos en los mercados demandantes.4 Los GIAR buscan generar procesos de articulación con otros actores presentes en su agroindustria  En esta fase, el facilitador (institución acompañante o miembro de la comunidad que desee promover la iniciativa) se reúne con un grupo de trabajo en procesos de desarrollo empresarial rural o con los diferentes actores de la cadena productiva (productores, procesadores, comercializadores y prestadores de servicios de apoyo) y los sensibiliza frente a la metodología: les cuenta en qué consiste, para qué les sirve, cuál sería el papel de un innovador local dentro de la comunidad (derechos y responsabilidades) y qué resultados se esperan.Cuando los actores tengan claro de qué se trata la experiencia, se conformarán, de manera voluntaria, uno o varios grupos de innovación que, según las necesidades de la comunidad y las características climáticas o topográficas, pueden separarse por zonas o por funciones en la cadena. Serán los mismos actores quienes decidan el número de grupos que se va a conformar, pero se recomienda que cada grupo quede integrado mínimo por seis personas y máximo por doce. U na vez concluida la conformación, los participantes serán sensibilizados en conceptos participativos y empresariales y se identificarán sus visiones, necesidades y problemas.M o ni t o r e o Este mecanismo debe ser definido desde el inicio de la Alianza para poder determinar durante el proceso qué tanto se ha progresado, cómo ha sido el desarrollo de las actividades y qué medidas deben tomarse para solucionar inconvenientes, si éstos se han identificado. Este Sistema se construye entre el facilitador y los actores participantes.El grupo realizará un mapeo que le permita representar gráficamente las principales oportunidades de su cadena productiva y las limitantes que debe superar para aprovechar estas oportunidades y hacerla más competitiva. Este mapa permite también visualizar flujos del producto, identificar servicios de apoyo y reconocer aspectos positivos y negativos de intervenciones pasadas. Por eso, esta fase posibilita el intercambio de conocimientos entre los actores de distintos componentes de la cadena y amplia la visión general que tiene cada uno de ellos sobre la misma.Teniendo en cuenta que el grupo debe conocer los requerimientos que tiene el consumidor frente a su producto (calidad, presentaciones, empaques, etc.) para volver competitiva su agroindustria, es necesario que identifique las oportunidades que le brinda el mercado. Para esto deben planear y ejecutar giras en la cadena, que pueden empezar por los mercados y continuar los componentes de cultivo y poscosecha. los cuales van a trabajar para aprovechar las oportunidades encontradas, y conocido casos de buenas prácticas e innovaciones. Por ello, el GIAR realizará un encuentro con los demás actores de la cadena para compartir y discutir con ellos las experiencias que encontraron y la información que recopilaron durante el desarrollo de las fases anteriores.Cuando se ha reunido y analizado suficiente información para decidir qué aspectos se deben trabajar con más prontitud, el GIAR determina hacia dónde se encaminará la innovación y a partir de allí construye su Plan de acción, en el cual se establece la fecha de inicio del proceso, el lugar donde se va a desarrollar, los recursos financieros y humanos que se necesitan y cómo se van a conseguir, las funciones de los participantes, cómo se va a desarrollar la innovación (diseño) y de qué manera se van a monitorear y a evaluar los avances.C omo su nombre lo indica, esta es la etapa definida para desarrollar el plan de acción, es decir, para realizar la experimentación o el ensayo que finalmente le indicará al grupo de innovación si a los productores les conviene o no implementar cambios en sus prácticas o en sus unidades productivas. Así que durante esta fase se pueden poner en práctica los diseños experimentales y realizar observaciones y seguimiento a los resultados; para esto es necesario contar con instrumentos de recolección de datos que faciliten su análisis posterior.El análisis de los datos recolectados permitirá la formulación final de los resultados, y la discusión de estos resultados, que se realiza al interior del GIAR, llevará al grupo a determinar si adoptar la tecnología o la práctica evaluada es conveniente o no para los pequeños agroempresarios de la cadena. Después se preparan los resultados para presentarlos ante la cadena y las comunidades representadas por el grupo de innovación, ante otros GIAR (si los hay) y/o ante otros grupos y organizaciones de la región.Esta etapa contempla dos fases: una teórica y otra práctica. Durante la fase teórica el GIAR convoca a los miembros de la cadena y a sus comunidades, expone el trabajo realizado, los cambios que observaron, los resultados obtenidos, las innovaciones logradas, y realizan recomendaciones. En la fase práctica, los grupos, o uno de sus representantes, visitan agroindustrias que pertenecen a su cadena productiva y replican el ensayo que hicieron.Esta fase es vital dentro del diseño metodológico puesto que, por un lado, las nuevas preguntas que surgen durante el intercambio de experiencias y la difusión de las innovaciones logradas dan lugar a otro ciclo de innovación y, por otra parte, los GIAR se pueden convertir en un sistema de apoyo para su región, pues poseen conocimientos e información que multiplican en su entorno; un entorno en el que el pequeño productor, normalmente, encuentra limitaciones para tener acceso a información relevante que le ayude a tomar mejores decisiones.Bajo este esquema, el GIAR tiene la posibilidad de participar activamente en todo el proceso de innovación agroindustrial, especialmente porque la experimentación se lleva a cabo en sus propias unidades productivas, en busca de mejorar el producto que poseen e identificar nuevas oportunidades. Puede haber contextos en los que no hay una cadena productiva priorizada y analizada. En estos casos, se recomienda seguir la metodología de estrategias de competitividad descrita por Lundy y otros, antes de aplicar las Alianzas para la Innovación en Cadenas Productivas.Dado los diferentes roles que juegan en la cadena, los actores tienen puntos de vista variados. Los productores conocen mucho sobre lo que pasa en los lotes de producción (dificultades de producción, plagas, variedades, rendimientos, etc.) pero progresivamente menos en la medida en que el producto sale de su comunidad o entra en procesos de transformación.De igual manera, los actores que se ocupan de los procesos poscosecha conocen mucho sobre este tema, pero son menos conocedores de los aspectos netos de producción, de transformación o de comercialización. Y así sucede sucesivamente con los demás actores involucrados en la transformación o comercialización del producto; pueden tener conocimientos generales sobre la totalidad de la cadena, pero poseen información más completa y profunda sobre los aspectos que le conciernen directamente.En cuanto a los actores de apoyo, deben conocer, en teoría, la totalidad de la cadena. Sin embargo, en la práctica es común encontrar que ellos también tienen enfoques específicos según sus objetivos o capacidades: por ejemplo, muchas O N G rurales tienen un enfoque explícito hacía uno u otro grupo poblacional (pequeños productores, mujeres rurales, jóvenes, indígenas, etc.) o uno u otro eslabón de la cadena (asistencia técnica o crédito en producción, acceso a tecnología en transformación o acopio del producto para su comercialización). Lo mismo ocurre con actores informales de apoyo; lo valioso de estos actores es su conocimiento profundo de ciertos aspectos de la cadena y sus capacidades de apoyarla de alguna manera. (Lundy y otros, 2003).Por eso, en un GIAR deben participar representantes de todos los actores de la cadena, que pueden ser entre dos y tres personas por cada componente y zona de trabajo.Los miembros de un GIAR deben participar de forma voluntaria y ser elegidos teniendo en cuenta criterios como: 4Sus conocimientos y experiencia en la cadena productiva, principalmente en el componente que representa 4Su inclinación para probar cosas nuevas 4Su iniciativa para la realización de experimentos en su unidad productiva 4Sus habilidades para expresarse en forma oral 4Su disposición para enfrentar y asumir riesgos 4 Su visión y sus habilidades empresariales C ontar con representantes de cada uno de los componentes de la cadena enriquece las alternativas para aprovechar oportunidades, enfrentar las limitantes para hacer más competitiva la cadena e intercambiar conocimientos y aprendizajes al interior del GIAR.C on los actores escogidos para hacer parte del GIAR se debe iniciar el siguiente proceso de sensibilización: 4Conceptos y herramientas participativas 4Temas empresariales 4Enfoque de las Alianzas para la Innovación en Cadenas Productivas Estos temas se trabajan de manera general con el GIAR al inicio de la metodología, pero cada uno de ellos se encuentra acompañado de un proceso de aprendizaje que se desarrolla simultáneamente con la experiencia.Dada la diversidad de participantes de la cadena productiva en el GIAR, es recomendable que los integrantes no tengan grandes diferencias en su nivel educativo, estado 31 30 omo campesino uno es muy 'cerrado a su banda' -como decimos popularmente-pero hay que darse la oportunidad. Yo les diría, a quienes no pertenecen a un GIAR, que es bueno pertenecer; se va a perder un tiempo, pero es bueno pertenecer, porque hay mejores conocimientos. N o todo uno como campesino lo sabe. H ay personas que vienen a enseñarle y a aprender de uno también\"Productor y procesador de caña panelera Participante de la Experiencia en Cauca, C olombia socioeconómico y edad para evitar conflictos o relaciones desiguales de poder.P aso 3: E s t a ble c imie n t o d e u n Sis t ema d e Segu imie n t o y E valu a c ió n En este punto es importante sensibilizar a los participantes de la Alianza sobre la importancia de realizarle seguimiento y evaluación a cada una de las acciones que se desarrollen como parte del proceso.¿P o r q u é u n Sis t ema d e segu imie n t o y e valu a c ió n?U n sistema de seguimiento y evaluación participativa es útil para mejorar la eficiencia de los participantes de la Alianza en el manejo de cada una de las actividades, puesto que la evaluación es el reflejo de las acciones y, por lo tanto, indica qué se ha hecho bien y que debe mejorarse. Además, sirve como proceso educativo para reflexionar sobre las investigaciones y el proceso metodológico.¿ Q u ié n h a c e el segu imie n t o y la e valu a c ió n?El Sistema de Seguimiento y Evaluación debe ser construido por miembros del GIAR en compañía del facilitador. Después de identificar las oportunidades de mercado, el grupo realizará un mapeo que le permita representar gráficamente las principales limitantes de su cadena productiva. Para ello, el facilitador debe presentar resultados de análisis de la cadena y sus puntos críticos o construirlos con el Giar y otros actores clave. Esto permite visualizar flujos del producto, identificar servicios de apoyo y reconocer aspectos positivos y negativos de intervenciones pasadas.Las herramientas que se emplean para el análisis de la cadena son: a. El mapeo b. La identificación de los servicios de apoyo ofrecidos c. La Línea de tiempo A continuación se define el objetivo de cada una de estas herramientas, el tiempo necesario para su desarrollo, los materiales que se necesitarán, el proceso a desarrollar, unas preguntas de facilitación y un ejemplo concreto.Visualizar los flujos del producto, servicios de apoyo e insumos dentro de la cadena, desde la producción primara hasta su comercialización a mayoristas y desde diferentes puntos de vista.Aproximadamente dos horas y media, en total. U na hora para la elaboración de los mapas por cada función, una hora para la socialización y construcción de un mapa consolidado y media hora para identificar vacíos de información y responder a alguno s de ellos. Algunas preguntas básicas de facilitación para este ejercicio aparecen a continuación. Sin embargo, la entidad facilitadora tiene la libertad de incluir otras, según sus necesidades. Es recomendable organizar las preguntas clave de facilitación en una guía u otro instrumento de fácil uso para las personas que facilitarán el trabajo con los grupos de la cadena. Algunas de estas preguntas pueden ser formuladas para iniciar o sostener el proceso de visualización, mientras que otras son más adecuadas al final para revisar el contenido del mapa, identificar vacíos y complementar los datos ya expresados por el grupo. Los resultados de las preguntas pueden ser anotados sobre el mapa mismo o por alguno de los facilitadores del proceso en sus notas. Estas respuestas enriquecen mucho más el mapa original y muestra a los participantes lo mucho que saben sobre su cadena.4¿ Q uiénes son? 4¿D ónde están ubicados? 4¿Cuáles son sus funciones en la cadena?Preguntas de facilitación final vi cómo la gente comenzó a manejar el concepto. Ya uno escuchaba a los productores decir: yo voy a sembrar esta variedad de caña porque me da mejor panela, porque me la da más finita, porque me rinde más, porque en el cultivo se demora menos, porque no es tan exigente para los terrenos. Entonces, uno veía que el proceso no había pasado de largo, sin dejar impacto \"Productor y procesador de caña panelera Técnico extensionista de C orpotunía, organización facilitadora durante la experiencia en Cauca, C olombia.4¿C ómo se relacionan entre sí? ¿Las relaciones son buenas, regulares o malas? ¿Por qué? 4¿Cuáles son sus características? (género, edad, educación, habilidades, saber-hacer, etc.)4¿D ónde vendemos lo que producimos (en cada eslabón de la cadena)?4¿Cuáles son las características del producto? 4¿Cuáles son los volúmenes de producción por mes o anualmente? 4¿Cuánto producto es vendido en los mercados por mes o anualmente? 4¿C ómo es la oferta del producto durante el año? 4¿Cuánto nos cuesta producir (en cada eslabón de la cadena)? Es común que ninguno tenga idea de este dato pero, a veces, hay uno o más productores que pueden proporcionar un dato aproximado 4¿Cuáles son los precios de compra y venta en cada etapa de la cadena? ¿Son estables durante el año o fluctúan? 4¿Cuál es la eficiencia (rendimientos por área sembrada, factores de conversión, etc.) de la cadena? 4¿C ómo es la distribución del valor total de la cadena entre los actores? ¿ Q ué grupos ganan más y qué grupos menos y por qué?4¿ Q uiénes nos apoyan? (en cada eslabón de la cadena). 4¿C ómo nos apoyan? ¿ Q ué servicios ofrecen? (en cada eslabón de la cadena). 4¿Cuál es la calidad de los servicios ofrecidos? M ercados:Características del producto C ostos, rendimientos y distribución del valor de la cadena En esta parte es bueno revisar el quehacer de cada grupo en la cadena, teniendo en cuenta riesgos asumidos, valor agregado y acceso a información o contactos clave.Aquí hay que tener cuidado de visualizar el apoyo recibido por actores informales (intermediarios, prestamistas, etc.), que a veces resulta ser más efectivo que el de los otros grupos de apoyo.4¿Cuál es la forma de pago para cada etapa de la cadena? 4¿Cuáles son los requisitos de calidad? 4¿Cuál es la frecuencia de compra? 4¿C ómo son las relaciones entre los actores de la cadena? ¿Los actores están contentos con las relaciones existentes? ¿Por qué si o por qué no?Si la entidad facilitadora tiene más preguntas específicas, éstas se pueden incluir en el instrumento final de facilitación haciendo a éste las adaptaciones necesarias para que sea de máxima utilidad para visualizar y entender la cadena.Si resultan porciones de la cadena con poca información, es probable que hayamos dejado por fuera uno o más actores clave en estos eslabones. H abrá que complementar este ejercicio con ellos.H acer una recopilación sencilla de la oferta de servicios que existe para la cadena con el fin de calificar la calidad de los servicios e identificar vacíos susceptibles de mejorías en el futuro.Aproximadamente dos horas en total. U na hora para identificar, describir y calificar los servicios por función de la cadena y otra hora para socializar los resultados y compararlos entre los grupos. Este ejercicio puede ser llevado a cabo usando papelógrafos y marcadores, pizarones y tiza o hasta en el suelo con materiales de la zona. Lo importante es describir los servicios ofrecidos y recibidos, de tal manera que todos los actores los puedan ver y discutir.Siguiendo con los mismos subgrupos que se formaron para realizar el M apeo, se entra a mirar la oferta y demanda de servicios de apoyo formales e informales por cada función de la cadena. Los grupos de productores, procesadores y comerciantes analizan sus eslabones respectivos basándose en los resultados del mapeo, mientras que los oferentes de servicios miran específicamente los servicios que ellos ofrecen. Después de una hora de trabajo en grupo, se hace una revisión de los resultados en plenaria y se generan unas matrices de oferta y demanda por cada función de la cadena.Es importante hacer un esfuerzo especial para identificar aquellos oferentes de servicios que son informales, ya que son más difíciles de reconocer usando otras técnicas. Algunos ejemplos de oferentes informales de servicios son: campesinos paratécnicos o promotores con conocimientos adicionales en temas de producción, talleres de metalmecánica que fabrican o reparan maquinaria agrícola o de transformación sencilla, talleres que alquilan maquinaria para procesamiento, transportistas, intermediarios, prestamistas, entre m uchos otros.Se hace énfasis en oferentes informales porque: (a) existen en casi todas las cadenas; (b) sus servicios tienden a ser más sostenidos que los ofrecidos por actores formales; (c) sus costos son más bajos y (d) hacen que la mayoría de las cadenas funcionen.Las preguntas básicas para facilitar este ejercicio con los grupos de productores, procesadores y comerciantes son:4¿ Q uién(es) ofrece(n) servicios a este eslabón de la cadena? 4¿ Q ué servicios ofrecen? 4¿ Q ué costo tiene el servicio? 4¿ Q ué tan útil es el servicio? ¿Se logra solucionar el problema con el servicio ofrecido?Los resultados pueden ser organizados en la siguiente matriz:Ta bla 2 Ma triz de a n álisis de servicios recibidos (por p arte de prest a dores de servicios) Si todos los días caminamos el mismo sendero para llegar a casa y nunca nos atrevemos a tomar un atajo o a descubrir otras rutas, ¿qué es lo que realmente sabemos: cómo llegar a nuestra casa o cuál es el camino que nos lleva? Q ue conozcamos un solo camino no significa que ese sea el único que exista ni que sea el más corto o el mejor. El proceso de aprendizaje tiene mucho de aventura y entre más dudas nos surjan, más respuestas tendemos que buscar. Así también es el camino de la innovación.4¿ Q uiénes son los clientes del servicio? 4¿ Q ué costo tiene el servicio para su cliente? 4¿ Q ué tan efectivo es el servicio? ¿se logra solucionar el problema con el servicio ofrecido? 4¿Cuánto cuesta ofrecer el servicio?Los resultados pueden ser organizados en una matriz como la que se muestra a continuación:Ta bla 3 Ma triz de a n álisis de servicios ofrecidos (por p arte de prest a dores de servicios) U na vez identificada la oferta de servicios, se puede hacer una revisión sencilla en plenaria para ver si hay concordancia entre los servicios anotados por los clientes (productores, procesadores y comerciantes) y las entidades que prestan servicios. M uchas veces esta revisión genera discusiones interesantes, pues aparecen servicios hasta ahora desconocidos o la evaluación de calidad varía sustancialmente.La línea del tiempo contribuye a conocer cómo, cuando y c. Línea de tiempo c. Línea de tiempo porqué han ocurrido los cambios de tecnología y prácticas en la cadena. C on la aplicación de esta herramienta el GIAR tendrá una comprensión inicial de las circunstancias bajo las cuales los agroempresarios adquieren nuevo conocimiento y el contexto histórico por el cual éste ha sido incorporado y difundido en la cadena.Reconocer los momentos clave de la historia de la cadena con el fin de identificar aspectos positivos, aspectos negativos y lecciones aprendidas. Se puede aplicar esto con un enfoque general (hitos clave de la cadena) o con un énfasis hacia los proyectos o apoyos recibidos anteriormente por los actores.Este ejercicio puede ser llevado a cabo usando papelógrafos y marcadores, pizarones y tiza o hasta en el suelo con materiales de la zona. Lo importante es describir la historia de tal manera que todos los actores la puedan ver y discutir.C on los mismos subgrupos conformados para aplicar las herramientas anteriores, se entra a definir las fechas clave, según ellos mismos, en el desarrollo de la cadena. Se puede empezar con una lluvia de ideas para después organizar los datos en orden cronológico. U na vez establecida la línea de tiempo en una columna, se pasa a averiguar más información sobre cada evento y a hacer una evaluación de lo aprendido. entre los grupos y la aclaración de dudas. Después del taller la entidad facilitadora plasmará todas las líneas de tiempo en una sola.Las preguntas de facilitación para construir la línea de tiempo son:4¿Cuáles han sido los momentos clave en el desarrollo de la cadena durante los últimos años? ¿En qué año ocurrió cada uno? 4¿ Q uiénes participaron en el momento clave? ¿Cuáles eran sus roles? 4¿H ubo apoyo externo durante este momento? ¿ Q uién lo facilitó? 4¿ Q ué fue lo bueno de ese momento? 4¿ Q ué fue lo malo de ese momento? 4¿ Q ué aprendimos de ese momento?Si la entidad facilitadora quiere enfocar este ejercicio hacía temas específicos, tales como la evolución de la tecnología usada en la cadena, la llegada de nuevos productos, las innovaciones locales u otro tema, la herramienta puede ser adaptada para tales fines.Teniendo en cuenta que el grupo gestor debe conocer los requerimientos que tiene el consumidor frente a su producto (calidad, presentaciones, empaques, etc.) para volver competitiva su agroindustria, es necesario que identifique las oportunidades que le brinda el mercado y los aspectos que debe tener en cuenta en sus unidades productivas para aprovecharlas. Para hacerlo contará con la orientación y el apoyo del facilitador, pero el diseño metodológico de la Alianza busca que el grupo adquiera, a medida que recorre Preguntas de facilitación Preguntas de facilitación el camino, la capacidad de realizar esta actividad por sí mismo y pueda aplicarla en otras cadenas.Se recomienda seguir la siguiente guía para planear y ejecutar las giras: Definir los objetivos de la gira C onsultar experiencias sobresalientes en la cadena Seleccionar las experiencias que se van a visitar Realizar un cronograma para el desarrollo de las giras Realizar contactos con los encargados de los sitios seleccionados para indicarles el objetivo de la gira, la fecha y el lugar en que se quiere realizar Enviar una carta de parte del facilitador para formalizar la visita Preparar una agenda para las giras y un cuestionario previo para cada una de ellas, según el componente de la cadena.C omo datos generales para todos los cuestionarios que se van a aplicar en la cadena, se deben tener en cuenta los datos del estudio (título del cuestionario, identificación, categorías o códigos) y los datos de contacto (nombre, cargo, institución, fecha de entrevista, teléfono, dirección, correo electrónico) Las giras en la cadena productiva deben iniciar por el mercado, para luego dirigirse al cultivo y, por último, a la poscosecha. Estas giras nos deben ayudar a conocer tres aspectos: Productor y procesador de caña panelera Participante de la Experiencia en Cauca, C olombia Estas pueden ser algunas preguntas para incluir en el cuestionario:4¿ Q ué tipo de empaques son utilizados y cuál es su valor? 4¿Cuál es la eficiencia o los rendimientos del producto durante la poscosecha? 4¿Cuáles son las pérdidas del producto durante la poscosecha? 4¿Cuántos niveles de producción se identifican y cuáles son sus principales características? 4¿Cuál es el tiempo de la jornada de producción? 4¿La producción es continua o por ciclos? 4¿Los productos elaborados son finales, intermedios u otros? 4¿Cuáles son los combustibles utilizados por los equipos? 4¿Cuál es el promedio de jornales empleados en el proceso? 4¿Cuáles son los insumos requeridos en la poscosecha? 4¿ Q ué tipo de servicios requiere durante la poscosecha? 4¿Cuáles son los subproductos que genera? ¿C ómo utiliza estos?Realizar la gira. Estos son algunos puntos que se deben tener en cuenta para que la gira sea exitosa:4En lo posible, realizar la reunión con cada uno de los clientes potenciales en un sitio cercano al producto que promocionan los productores 4C onocer las exigencias del producto por parte de los clientes 4Dejar que los productores hagan sus preguntas y resuelvan todas las inquietudes y por último realizar las preguntas que falten del cuestionario 4Realizar acuerdos de negociación, si es posible 4Dejar una grata impresión para futuras giras Preparar y enviar una carta de agradecimiento a cada una 8. 9.8. 9.de las personas que hicieron posible la gira, por la atención y colaboración brindada.Realizar un informe sobre las giras C ompartir una copia del informe con cada uno de los participantes del GIAR y proceder a su análisis.H e r r amie n t as pa r a a n aliz a r los r esul t a d os Para facilitar la representación de la información y el análisis de ésta, se pueden utilizar las siguientes herramientas: El de sa rro llo de nu ev as te cn ol og ía qu e re sp on da n a las ne ce sid ad es de lo s pr od uc to re s y a su s ca ra ct er íst ica s ec on óm ica s, so cia les , cu ltu ra les y de in fra es tru ctu ra , es m uy im po rta nt e, pe ro ¿q ué ta nt o po dr ía co nt rib ui r un a te cn ol og ía al de sa rro llo de la pe qu eñ a em pr es a si lo s pr od uc to s qu e m ej or a no so n lo s qu e el cli en te de se a o ne ce sit a? Id en tif ica r las de m an da s de l m er ca do an te s de de sa rro lla r o ad ap ta r un a te cn ol og ía es co m o m ira r si el ch oc ol at e es tá ca lie nt e an te s de to m ar el pr im er so rb o. aprovechar las oportunidades encontradas, y conocido casos de buenas prácticas e innovaciones. Por ello, el GIAR realizará un encuentro con los demás actores de la cadena para compartir y discutir con ellos las experiencias que encontraron y la información que recopilaron durante el desarrollo de las fases anteriores.A c c ió n pa r a la I nn o va c ió n Cuando se ha reunido y analizado suficiente información para decidir qué aspectos se deben trabajar con más prontitud, el GIAR determina hacia dónde se encaminará la innovación y a partir de allí construye su plan de acción, en el cual se establece la fecha de inicio del proceso, el lugar donde se va a desarrollar, los recursos financieros y humanos que se necesitan y cómo se van a conseguir, las funciones de los participantes, cómo se va a desarrollar la innovación (diseño) y de qué manera se van a monitorear y a evaluar los avances.La información obtenida del análisis de la cadena y de las giras de mercado debe permitir: 4C onocer el mercado y sus principales actores y la conformación del precio en la cadena productiva 4Identificar las oportunidades de mercado para la cadena 4Reconocer las limitantes de la cadena que impiden aprovechar las oportunidades en los mercados \"La gente del campo siempre tiene conocimientos guardados que usted no va a encontrar en ninguna universidad. Son cosas que han aprendido a través de la experiencia, y eso a mí me ayudó bastante, porque yo también soy productor y procesador de caña panelera, entonces veía cómo lo están haciendo aquí, cómo lo está haciendo allá y cómo lo estoy haciendo yo \"Productor y procesador de caña panelera Técnico extensionista de C orpotunía, organización facilitadora durante la experiencia en Cauca, C olombia C on base en esto es necesario diseñar un plan de acción que permita incorporar las innovaciones necesarias en producción, poscosecha, mercado y a nivel organizativo. Así mismo, el plan de acción debe permitir el abordaje paulatino de cada limitante y no abordar en forma simultánea varias de ellas, pues se pueden generar confusiones, tanto en los integrantes del GIAR como en el Facilitador, cuando aún no se tiene mucha experiencia en el manejo de la metodología.Se puede considerar el desarrollo de innovaciones simultáneas en casos donde se trabaje con cultivos de ciclo largo (como la yuca y la caña de azúcar), en los cuales, si se han prirorizado limitantes en las fases de proceso y comercialización, pueden adelantarse innovaciones en estos componentes mientras avanza el desarrollo del cultivo. El GIAR, con el apoyo del facilitador, debe seguir los siguientes pasos:4Analizar las limitantes y las oportunidades: revisar las relaciones entre la oferta y la demanda 4Buscar las soluciones potenciales: la búsqueda de opciones tecnológicas puede realizarse entre diversas fuentes, otras poblaciones, agencias de desarrollo, centros de investigación nacional e internacional y organizaciones gubernamentales y no gubernamentales. 4Seleccionar las opciones a ensayar: las opciones encontradas pueden ser comparadas y evaluadas de acuerdo con los criterios identificados por el GIAR y el facilitador. Para esto, se puede utilizar la siguiente tabla: Iniciar a escala pequeña: con el propósito de minimizar el riesgo y observar las oportunidades del experimento con las opciones.Realizar ensayos simples: evitar utilizar múltiples opciones y criterios que dificulten el manejo y comparación de datos por parte de los participantes del GIAR.Planear las evaluaciones de los ensayos: antes de iniciar los ensayos se debe facilitar una discusión con el GIAR en la que se considere:4¿ Q ué características de la nueva tecnología necesitan ser evaluadas? 4¿C ómo debe planearse la medición de las tecnologías? 4¿ Q ué control o testigo utilizar durante el tratamiento? Iniciar a escala pequeña:Realizar ensayos simples:Planear las evaluaciones de los ensayos:Ensayar las opciones: 4Identificar y proveer los materiales necesarios para el ensayo de las opciones 4Suministrar la información técnica necesaria para desarrollar el ensayo 4 H acer visitas antes del establecimiento del ensayo 4 H acer un plan de seguimiento regular y realizar discusiones para evaluar avances y resolver problemas 4Realizar una evaluación del estado inicial del componente que se va a evaluar, antes de la intervenci ón Evaluar las opciones: como los int egrantes del GIAR han ensayado y evaluado nuevas tecnologías, es necesario identificar y evaluar con ellos los impactos de dichas tecnologías para determinar así si se establece a una escala mayor. Para lograr esto es necesario:4U n monitoreo regular 4H acer mediciones (determinar rendimientos, eficiencias, etc.) 4Realizar encuentros entre los GIAR y otros actores clave de la cadena La siguiente tabla resumen puede ser utilizada como herramienta para el desarrollo del Plan de acción y como parte del seguimiento.nsayar las opciones:Evaluar las opciones:Ta bla 14 Selección de la tecnología U na vez definidas la forma y las herramientas que se van a utilizar en los ensayos, se procede a ejecutar el Plan de Acción, asegurándose de realizar el seguimiento a los ensayos y la recolección de los datos que va a arrojando el proceso. P aso 9: A n álisis d e r esul t a d os U na vez se han obtenido los resultados, se analizan entre el GIAR, el facilitador y el oferente de tecnología. En este encuentro no sólo se deben discutir los resultados, también es un espacio para resaltar los conocimientos y aprendizajes adquiridos en el marco de la Alianza para la Innovación. Así mismo, se deben tener en cuenta tanto los resultados satisfactorios como los no satisfactorios y analizar qué cambios se deben implementar para la siguiente innovación. Esta etapa debe ser desarrollada pensando en la forma como se socializarán los resultados con los integrantes de la cadena productiva que no hacen parte de la Alianza. P aso 10: D i f usió n d e la inn o va c ió n Los resultados obtenidos del proceso deben ser compartidos con los actores de la cadena productiva que no hacen parte del GIAR. Por ello, el grupo debe definir la estrategia que utilizará, para lo cual puede tener en cuenta los siguientes aspectos:4 O bjetivos de su estrategia 4Usuarios a los cuales desea dirigirse 4M ensajes que serán difundidos 4M edios que serán utilizados:Días de campo Visita a los ensayos Ferias Actividades participativas en sus regiones M aterial impreso 4M ecanismos de monitoreo, evaluación y retroinformación.En esta fase es importante vincular las iniciativas de comunicación presentes en la zona, como las radios comunitarias, los telecentros, los murales, entre otros, que puedan apoyar la difusión de las innovaciones obtenidas.Además, el GIAR también puede apoyarse en las redes de intercambio que poseen los integrantes de la Alianza.Este punto es muy importante para conocer el nivel de aceptación de los receptores sobre los resultados y la metodología utilizada. Así mismo, servirá para identificar y obtener nuevas oportunidades y limitantes de innovación.\"El GIAR me cambió como extensionista porque adquirí nuevos conocimientos y más experiencia en mis quehaceres diarios para retransmitirlos a otras comunidades. Ese es el papel del técnico: apoyar al pequeño productor para que siga su innovación y, a la misma vez, retroalimentarse para divulgar los resultados\"Asistente Técnico M unicipal Participante de la experiencia en Cauca, C olombia.Preguntas Ta bla 5 Ta bla resumen p a a el seguimiento al pla n de acción","tokenCount":"9881"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e1c2275794c82f591859d0f3cbc07a7e","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c4ebccff-0ba1-4702-a54a-96ecd5d29df1/retrieve","id":"554454623"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c383492b-d4b2-4ae9-ad0e-cb028c24bb7d","pagecount":"11","content":"Cassava production in the central, southern and eastern parts of Africa is under threat by cassava brown streak virus (CBSV). Yield losses of up to 100% occur in cases of severe infections of edible roots. Easy illegal movement of planting materials across African countries, and long-range movement of the virus vector (Bemisia tabaci) may facilitate spread of CBSV to West Africa. Thus, effort to pre-emptively breed for CBSD resistance in W. Africa is critical. Genomic selection (GS) has become the main approach for cassava breeding, as costs of genotyping per sample have declined. Using phenotypic and genotypic data (genotyping-by-sequencing), followed by imputation to whole genome sequence (WGS) for 922 clones from National Crops Resources Research Institute, Namulonge, Uganda as a training population (TP), we predicted CBSD symptoms for 35 genotyped W. African clones, evaluated in Uganda. The highest prediction accuracy (r = 0.44) was observed for cassava brown streak disease severity scored at three months (CBSD3s) in the W. African clones using WGS-imputed markers. Optimized TPs gave higher prediction accuracies for CBSD3s and CBSD6s than random TPs of the same size. Inclusion of CBSD QTL chromosome markers as kernels, increased prediction accuracies for CBSD3s and CBSD6s. Similarly, WGS imputation of markers increased prediction accuracies for CBSD3s and for cassava brown streak disease root severity (CBSDRs), but not for CBSD6s. Based on these results we recommend TP optimization, inclusion of CBSD QTL markers in genomic prediction models, and the use of high-density (WGS-imputed) markers for CBSD predictions across population.low yields in Africa include both abiotic (low soil fertility and socioeconomic factors such as lack of access to improved varieties) and biotic factors (Nweke 2004). The most devastating biotic stresses today are the cassava brown streak (CBSD) and cassava mosaic (CMD) diseases (Maruthi et al., 2005;Mware et al., 2009). Of these two virus-induced diseases, CBSD is the most important constraint to cassava production in central, eastern and southern Africa as it causes yield losses of up to 100% (Alicai et al., 2007;Hillocks et al., 2016).Phylogenetic analysis of complete viral RNA genome sequences taken from CBSD symptomatic plants, sampled across eastern and southern Africa, revealed two clades of distinct CBSD-causing virus species that were named: Uganda cassava brown streak virus (UCBSV) and cassava brown streak virus (CBSV) (Winter et al., 2010;Mohammed et al., 2011;Patil et al., 2015;Alicai et al., 2016;Mbewe et al., 2017). The two species belong to genus Ipomovirus within the family of Potyviridae, and share an identity of 70% and 74% at the level of nucleotide and polyprotein amino acid sequences, respectively (Monger et al., 2001;Winter et al., 2010). Cassava brown streak disease symptoms on cassava leaves manifest as feathery chlorosis around secondary veins, which may disappear when new growth starts after a period of drought-induced leaf abscission (Hillocks 2004). While on the roots, CBSD symptoms externally present as radial constriction, and internally as brown necrotic lesions on part or all of the starchy root, making it inedible (Hillocks 2004;Hillocks et al., 2016).Although the first incidence of CBSD was reported in 1930s (Storey and Nichols 1938), little attention was paid to it, because geographically CBSD was confined to the low altitudes of east African coastal region (less than 1000 m.a.s.l). Nonetheless, CBSD has spread rapidly to other countries including; Uganda, Burundi, DRC, Mozambique and Rwanda in the last two decades to cover wider range of altitudes than previously reported (Hillocks et al., 2002;Alicai et al., 2007;Legg et al., 2011;Mulimbi et al., 2012). Cassava brown streak disease is commonly spread through sharing of infected stem cuttings for propagation, in addition to super-abundant whitefly Bemisia tabaci, as a vector (Hillocks and Jennings 2003;Njoroge et al., 2017).Officially, genetic materials can move from W. Africa to E. Africa, but movement in the reverse direction is prohibited to prevent accidental introduction of CBSD-causing viruses in W. Africa. Nevertheless, the free movement of planting materials across farming communities has led to increased fear that CBSD could spread to other regions, including West Africa (Legg et al., 2014;Patil et al., 2015;Beyene et al., 2017). Given the current impact of CBSD on cassava production in endemic countries, effort needs to be in place to avert or minimize future CBSD impact in W. Africa, especially Nigeria the world's leading cassava producer. Among other methods, Legg et al., (2014) proposed preemptive breeding for CBSD resistant clones in W. Africa.High levels of field resistance to CBSD have been reported from genetically transformed plants with coat protein of UCBSV and CBSV, compared to non-transformed plants (Ogwok et al., 2012;Odipio et al., 2014;Beyene et al., 2017;Wagaba et al., 2017). However, the transgenic CBSD resistant clones are still within research confinement, because of unclear regulatory frameworks regarding field production of genetically modified organisms (GMO) in Uganda and east Africa at large. Other efforts to breed for CBSD resistance in E. Africa are geared toward identification of quantitative trait loci (QTL) for CBSD resistance, with the aim of developing molecular markers to implement marker-assisted selection (MAS). A number of QTL mapping studies for CBSD resistance in E. African germplasm have been conducted, and the studies pointed out both unique and overlapping QTL regions for which markers could be developed for MAS (Kayondo et al., 2018;Masumba et al., 2017;Nzuki et al., 2017). One of the highest effect QTL detected involved a bi-parental mapping population from a cross between Kiroba and AR37-80 that explained 18% of total phenotypic variance (Nzuki et al., 2017). However, using bi-parental QTL to develop markers for MAS is only feasible if the QTL are validated in other breeding populations. Furthermore, the recent genome-wide association studies conducted by Kayondo et al. (2018), using same training populations, confirmed the polygenic nature of CBSD resistance previously reported (Kawuki et al., 2016).Genomic selection, proposed by Meuwissen et al. (2001) provides an option for using DNA markers for traits that are truly quantitative, where no single causal locus accounts for a major fraction of the variation for selection decisions. Genomic selection (GS) relies on a genome-wide distribution of markers to ensure all QTL have at least one marker in high LD, enabling selection on highly polygenic traits. Genomic selection is typically done using a phenotyped and genotyped training population to estimate genome-wide marker effects (Hayes et al., 2009). The genomic estimated breeding values (GEBV) for all genotyped individuals can then be computed as the sum of marker effects multiplied by the marker genotypes across the whole genome (Meuwissen, et al., 2001). These GEBVs aim to capture all QTL accounting for variation in target traits (Hayes et al., 2009).Although GS has reportedly outperformed traditional selection methods such MAS and marker assisted recurrent selection (MARS) for quantitative traits (Goiffon 2016), successful implementation of genomic selection depends on a number of factors including: trait heritability, marker density, the size of the training population, the relationship between the training population (TP) and the selection candidates (Jannink et al., 2010;Heffner et al., 2011;Nielsen et al., 2016).Increases in prediction accuracy have been reported by composing training populations from optimal subsets of individuals chosen to minimize the expected prediction error variance (PEV) of the selection candidates compared to using random subsets or even the full set of available individuals (Rincent et al., 2012;Akdemir et al., 2015;Isidro et al., 2015;Yu et al., 2016). Furthermore, studies have shown increased prediction accuracies with inclusion of prior QTL information in genomic prediction models. For example, a study by Haffliger, (2016) for reproductive traits in Swiss pig breeds revealed a significant increase in prediction accuracy for piglets when previously detected reproductive trait QTL markers were included in the prediction model.Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the use of genomic predictions of West African clones using training data from a Ugandan population as a pre-emptive breeding strategy for CBSD resistance. Specifically we tested CBSD prediction accuracies for (i) different sizes of training populations across genomic prediction models (ii) random and optimized training sets, (iii) models with incorporation of prior CBSD QTL, and (iv) high and low density marker panels.The training population comprised 922 clones, combined from two experimental trials. For consistency, we refer to the trials as training population 1 (TP1) and training population 2 (TP2). A total of 400 clones (TP1) were generated from crossing diverse parents that were assembled from International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Tanzania, and National Crops Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI), Uganda. The introductions from CIAT targeted improvement for quality and yield traits, while the germplasm from the IITA, Tanzania and NaCRRI breeding programs targeted resistance to CBSD.Crosses were made among the progenitors to generate TP1 in 2009-2010, from which both controlled crosses and open-pollinated seeds were harvested. After seedling evaluation, the first clonal evaluation for TP1 was done at Namulonge in 2012-2013 by conducting an un-replicated experiment, and afterward expanded to three sites (Kasese, Ngetta and Namuloge) for the second year of clonal evaluation, planted in alpha lattice design, in single row plots of 10 plants, replicated twice.The second training population (TP2) comprised 522 clones, generated from open-pollinated seeds that were harvested from the first clonal evaluation trial of TP1. Similar to TP1, after a year of seedling evaluation (2013-2014), TP2 was planted for the first clonal evaluations in 2014 at two sites (Namulonge and Kamuli). In 2015, TP2 was replanted for the second year of clonal evaluation, with the trials expanded to three sites (Namulonge, Kamuli, Serere). Thus, Namulonge was the only overlapping evaluation site between TP1 and TP2. The clonal evaluations for TP2 were established in an augmented incomplete block design with six common checks per block, and each plot within a block containing 10 plants established in a single row. Planting of all the trials was done at spacing of 1 m • 1 m adopted within and between rows, while blocks were separated by 2 m alleys.Data on foliar CBSD severity was collected at three and six months after planting (MAP), while the roots were evaluated for CBSD severity at 12 MAP. Foliar severity for CBSD was assessed on a scale of 1-5 (Hillocks and Thresh 2000), where: 1 = no symptom; 2 = slight foliar chlorotic leaf mottle with no stem lesions; 3 = foliar chlorotic leaf mottle and blotches with mild stem lesions, but no die back; 4 = foliar chlorotic leaf mottle and blotches with pronounced stem lesions, but no die back; and 5 = defoliation with stem lesions and dieback. To assess root necrosis severity, each root was sliced transversely 5-7 times and the cross-sections scored for necrotic symptoms on a scale of 1-5 (Hillocks and Thresh 2000), where: 1 = no necrosis, 2 = # 5% necrotic; 3 = 6-10% necrotic; 4 = 11-25% necrotic and mild root constriction; and 5 = .25% necrotic and severe root constriction.In 2015, we received a total of 95 clones that constituted part of IITA, Nigeria genetic gain population for implementing genomic selection (Wolfe et al., 2017). These clones were shipped to Uganda in the form of tissue culture plantlets. The first set of 30 clones was received in February 2015 and the second lot of 65 clones was received in June 2015. The plantlets were multiplied in tissue culture and further hardened in a screen house for three months.In August and November 2015, the first set of 30 and the second set of 65 clones were planted in the field at Namulonge. This was done to generate adequate stem cuttings for establishment of replicated field trials. In September 2016, we established a trial for the first set of 27 clones that survived, in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) replicated twice, with each plot containing 10 plants in a single row.For the second set of 65 clones, unfortunately we lost more than half of the clones due to drought that occurred a month after their first field exposure in 2015. The remaining 22 clones that survived were planted in November 2016, again using an RCBD, replicated twice. In contrast to the first set of 27 clones, there was only enough planting material for five plants per plot. Cassava brown streak disease phenotyping was conducted as described previously. All infections occurred under natural conditions.Approximately 100 mg of fresh tissue was collected from tender apical leaves of TP1 and TP2 clones for DNA extraction. DNA was extracted following the protocol for the QIAGEN DNeasy extraction kit and quantified using the PicoGreen DNA quantification kit to ensure the required concentrations were obtained for sequencing. The extracted DNA samples were shipped to the Cornell University Genomics Diversity Facility for genotyping, using the genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) approach (Elshire et al., 2011). The GBS libraries were constructed using the ApeKI restriction enzyme as described previously (Rabbi et al., 2014).Marker genotypes were called using TASSEL GBS pipeline v4 (Glaubitz et al., 2014), after aligning the reads to the Cassava reference genome v6 (Prochnik et al., 2012). Using VCFtools, Variant Calling Format (VCF) files were generated for each chromosome. Genotypes with less than five reads were masked before imputation. Similarly, markers with more than 60% missing calls were removed. Only bi-allelic GBS SNP markers were considered for further processing. Missing markers were imputed using Beagle 4.1 software (Browning and Browning 2016), with default parameter settings. In all, 46,760 SNPs remained, which we referred to as the \"GBS\" markers.In addition, we used a second set of markers, which we referred to as \"whole genome sequence\" imputed (or \"WGS-imputed\") markers. Using IMPUTE2 software, the GBS samples were imputed to a marker set equivalent to what we would get from actual whole genome sequencing. The details of the imputation procedure are described by Lozano et al., (2017). Briefly, the WGS imputation relied on the cassava HapMapII, a collection of 241 genome-sequenced samples (Ramu et al., 2017) as a reference panel. This reference panel comprised mainly of improved cassava clones under cultivation and a few wild relatives, and contained $28 million SNP markers (Lozano et al., 2017). The set of markers referred to as \"WGS-imputed\" hereafter, included $5 million SNPs, after filtering for minor allele frequencies (MAF) $ 0.01.Analyses of phenotypic data: Because of differences in trial design for TP1 and TP2 as well as the IITA clones, two-step genomic prediction analyses were done. In the first step of the analyses, linear mixed models accounting for each trial's design were fitted and de-regressed BLUPs were obtained for TP1 and TP2. For TP1, we fitted the model:using the lmer function from the lme4 R package (R Development Core Team 2008). In this model, b defined the fixed effect for the population mean and location, with X as the corresponding incidence matrix. The incidence matrix Z clone and the vector c represented random effect for clones c $ Nð0; Is 2 c Þ, and I represented the identity matrix. The range variable, which was the row or column along which plots were arrayed, was nested in location-replication and was represented by the incidence matrix Z range(loc.) and random effects vector r $ Nð0; Is 2 r Þ. Block effects were nested in ranges and incorporated as random term with incidence matrix Z block(range) and effects vector b $ Nð0; Is 2 b Þ. Residuals e were distributed as e $ Nð0; Is 2 e Þ. For TP2 (522 clones), we fitted the linear mixed modelwhere y was the vector of raw phenotypes, b included a fixed effect for the population mean and location with checks included as a covariate. The incidence matrix Z clone and the vector c were similar for both TP1 and TP2. The blocks were also modeled with incidence matrix Z block , and b represented the random effect for the blocks. The best linear unbiased predictors (BLUPs) of the clone effects were extracted as de-regressed BLUPs following the formula proposed by Garrick et al., (2009).Here, PEV represented the prediction error variances for the BLUPs and s 2 c was the clone variance. For the IITA clones, we fitted the following mixed model:Where y was a vector of raw phenotypes, b included a fixed effect for the population mean. The incidence matrix Z clone and the vector c represented random effect for clones c $ Nð0; Is 2 c Þ and I represented the identity matrix, and the replication nested in the trials was modeled with incidence matrix Z repðtrialÞ , with random effect b representing replications nested within trial for the first set of 27 and second set of 22 clones, with 14 overlapping clones between the sets. The best linear unbiased predictors (BLUPs) were extracted from the model and subsequently used as the validation data for estimation of genomic prediction accuracies of CBSD for the 35 unique IITA clones. In addition, variance components were extracted from the model to compute plot based broad-sense heritability estimates.Population structure: To assess population structure, we used the GBS markers of TP1, TP2, and the 35 IITA clones. These markers were filtered to have MAF $ 0.01 and formatted as a dosage matrix with SNP genotypes coded as -1, 0, or +1. Principal component analysis (PCA) was done on the SNP matrix, using the prcomp function in R. The first two principal components (PC) were used to visualize population structure.Cross-validation prediction accuracies for IITA clones: Weestimated prediction accuracies for foliar CBSD severities evaluated at three (CBSD3s) and six (CBSD6s) months, and root severity at 12 months (CBSDRs), using a fivefold cross validation scheme, replicated 10 times for IITA clones from a single-step genomic best linear unbiased predictor (G-BLUP) model. For each replication in the cross-validation scheme, the 35 IITA clones were randomly divided into five groups of 7 clones each (folds). Four groups at a time were used as the training population to build the prediction model, while excluding the fifth group, which was used as the model validation set. This was repeated for all the 5-folds for each of the 10 replications. Prediction accuracies were computed as the Pearson correlation coefficient between the genomic estimated breeding values predicted for the validation set and the corresponding BLUPs obtained from the first-step of the analysis for 35 unique individuals in the test set (IITA clones).Genomic prediction of CBSD for IITA clones: We tested genomic prediction accuracies under four scenarios: (i) optimized training populations across genomic selection models (ii) optimized vs. random subset training populations for G-BLUP only (iii) models with inclusion of kernels defined by chromosomes on which CBSD QTL have been found (single and multi-kernel G-BLUP models), and (iv) high and low density marker panels for G-BLUP model.To optimize the training population, we used the selection of training population with a genetic algorithm (STPGA), GenAlgForSubsetSelection, from the R package STPGA (Akdemir et al., 2015). The algorithm identifies a subset of a specified size from a larger pool of potential training individuals. To do this, STPGA finds the set of individuals that minimize the mean prediction error variance (mean PEV) expected for test set, using molecular marker data.For STPGA training population optimization, we used the first 50 principal components (PC's) of the eigenvalue decomposition of the marker matrix as a dimension reduction approach. The pool of potential training individuals was the combined TP1 and TP2 (N = 922) described above and the target or test set were the IITA clones. We optimized 20 training populations within each size of training population specified in STPGA. In scenario (i), the optimum training populations for each training population size (100, 200, 400, 800 and full set = 922) were used to predict CBSD with four genomic prediction models namely; G-BLUP, Bayes-A, Bayes-B and Bayesian Lasso (Lorenz et al., 2011;Heslot et al., 2012).Under scenario (ii), we tested the performance of STPGA by comparing the optimized sets from scenario (i) with random subsets of the same size. We chose to compare optimized and random sets for population of sizes of 200 and 400, based on results from analyses in scenario (i), and for each training size we compared 20 sets for both random and optimized TPs, using G-BLUP model because of it robustness and computational efficiency.In the single kernel model, all GBS markers were fitted with one realized genomic relationship matrix K, according to the formula described by VanRaden, ( 2008). The relationship matrix was constructed using A.mat function in rrBLUP package (Endelman 2011). The model was specified as:g Þ and e $ Nð0; Is 2 e Þ, where y was the vector of de-regressed BLUPs, u 0 was an overall population mean, Z was the design matrix linking observations to genomic values, g was the vector of genomic estimated breeding values for each clone, and e was the vector of residuals. We assumed, g had a known covariance structure defined by the realized genomic relationship matrix K.Previously, QTL for CBSD have been reported on chromosomes 4 and 11 (Kawuki et al., 2016;Kayondo et al., 2018). We used all the markers on the two chromosomes (Chr.4 and 11) because significant markers covered essentially the whole of Chr. 4 for CBSD6s and about half of Chr. 11 for both CBSD3s and CBSD6s (Kayondo et al., 2018). Therefore, we also fitted a multi-kernel G-BLUP model with two realized genomic relationship matrices, constructed using A.mat function as described above. In this model, the first genomic relationship matrix incorporated all markers from both chromosome 4 and 11, while the second genomic relationship matrix was derived from the rest of the genomic markers. The model was:Here, y was the vector of de-regressed BLUPs, u 0 was an overall mean, Z was the design matrix linking observations to genomic values, q was the vector of genomic values captured by combined QTL markers linked to CBSD resistance, r was the vector of genomic values captured by the remaining set of genetic markers, and e was a vector of residuals. The random genetic effects for both kernels with their variance-covariance structure K, and the residuals were assumed to be normally distributed as q $ Nð0; K q s 2 q Þ, r $ Nð0; K r s 2 r Þ and e $ Nð0; Is 2 e Þ. Furthermore,wefittedamulti-kernelG-BLUPmodelwiththree genomic relationship matrices, where the first and second realized genomic relationship matrices were defined by all the markers on chromosomes 4 and 11 respectively, while the third kernel contained markers from the remaining 16 chromosomes. The model was:Here, y was the vector of de-regressed BLUPs, u 0 was an overall mean, Z was the design matrix linking observations to genomic values, p and s were the vectors of genomic values captured by QTL markers on chromosome 4 and 11 respectively, r was the vector of genomic values captured by the remaining set of genetic markers, and e was the vector of residuals. The random effects, including the residual-term were assumed to be normally distributed as p $ Nð0; K p s 2 p Þ, $ Nð0; K s s 2 s Þ, r $ Nð0; K r s 2 r Þ and e $ Nð0; Is 2 e Þ. For both single and multi-kernel G-BLUP analyses, we used the two EMMREML functions, emmreml and emmremlMultiKernel to fit single and multi-kernel G-BLUP models respectively (Akdemir and Okeke 2015). Lastly, we tested prediction accuracies of CBSD3s, CBSD6s and CBSDRs using high-density (WGS-imputed) markers and compared that to low-density (GBS) markers used in the analyses described above. For the high-density set, we fitted the single-and multi-kernel G-BLUP models described above, using training populations of 200 and 400 clones that were optimized using either the GBS or the WGS markers. Because the results of these two optimizations were quite similar, we only reported results from the GBS optimizations.All the raw phenotypic and genotypic data are available at the link provided for references. Supplemental material available at Figshare: https://doi.org/10.25387/g3.7242851.Population structure, heritability and cross-validation within IITA clones Principal component analyses on the SNP marker matrix showed no genetic differentiation among the TP1, TP2 and IITA clones. This was supported by PC1 and PC2 explaining only 8.75% and 5.69% of the total genetic variations, respectively (Figure 1 and Figure S6). Estimates of plotbasis broad-sense heritability (H 2 ) were computed for CBSD3s, CBSD6s and CBSDRs for the 35 IITA clones (Table 1). Broad-sense heritability estimates spanned from 0.42 to 0.64 for CBSD3s and CBSDRs respectively. In addition to broad-sense heritability, we estimated narrow-sense heritability for IITA clones using a single step G-BLUP model.The lowest and highest narrow-sense heritability of 0.35 and 0.69 were recorded for CBSD3s and CBSDRs, respectively (Figure 2). The average prediction accuracies from fivefold cross-validation replicated 10 times for the IITA clones were 0.40, 0.21 and 0.08 for CBSD3s, CBSD6s and CBSDRs, respectively (Figure 2). We did not do cross validation within the training set here, because the training population was previously cross-validated (Kayondo et al., 2018). Previous predictive accuracy for CBSD-related traits, had mean values across methods of 0.29 (CBSD3s), 0.40 (CBSD6s) and 0.34 (CBSDRs) for cross-validation within NaCRRI training set.In general, the mean CBSD prediction accuracies were higher for foliar than root necrosis for the different optimized training population sizes  across genomic prediction models (Table 2). For CBSD3s, the prediction accuracies ranged from 0.24 (Bayes-A) to 0.36 (Bayesian Lasso). Prediction accuracies spanned from 0.14 (Bayesian Lasso) to 0.28 (G-BLUP) for CBSD6s. For CBSDRs, accuracies included negative values, ranging from -0.29 (Bayes-A) to 0.11 (Bayes-A) across different optimized training sets. The models did not differ much in terms of their prediction accuracies for three traits (CBSD3s, CBSD6s and CBSDRs) across optimized training populations of 100, 200, 400, 800, and full set of 922 clones. Surprisingly, Bayesian Lasso consistently had higher prediction accuracies than the other three prediction models (G-BLUP, Bayes-A and Bayes-B) for CBSD3s across the optimized TP sizes, but performed worse than those three models for CBSD6s across optimized TPs (Table 2).Prediction accuracies for optimized training populations across the four models tested increased from 100 to 400 for CBSD3s to attain a plateau and declined as the optimized training population was increased to 800 and the full set of 922 clones. However, no clear trend in prediction accuracies were observed for CBSDRs for the different sizes of optimized training population (Table 2).We compared CBSD prediction accuracies from random and optimized training populations of size 200 and 400 clones using the G-BLUP model. We chose these two sample sizes because they maximized prediction accuracies for CBSD3s and CBSD6s (Table 2). For both 200 and 400 clones, the prediction accuracies were higher for optimized training sets than for the random subsets for CBSD3s and CBSD6s (Figure 3; Table S6). For example, at training population size of 200, the mean prediction accuracies for CBSD3s and CBSD6s were 0.27 and 0.28 compared to 0.11 and -0.01 for the corresponding random subsets. Similarly, at training population size of 400 clones, the mean prediction accuracies for CBSD3s and CBSD6s were 0.32 and 0.19 relative to 0.10 and 0.04 for the random subsets (Figure 3; Table S7). We observed markedly lower standard errors as measures of variation in prediction accuracies across the traits for the optimized training populations, compared to the random subsets (Figure 3). However, no strong differences were observed for CBSDRs (Figure 3).In general, foliar CBSD prediction accuracies for training population size of 200 and 400 were higher for multi-kernel models (K_2 and K_3) with separate kernels fitted for CBSD QTL chromosome markers than single kernel (K_1) G-BLUP models (Figure 4). Prediction accuracies for CBSD3s increased from 0.27 for the single kernel G-BLUP, termed as \"K_1\" model to 0.31 for two-kernel G-BLUP model referred to as \"K_2\", and to 0.32 for the three-kernel model referred to as \"K_3\" in the optimized TPs of 200 clones (Figure 4; Table S8). Similarly, for CBSD6s, prediction accuracies increased from 0.28 for single kernel G-BLUP model to 0.37 with three-kernels (Figure 4; Table S8). No such increase was observed for CBSDRs. Notably, the mean prediction accuracies for CBSD3s and CBSD6s from multi-kernel G-BLUP models were statistically significantly different (P # 0.05) from zero. Nevertheless, no differences were observed for CBSDRs prediction accuracies between single-and multi-kernel G-BLUP models at TP size of 200.For the optimized training population size of 400, a similar trend of increased prediction accuracies was observed from single-to CBSD3s = Cassava brown streak disease severity scored at three months, CBSD6s = Cassava brown streak disease severity scored at six months, CBSDRs = Cassava brown streak disease root severity scored at 12 months; TP100, TP200, TP400, TP800 and TP922 = Optimized training populations of size 100, 200, 400, 800 and a full set of 922 clones, ns = non-significant prediction accuracies (r), Ã accuracy significantly different from zero (P # 0.05). multi-kernel G-BLUP models for both CBSD3s and CBSD6s. The mean prediction accuracies for CBSD6s were not significantly different from zero. Prediction accuracies did not vary much for CBSDRs between single-and multi-kernel G-BLUP models (Figure 4; Table S9).Comparing prediction accuracies for high (WGS-imputed) and low (GBS) density markers Single kernel G-BLUP prediction accuracies for CBSD3s and CBSDRs were higher for WGS-imputed, than GBS markers for both optimized training population sizes of 200 and 400 clones (Figure 5). For CBSD6s, however, predictions accuracies were lower for high-density (WGS-imputed) at both training population sizes. For single kernel G-BLUP, prediction accuracies for CBSD3s and CBSDRs increased from 0.27 to 0.35, and -0.03 to 0.18 from low to high-density marker sets at the optimized training population size of 200 clones (Table S11). Similarly, predictions accuracies for CBSD3s and CBSDRs increased from 0.32 to 0.39, and -0.01 to 0.16 from low-density (GBS) and high-density (WGS-imputed) markers for the training populations of 400 clones (Figure 5; Table S12). The second kernel is defined by the remaining markers. K_3= Multi-kernel G-BLUP, the first and second kernels are defined by markers from chromosomes 4 and 11 respectively, and third kernel is defined by the remaining markers. Fitting multi-kernel G-BLUP models including kernels defined by markers on CBSD QTL chromosomes 4 and 11 for high-density markers did not always increase prediction accuracies (Tables S11 and S12). The highest prediction accuracy of 0.44 (CBSD3s) was recorded from the multi-kernel G-BLUP model, fitted with high density (WGS-imputed) markers for the optimized training population of 400 clones (Table S12). In other cases, prediction accuracies actually dropped from single-to multi-kernel models. For example, prediction accuracy for CBSD3s dropped from 0.35 for single-kernel to 0.32 for multi-kernel (three kernels) at the training population size of 200 clones (Table S11). Overall, the prediction accuracies for high and low-density marker sets were similar between the multi-kernel models regardless of the optimized training population size (Tables S11 and S12).Cassava brown streak disease (CBSD) caused by Uganda cassava brown streak virus (UCBSV) and cassava brown streak virus (CBSV) has continued to be a major threat to cassava productivity in southern, eastern and central parts of Africa. Recently, CBSD causing viruses were declared the leading biological enemy to cassava productions in CBSD endemic zones of Sub-Sahara Africa (Legg et al., 2014). Concerted efforts such as quarantine, disease surveillance, and breeding for resistance have taken center-stage to prevent further spread of CBSD to W. Africa, especially Nigeria, the world's largest producer and consumer of cassava. In this paper, we leveraged genome-wide prediction approaches as a potential means to enable pre-emptive breeding for CBSD resistance in W. Africa.For optimized training populations of 100, 200, 400, 800 and 922 clones, the highest prediction accuracies were observed at the training population sizes of 200 (G-BLUP) and 400 (Bayes-B) clones for CBSD6s and CBSD3s respectively. Our findings were similar to that of Wolfe et al. (2017), where prediction accuracy of 0.37 for CMD was observed for both the smallest and largest optimized training sizes of 300 and 900, respectively in cross-population prediction, suggesting that accuracies similar to that of the full set can be obtained with a small but carefully selected TP in relation to the test set.Overall, the cross-population prediction accuracies for IITA clones, based on optimized training populations and various prediction models (spanning 0.24 to 0.36), were comparable for CBSD3s to those reported previously for the cross-validation within NaCRRI training set, ranging from 0.27 to 0.32 (Kayondo et al., 2018). In contrast, for CBSD6s, our prediction accuracies (0.14 to 0.28) were lower than accuracies reported by Kayondo et al. (2018), which ranged from 0.40 to 0.42. The similarity in foliar CBSD prediction accuracy for CBSD3s indicates some genetic signal for CBSD foliar symptom expression for IITA clones was captured by optimal NaCRRI training subsets. Unfortunately, our cross-population prediction accuracies for CBSDRs for optimized TPs were generally lower than the accuracies reported for cross-validation within NaCRRI training population for CBSDRs. In part, the negative prediction accuracies for CBSDR could be explained by GxE interaction for TP1 and TP2 (Table S13 and Figure S4). However, the GxE variances relative to genetic variances were low and therefore unlikely to explain fully the poor prediction accuracies observed for CBSD root necrosis in W. African clones. Also, we observed stronger linkage disequilibrium (LD) in NaCRRI training set than in the IITA test population (Figure S7), suggesting some differences in the LD decay rate between the two populations, which could partly explain the low prediction accuracies observed for CBSDRs in W. African clones. In such a case, there is need to first phenotype clones of W. African descent (i.e., belonging to the W. African subpopulation) in E. Africa, and subsequently use the data generated for predicting CBSD resistance in W. African clones. One option would be to send many W. African clones to E. Africa as tissue culture plantlets. As observed in this study, cost and mortality are high for this option. Another possibility would be to send botanical seeds of W. African clones to E. Africa for evaluation.We did not observe consistent superior performance for any of the prediction models that we tested or for any of the CBSD traits analyzed. Several studies have reported similar results in that most prediction models perform similarly (Jannink et al., 2010;Heslot et al., 2012;Roorkiwal et al., 2016). Even though the models tested in the present study assumed different distributions of marker effects (Meuwissen et al., 2001;Lorenz et al., 2011), their similarity in prediction accuracies could be interpreted as approximation to optimal genomic prediction models, where all the models capture the same or similar QTL effects across the genome (Su et al., 2014). In such a situation, the choice of GS model would be less important than the actual design of the training population for across-population predictions.Prediction accuracies can be improved by targeting more informative individuals in the reference panel used to generate the predictions and this has been demonstrated in several crop species (Rincent et al., 2012;Akdemir et al., 2015). In general, we observed higher prediction accuracies for CBSD3s and CBSD6s from optimized compared with randomly selected training set of the same size. For example, at TP size of 200 clones, our prediction accuracies for CBSD3s was 0.27 with the optimized compared to 0.11 from the random subset. Similar findings were made by Wolfe et al. (2017), where STPGA-optimized training populations performed better than random subsets for a number of important cassava traits, including dry matter content (DMC), harvest index (HI), mean cassava mosaic disease and plant vigor. Our results, therefore, serve to further stress the importance of training population optimization for cross-population prediction.Studies have shown increased prediction accuracies with inclusion of prior QTL information in genomic prediction models. For example, a study by Haffliger, (2016) for reproductive traits in Swiss pig breeds revealed a significant increase in prediction accuracy for piglets when previously detected reproductive trait QTL markers were included in the prediction model. From the training population used in this study, two recent studies identified CBSD QTL on chromosomes 4 for CBSD3s and CBSD6s, and 11 for CBSD6s and CBSDRs (Kawuki et al., 2016;Kayondo et al., 2018). In addition, bi-parental mapping studies have had similar results (Masumba et al., 2017;Nzuki et al., 2017). In an attempt to improve across-population prediction accuracies for CBSD symptoms, we chose to directly model the Chromosome 4 and 11 (Chr.4 and Chr.11) QTL by incorporating random effects for the markers on those chromosomes into our prediction. Prediction accuracies increased for CBSD3s and CBSD6s, but not for CBSDRs. The benefit was greatest for prediction accuracy of CBSD6s which increased by 9%, when three realized relationship matrices (Chr. 4 + Chr. 11 + the rest, optimized set of 200) were modeled. Although the percentage increase in prediction accuracies was less for the optimized TPs of 400 clones, we still observed increased prediction accuracies for CBSD6s, again when three relationship matrices were fitted. We observed a much higher increase in prediction accuracies for G-BLUP models that included the CBSD QTL as separate random effects, compared to the only marginal increase in prediction accuracies of 1.7% for CBSD3s and 2.5% for CBSDRs reported previously (Lozano et al., 2017).The higher prediction accuracies we observed by accounting for the CBSD QTL suggests that the development of genomic resources for cassava (Prochnik et al., 2012), the identification of QTL by GWAS (Wolfe et al., 2016;Lozano et al., 2017;Kayondo et al., 2018) and candidate genes by bioinformatics (Lozano et al., 2015) can provide benefits for genomic prediction, particularly in across-population prediction scenarios.In the present study, prediction accuracies for CBSD3s and CBSDRs were 8% and 18% higher for high-density (WGS-imputed) markers than low-density (GBS) markers from single kernel G-BLUP model for the optimized training population of size of 200 clones (Table S11). Several studies have demonstrated increased prediction accuracies as a function of increase marker density (Peixoto et al., 2016;Wang et al., 2017). In a recent study, using NaCRRI training population, prediction for CBSD-related traits, in a single kernel G-BLUP model was not improved by whole-genome imputation (Lozano et al., 2017). On the other hand, in a simulation study for across population genomic prediction in dairy cattle, De Roos et al., (2009) reported higher prediction accuracies, similar to the improvement we observed for CBSD3s and CBSDRs, when more markers were included in the model. The study concluded that the reliability of genomic predictions across populations is determined by the consistency of marker-QTL allelic phase between the populations. The more diverged the populations are, the denser the markers must be to ensure preservation of marker-QTL phase across the populations. Increased prediction accuracies for CBSD3s and CBSDRs in this study, could therefore be a result of whole genome sequence imputed markers more reliably capturing the correct marker-CBSD QTL phase across the two populations. Since the only additional cost incurred in generating WGSimputed markers is computational time, we believe that imputing the GBS markers to higher-density would benefit even poorly resourced breeding programs.We have presented the first empirical validation of genomic prediction for cassava brown streak disease across populations. Based on our results, training population optimization provided a benefit of increased prediction accuracies over random subset and full set of training population for foliar cassava brown streak disease. More importantly, inclusion of prior CBSD QTL information in our genomic prediction models reasonably increased foliar CBSD prediction increased for W. African clones. Furthermore, whole genome sequence imputed markers increased prediction accuracies for CBSD3s and CBSDRs. Future efforts to better predict CBSD resistance in W. Africa clones could focus initially on testing progeny from W. African germplasm, and later use the progeny evaluation data to train CBSD prediction models in W. African. Lastly, further research should target a much larger number of W. African test clones than we used in the current study.","tokenCount":"6523"}