IITA Bulletin 2329

The IITA

CGIAR

No. 2329

6 –10 June 2016

Stakeholders map out STMA workplan for West Africa

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est African stakeholders involved in the implementation of the project Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) convened at IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria, to take stock of the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) Project and map out its 2016/17 workplan.

During the workshop, held 30 May−–2 June, participants from the West African target countries (Benin, Ghana, Mali, and Nigeria) appraised the concluded DTMA project and drew lessons to be adopted for the commencing STMA project.

“STMA will draw from the success and lessons of DTMA,” said Tsedeke Abate, STMA project leader, at the beginning of the workshop. The DTMA project, which aimed to address drought and other constraints to maize production in sub-Saharan Africa, successfully developed and deployed over 230 hybrids and open pollinated varieties (OPVs). Millions of farmers benefited from the outputs of the project, which included backstopping national seed companies. In 2014 alone, DTMA provided seed for 5.7 million households, benefiting nearly 45 million people,” Abate highlighted.

In her keynote address, Ylva Hillbur, IITA Deputy Director General, Research for Development, chronicled the significant role DTMA has had in catalyzing the establishment of seed companies in all the partner countries. Prior to the inception of DTMA there were a few or no seed companies in the partner countries. With a good number of outstanding intermediate, early, and extra-early maize hybrids developed and made available during the project, there has been an ever increasing demand for seed varieties, which has driven the emergence of seed companies in the subregion. Presently, there are about 150 seed companies established in Nigeria, 14 in Ghana, 10 in Mali, and 3 in Benin.

Abebe Menkir outlines the STMA project objectives to project implementers.

STMA will build on these successes and develop new maize varieties with resistance and tolerance to drought, low soil fertility, heat, pests, and diseases.

The new stress tolerant varieties and hybrids are expected to increase maize productivity by 30–50% and provide 5.5 million smallholder farmers with improved maize varieties in the target countries.

“The project will emphasize the use of innovative breeding tools and techniques, increased commercialization, and strong partnerships with public and private sectors partners,” explained Abebe Menkir, IITA Maize Breeder.

seed production, upgrading of irrigation and storage facilities, training in the techniques of seed production and seed business management, as well as technical backstopping.

The 4-day workshop closed with an award ceremony chaired by Robert Asiedu, Director, Research for Development, for IITA-West Africa, and Melaku Gedil, head of IITA’s Bioscience Center.

Ghana received the best team award for technology dissemination with Mali as the runner-up, while the best team award for maize breeding went to Nigeria with Benin Republic as the runner-up.

Speaking on the strategies for certified Each country was awarded a prize in seed production of stress tolerant maize recognition of their successful work on the under the STMA Project, Baffour Badu- DTMA project.

Apraku, an IITA Maize Breeder, indicated that STMA aims to support and strengthen The STMA project is coordinated by the the various categories of indigenous International Maize and Wheat Improvement STMA partner seed companies in West Center (CIMMYT) and IITA. It is funded by Africa in diverse ways. These would be in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the form of funds for demonstrations and the United States Agency for International field days, breeder, pre-basic, and basic Development.

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YIIFSWA organizes workshops to share experiences among yam farmers after exchange visits

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he goal of the Yam Improvement for Income and Food Security in West Africa (YIIFSWA) project is to work towards its 10-year vision of doubling the incomes from yam for three million smallholder farming families who depend on the crop in West Africa, and contribute to food security for producers and consumers. In the next five years the project has opted to increase yam productivity (yield and net output) by 40% for 200,000 smallholder yam farmers (90% with less than 2 acres) in Ghana and Nigeria; and deliver key global good research products that will contribute to the longer term vision of improving yam productivity and livelihoods of yam dependent farmers.

YIIFSWA Yam Seed System Specialist Beatrice Aighewi addresses workshop participants.

To reach these targets, the project seeks to make quality seed more available and affordable to yam farmers by changing the traditional methods of production using dual crops. Training have been organized at different levels for stakeholders involved in seed yam production. For farmers this has mostly been done through demonstration and learning plots. Trainees were encouraged to separate seed from ware yam production so that the seed could be accorded the appropriate management required to improve quality.

communicate to its informal seed yam system farmers and traders are largely present there.

To reinforce the need to establish seed production systems, stakeholders were invited to visit seed yam farmers and traders of Illushi, Edo State of Nigeria, whose economic activities are centered on seed yam production and marketing.

Illushi, located on the banks of River Niger, is a place with many dedicated seed yam farmers, producing on a large scale to feed a market dedicated solely to the sale of seed yams. The lessons and practices that YIIFSWA seeks to

A lot of interaction took place between the hosts and visitors, who were greatly impressed with what they saw and heard. During the vegetative growth stage, they observed a healthy looking crop (no visible disease symptoms), clean fields, planting on ridges, and medium to large-scale production. In the market they saw well-graded seed tubers that were neatly displayed for sale by lots of 200 tubers per variety. The comments of the visitors indicated that the lessons

Fifty-eight participants comprising yam farmers, technical staff of research institutes, seed companies as well as agricultural extension officers from Ghana and other parts of Nigeria visited Illushi. They went in two batches; the first set visited seed yam fields in production in September 2015, while the second batch went in early May 2016 to observe marketing of the produce.

learned during the one-day interaction were more than those learned during months of training that many of them had received.

A series of workshops was thus organized on 16−28 May in Nigeria and Ghana for farmers who visited Illushi to share their experiences with those who were not privileged to be part of it.

So far, six of such workshops have taken place; three each in Nigeria (Abuja, Idah, and Isukwato) and Ghana (Tamale, Kintampo, and Atebubu-Amantin) involving a total of 283 participants.

With the new knowledge gained on the seed yam enterprise, participants came up with different ideas and strategies in starting seed yam markets in their localities.

The workshops were coordinated by Beatrice Aighewi, the Yam Seed System Specialist of YIIFSWA and organized by the Country Managers of Nigeria and Ghana, John Ikeorgu and Haruna Braimah, respectively.

Announcements • 7th Africa Agricultural Science Week and FARA General Assembly, Kigali, Rwanda, 12-17 June. More information available at http://www.faraafrica.org/aasw7/.

• Africa RISING ESA project review and planning meeting, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, 30 June -2 July • Africa RISING - NAFAKA scaling project review and planning meeting, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, 4-5 July • 3rd All Africa Horticultural Congress, Theme: “Horticultural for Improved Livelihoods”, Conference Center, IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria, 7-12 August.

• 7th International Nitrogen Initiative Conference, Melbourne, Australia, 4–8 December.

More details on the conference are available here.

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Using video to promote improved potato seed quality in southwestern Uganda – Preliminary results from a randomized intervention

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n Uganda, low quality of potato seed is a major contributor to low potato yields among smallholder farmers. This finding was one of the main conclusions from an ongoing policy research project (PASIC).

The research, led by the Ugandan Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industries and Fisheries (MAAIF) with support from IITA, IFPRI and EPRC, collected socioeconomic and agronomic data on potato and rice farmers in Uganda to identify barriers to sustainable crop intensification.

While providing access to basic seeds, pathogen-free planting materials sourced from foundation seeds should remain a key policy priority; formal seeds systems in developing countries are often too weak to be brought to scale and farmers mostly rely on recycled seeds. Therefore, the research tried out two short-term, smallscale solutions at the farmer level that are likely to improve the available stock of seeds in the region.

A first solution tries to revive what is in fact an indigenous technology, but has been neglected somewhat since the government committed to providing access to basic seeds to farmers. It is a technique known as Positive Seed Selection (PSS) and has been shown to work in neighboring countries in field trials. Currently, just prior to the harvest, farmers are often hungry and in need of money. They will often uproot the strongest plants first and sell or eat the tubers. When the time comes to start planting potatoes again, farmers are left with the smallest tubers from weak and diseased plants, affecting the next harvest, leading to fast degeneration of the seed stock. PSS aims to turn this cycle around and teaches farmers to peg the strongest plants already at flowering stage for continuous followup. These strong and disease-free

A farmer is being shown a video on PSS at his home.

plants are then harvested first and stored as planting material. Only appropriately sized tubers with sufficient eyes are to be used.

A second solution being tried out in the field relates to proper seed storage and handling (PSSH). Again, currently many farmers store seed in bags in a dark corner inside the house without proper ventilation. This leads to poor seed quality due to rotting and poor sprouting.

The approach explains to farmers the importance of storing seed potato spread out on racks in ventilated areas exposed to diffuse light.

Both solutions are explained as “information treatments,” where short infomercials to individual farmers are shown. One video shows the importance of seed quality and gives information on how to practice PSS. A second video shows the importance of seed quality and gives information on how to practice PSSH. The videos were shown to potato

farmers in Kigezi subregion. Using baseline data, groups of four farmers were matched and randomly allocated to one of four treatments: the PPS video, the PSSH video, both the PPS and PSSH videos, and a control group that does not get to see any video.

During the first half of May 2016, these videos were shown to about 180 farmers at the time when the potato plants started flowering. Farmers will harvest in June 2016 and store potatoes for seeding in the second season of 2016. Planting for the second season is around August 2016. After this season, researchers will go back to the farmers for the end-line.

It will then be determined if PSS and/or PPSH “worked” by comparing outcomes (such as potato yields (kg/ha) or price received for potatoes sold) between farmers that were shown the video(s) and farmers that were not. More information about the project can be obtained from the pre-analysis plan.

Study on fertilizer perception, quality, and use under way in Tanzania

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study has been initiated to dig deeper into factors influencing the use of fertilizers by smallholder farmers in Tanzania and in particular those around quality and pricing issues. The study “Mineral fertilizer quality: implications for smallholder farmers” is being conducted

by Anna Fairbairn, an MSc student in Agriculture and Applied Economics at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign under the supervision of Victor Manyong, IITA Director for Eastern Africa.

Anna Fairbarn gives an overview of the fertilizer perception study.

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The study aims to understand farmers’ perceptions on fertilizers and whether these relate to the quality of the fertilizers and to find out whether there’s any relationship between fertilizer price/packaging and quality, and whether farmers are willing to pay for quality fertilizer, said Fairbairn, while presenting on the progress of her research at a seminar at IITA in Dar es Salaam recently.

“Some farmers have very negative perceptions about fertilizers. Some of the farmers we have interviewed told us that fertilizers ruin their soils and also cause yellowing of crops. Others have complained about the quality of the fertilizers in the market. So in addition to understanding farmers’ perceptions, we will also conduct

quality tests of the fertilizer in the market to ascertain whether their claims are related to the quality of the fertilizers,” Fairbairn said.

The study is also looking at the fertilizer supply system and will interview agrodealers to understand how and where they source and supply their fertilizers, their quality control measures, and also whether pricing is related to quality.

“Most fertilizers are packed in 50-kg bags but most farmers cannot afford this.

Therefore the agrodealers repack the fertilizers in smaller bags. We will find out whether this affects quality and also whether the agrodealers adulterate the fertilizer as they repackage it,” Fairbairn added.

Speaking at the seminar, Manyong said the findings of this study were significant in efforts to encourage and support smallholder farmers to use fertilizers to increase production for food security and to reduce poverty.

The study is being conducted in Mvomero District, Morogoro Region, and has so far interviewed 190 farmers and surveyed 225 agrodealers. Samples of fertilizers have also been collected for quality analysis at the laboratories of the World Agroforesty Centre and CropNuts in Nairobi and Thornton in USA. The research has been supported financially by the Borlaug Fellowship (USAID and Purdue University) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Future of coffee and cocoa farmers under threat from soaring temperatures

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he livelihoods of millions of small smallholder farmers growing coffee and cocoa―and foreign exchange of countries dependent on the two crops―are facing a shaky future if the planet continues to get warmer and no urgent action is taken.

This was said by IITA scientist Laurence Jassogne at a recent seminar titled “Towards climate smart intensification: IITA’s work in coffee and cocoa-based systems” held at the institute’s office in Uganda.

Speaking to IITA staff and partners, Laurence gave an overview of her research which focuses on climate change and its impact on coffee and cocoa yields in subSaharan Africa.

For example, she said, a recent study she was involved in showed that persistent increases in night-time or minimum temperatures recorded over the past 50 years is responsible for a decline in current coffee yields in Tanzania and probably the rest of East Africa.

Using suitability maps developed by her research team and predictive models based on historical and yield data, Laurence showed how the relationship between climate and the coffee crop will play out in the future. The models estimated that increases in minimum temperatures will shrink coffee productivity in Tanzania by 134 kg/ha by 2050―a loss of US$60 million in foreign export earnings per annum.

Laurence said that the effects of increasing temperatures will lead to a dwindling of suitable areas along the mountain slopes where East Africa’s most important coffee

IITA Bulletin 2329

Laurence Jassogne explains the link between climate change and coffee production.

species―the Arabica and Robusta which only thrive in cooler conditions―are cultivated. This development, according to her, may cause farmers to expand cultivation into wildlife reserves further up the mountain slopes with dire consequences for biodiversity and carbon hotspots.

Laurence noted that although climate change threatens coffee and cocoa production, it was just one of many other problems faced by smallholder farmers. She informed the gathering that pests, diseases, gender imbalances in households, low soil fertility, postharvest handling, poor market information and access, inadequate extension services, and a resource-induced unwillingness by farmers to adopt climate smart farming practices are some of the interlinked

problems unearthed by her research that contribute to low productivity levels in coffee systems East Africa. Productivity can be boosted if farmers, especially those challenged by inadequate resources, are actively encouraged to adopt climate smart practices and this Laurence said, is the aim of ongoing attempts to partner with finance and private sector players from the coffee and cocoa sector.

Laurence concluded her presentation by saying that she hopes to continue to study the impact of climate change on coffee and cocoa, and develop and support the adoption of fertilizer recommendations and climate smart mechanisms for coffee and cocoa that will lead to improved livelihoods in and beyond sub-Saharan Africa in future. page 4

AVEC-BF holds cowpea fair and stakeholders meeting to strengthen cowpea value chain

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he Appropriate Varieties of Early maturing Cowpea for the Burkina Faso project (AVEC-BF), collaborating with the Institut de l’Environnement et des Recherches Agricoles in Burkina Faso (INERA) organized a cowpea fair and stakeholders’ meeting in Burkina Faso on 4 June. The convergence aimed to promote interaction among key players and further strengthen the value chain of the crop. The event brought together stakeholders in the cowpea value chain in the country including farmers, seed companies, and marketers.

Two improved cowpea varieties― IT99K-573-2-1 locally known as “Yiisyande” and IT98K-205-8 known locally as “Niizwe” were promoted and displayed during the fair. At a stakeholders’ meeting after the fair, over 98 key players converged to relay milestones and challenges to government agencies as well as AVEC-BF coordinators present. The meeting was also attended by INERA scientists and representatives from the National Seed Service, seed distribution NGOs, cowpea marketers, seed companies, farmers, and a resource person from each of the project target villages.

Haruki Ishikawa, AVEC-BF manager, said the meeting aimed to address the bottlenecks in the production agenda of cowpea producers and establish a better farmer−market linkage that will hopefully

Visitors learn about the various cowpea varieties at the fair.

eradicate the cowpea demand and supply gap in the country. “By showcasing improved varieties at the fair, stakeholders learn about the benefits of adopting improved varieties. Participants have also been grouped according to their functions in terms of marketing and production. This way, we can better understand and address their peculiar needs”.

Ishikawa further stated that a major milestone accomplished by AVEC-BF is identifying the exact quantity of the crop produced in the region vis-à-vis market demands. This information he said would help government and policymakers in planning and allocating resources such as land to farmers.

Looking ahead, the project will provide support to resource persons from participating target villages who will be expected to take home what they learned in the meeting and form farmers’ schools where the ideas will be promoted.

The AVEC-BF project is designed to promote packages of improved cowpea management, establish the rapid dissemination of suitable practices with improved varieties, and capture requirements of farmers using farmer participatory selection schemes. It is funded by the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF).

Local army chief visits IITA

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eneral Commanding Officer, 2 Division, Major General L.C. Ilo and his entourage paid a courtesy visit to IITA, Ibadan on 27 May, to explore partnership opportunities in the areas of agriculture and security.

In his first official visit, Major General Ilo met with IITA management and IITA security manager, David Oluwadare. Topics of discussion centered on promoting agriculture and modern agricultural methods in the barracks for the benefit of soldiers of the Division, including their families, who engage in farming as a secondary occupation; and possible collaboration in the area of security. The group was briefed on IITA operations and was given a tour of the campus.

On the partnership, Major General Ilo stated: “I feel highly elated and privileged to be here with my entourage on my maiden visit to IITA. As a civil servant, the only other IITA Bulletin 2329

L.C. Ilo and entourage discuss partnership opportunities with DDG Kenton Dashiell.

job you can have under the constitution is agriculture. In fact it is encouraged. In our barracks, we have hectares of land that are uncultivated. We find the partnership with you very important and very compelling.

We hope this visit can pave the way for a mutually beneficial relationship.”

Kenton Dashiell, Deputy Director General for Partnerships and Capacity Development, thanked L.C. Ilo for coming and expressed his gratitude towards the Nigerian armed forces for keeping all IITA campuses across Nigeria safe.

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