IITA Bulletin 2306

THE

IITA

CGIAR

No. 2306

14–18 December 2015

IITA launches campaign to stop BBTD in Nigeria

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he ‘Stop Bunchy Top’ campaign to prevent the spread of the Banana Bunchy Top Disease (BBTD) in Nigeria was launched by IITA in partnership with the Nigerian Agriculture Quarantine Service (NAQS), National Horticultural Research Institute (NIHORT), and the Ogun State Ministry of Agriculture on 3 December, in Abeokuta, Ogun State. This campaign seeks to sensitize farmers experiencing the scourge of BBTD infestation and also create awareness among extension workers, policymakers, and farmers in disease-affected areas and elsewhere about the danger of BBTD and control measures, including the need to plant clean banana suckers to prevent their fields from becoming infested.

The ‘Stop Bunchy Top’ campaign was launch 3 December in Ogun State, Nigeria, by IITA and partners.

The campaign was flagged off by Hon. Ibironke Sokefun, Agricultural Commissioner, Ogun State.

Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, former Nigerian President and IITA Ambassador, graced the event. He was concerned with the spread of the new disease in Ogun State, and inquired about the level of efforts being put into controlling the disease.

He praised IITA and partners’ efforts and resolve towards salvaging infested farmlands and also challenged scientists to work assiduously in developing varieties resistant to BBTD.

This is the last issue of the weekly bulletin for the year. The next issue will come out on 8 January 2016. Thank you for your support for the IITA Bulletin.

The Communication Office wishes all staff the very best for 2016!

According to FAO statistics, Nigeria has the largest land area cultivated to plantain in West Africa and is the second largest producer in the region, contributing about 2.8 million tons annually. The crop supports the livelihoods of millions of people in West Africa but has been recently threatened with the appearance of BBTD. BBTD-affected banana stops fruiting and eventually withers. The disease is caused by the Banana bunchy top virus (BBTV), and spread by the banana aphid, Pentalonia nigronervosa.

BBTD was first discovered in Nigeria in 2012 in the Idologun community of Ogun State. Since then, IITA scientists, Lava Kumar and Rachid Hanna, have been collaborating with scientists from NIHORT and NAQS to contain the spread of the deadly disease and also refurbish the plantations of farmers whose fields had been infested.

“As part of the collaborative project with IITA, we have already trained more than 200 farmers in Ogun State and supplied about 8000 clean plantain suckers between 2014 and 2015,” said Adenike Olufolaji, NIHORT Executive Director.

“The training focused on how farmers can identify the disease and also produce clean planting materials. We have also emphasized that clean planting materials must be collected only from certified sources because this is what guarantees a clean orchard and consequently improved productivity.” Hon. Sokefun reiterated government’s commitment to support the campaign and said that it was in the interest of the farmers in the country.

“Some of the decisions resulting from this campaign will be hard for farmers www.iita.org

to initially accept…as government, we pledge to implement the decisions from this gathering today and also continue to work with IITA, NIHORT, and NAQS for the good of farmers,” said Hon. Sokefun.

Farmers who attended the occasion recounted how their farmlands were invaded by the virus and how their yields had decreased since 2013. They added

that intervention in the last two years is ushering in hope to revive production.

Thanking guests and government officials at the launch, Robert Asiedu, IITA Director, West Africa, represented by Kumar, said that IITA appreciates the reception and high level of support from government.

He also pledged to intensify research to ensure effective control.

“I am very optimistic that in another two years when we meet we will share our success stories arising from this collective effort,” Kumar said.

Other guests at the launch ceremony were partners and representatives from the Ogun State Ministry of Agriculture, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Agricultural Development Programs as well as farmers from the State.

COP 21 at the grassroots

Stakeholders meet to launch district climate change learning alliances and develop local adaptation strategies

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s the twenty-first session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 21) was ongoing in Paris on 30 November to 11 December, in both Kilolo and Lushoto districts, various stakeholders came together and established the district climate change learning alliances with the aim of sharing knowledge, strengthening capacity, and pooling synergies for influencing adoption of climate change policies, plans, and budgets in the districts.

Within the Policy Action for Climate Change Adaptation (PACCA) project implementation model, district learning alliances are seen as initiatives intended to bridge policy implementation gaps between national and local levels catalyzing effective policy implementation and climate smart agriculture (CSA) investment planning.

Stakeholders from Lushoto district DC, MAFC, VPO, IITA and PMO -RALG holding hands at the launching of the Lushoto district climate change Learning Alliance.

Cooperatives (MAFC), district officials, civil society, academia, private companies, and representatives from youth initiatives active in the districts. These partners were convened by PACCA, a CCAFS Flagship 4 project led by IITA and implemented in collaboration with CIAT, ILRI, ICRAF, Bioversity, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, and the Vice president’s Office.

Various partners spearheaded the establishment and launch of the Kilolo and Lushoto Learning Alliances. These included the Vice President’s Office, the Prime Minister´s Office Regional Administration “As stakeholders in Kilolo, we can devise our and Local Government (PMO-RALG), the own means of adapting to climate change Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and impacts without necessarily waiting for the

news from Paris,” the District Commissioner of Kilolo stated, emphasizing the need for collective action in his opening remarks.

Studies done in Kilolo by CIAT indicated that differences exist within the districts on the soil status but most importantly the exchangeable cations are way below (3.4 on average) the acceptable productive values (average of 8.0). The study further indicates that there are differences in perceptions of men and women regarding organizations that disseminate information to the community.

Presentations from both districts on the status and progress in addressing climate change issues did not only indicate gaps in the planning, budgeting, and implementation processes, but that different agroecological zones exist within the districts. This was later used as a basis for planning and identification of baskets of Climate Smart Agriculture options that would be locally appropriate.

District climate change learning alliamces formed in (left) Lushoto district with the four derived zones, and (right) Kilolo district with five distinct zones.

IITA Bulletin 2305

The two days of intense participatory work that occurred in each of the district resulted in the identification and description of different livelihood zones (five in Kilolo and four in Lushoto). Each zone reflected, among others, a characterization of priority sources of livelihood. For each of the priority enterprise, information was generated regarding gender and youth roles across page 2

the value chain, impacts of climate change, policy and cultural issues surrounding the enterprise, key intervening actors and their interventions, and tools used to promote adaptation and mitigation.

practical, and innovative ways to address climate change challenges and noted that the learning alliance is clearly one of those innovative ways that create a great opportunity for jointly acquiring solutions.

She pledged support for the initiative both In her closing remarks, the Assistant Director as a regional administration official and for Economic and Productive Sectors at also as a member of the National Climate PMO–RALG, Lucy Ssendi, disclosed that Change Learning Alliance.

Government has always looked for new,

With the first draft of the zonal investment plans ready, the next steps for the District Learning Alliances include the refinement of these plans, working towards prioritizing of the climate-change issues in the district development plans and budgets, in addition to creating strategic partnerships to foster climate change adaptation activities in the area.

AfDB commends SARD-SC project as one of the Bank’s best managed projects

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he SARD-SC project funded by the AfDB has come out tops once again, as the members of the Bank’s Supervisory mission have unequivocally described the project as one of the Bank’s best managed projects. This was the verdict of the AfDB officials who recently undertook the sixth supervisory mission to the IITA/ SARD-SC project, 29 November – 4 December, in Ibadan. The team, led by Ibrahim Amadou, Task Manager, and accompanied by Usman Mohammed, Disbursement Officer; Jaffar Abba, Procurement Officer; and Olufemi OjoFajuyi, Financial Management Consultant, also commended the project team for efficient project implementation and for achieving significant outputs in project SARD-SC staff and AfDB officials during the visit to IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria. countries. institutions (AfricaRice and ICARDA). All of project implementation across all the While welcoming the AfDB officials the staff of the Project Implementation Unit commodity value chains of cassava, to IITA, Chrys Akem, Project of the three key implementing institutions maize, rice, and wheat; as well as within Coordinator, explained that the purpose (IITA, AfricaRice and ICARDA) were the different components (technology of the supervision visit was “to evaluate present at the supervisory mission. and innovation generation, technology the project’s progress and how far it has and innovation dissemination, carried out the Bank’s recommendations The mission activities kicked off with capacity building, and project and also to proffer solutions to issues presentations by the project Commodity management). They also observed that which may have arisen from the last Mid Specialists: Marie Yomeni for cassava, efforts to achieve the various targets set Sam Ajala for maize, Sidi Sanyang for rice, Term Review held in May 2015.” for the different indicators show that the and Solomon Assefa for wheat; Issaka During the course of the mission, the Amadou, Monitoring and Evaluation project is on track. While rounding off team paid a courtesy visit to Nteranya Specialist on M&E updates; Seyi Fashokun the visit, Ibrahim Amadou, Project Task Sanginga, IITA Director General, and on project accounts; and Zulfawu Yahaya manager, commended the SARD-SC project “as one of the best managed briefed him on the Mission’s terms on procurement. projects of the AfDB.” He therefore urged of reference. The DG expressed his pleasure on the reported progress of The presentations showed progress the “Project Management Unit and project the SARD-SC project. He assured the on all the commodity components team members to continue to work hard and team of the readiness of IITA’s senior since the medium-term review in May ensure the project has transformational management to do all that is necessary as well as procurement and financial impact on beneficiaries to earn a second to ensure that the project delivers on its execution, followed by discussions with phase.” the Commodity Specialists and other planned outputs and impacts. officers on various aspects of project The disbursement rate of the project, they noted, is currently 63.55% which, the Bank The members of the mission listened to implementation and outputs. officials said was a good rate for such project implementation presentations and held several discussions with The team made some key observations a complex project at its current level of the project implementation implementation. They expected this to the various management and project on implementation teams from the executing status, especially their satisfaction increase further as the project draws to its agency (IITA) and the implementing on significant improvements in end in 2017.

Got a story to share? Please email it with photos and captions every Wednesday to Katherine Lopez (k.lopez@cgiar.org), Jeffrey T. Oliver (j.oliver@cgiar.org), Catherine Njuguna (c.njuguna@cgiar.org), or Adaobi Umeokoro (a.umeokoro@cgiar.org).

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IITA-led cassava agribusiness project launched in Zambia

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n 3 December, IITA launched the Smallholder Agribusiness Promotion Programme (SAPP) Cassava Intervention Plan, a project funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) through the Ministry of Agriculture. SAPP aims to improve income generating opportunities for smallholder cassava producers in Zambia through the creation of major market pull for products used in the local and regional food and non-food industries, leading to enhanced market demand and farmer productivity.

The launch was held at the Cresta Golfview Hotel in Lusaka, Zambia and was attended by more than 40 project partners and stakeholders of the cassava subsector across the country. SAPP project launch, Zambia.

Julius Shawa, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, in his keynote speech, said “In Zambia, cassava has often been regarded as a secondary crop. Cassava is so much more than a substitute crop to maize during droughts. The crop has much more potential of not only providing people with food but also incomes and livelihoods.”

“It is a myth that there is little production of cassava in the country. On the contrary, cassava is the second most produced crop in Zambia after maize.

Last year, we produced some 4 million metric tons of maize, while cassava production was at more than 1 million metric tons. This figure is definitely not ‘little’,” the PS emphasized.

“Given this figure – and with our projection of cassava production growing steadily in the next few years – this project is perfectly timed to exploit the potential of this crop, particularly in the development of related agribusinesses and markets. And with

the shifting priority of the Zambian government from mining to agriculture, IITA is well placed to help bring about development to farmers through this project, especially through the cassava subsector,” Shawa added.

“Through this project, we intend to make cassava the engine of economic growth in Zambia,” said David Chikoye, IITA Regional Director for Southern Africa. “By exploring various ways to establish agribusinesses that promote cassava-based high-value products, as well as organizing and linking farmers to markets, this project will create vast economic opportunities for cassava growers and processors.”

in the value chain, such as farmers, traders, processors, and exporters, is an important factor to develop the cassava industry in the country,” he explained.

“We will also tap women and the youth in this project, particularly in the development of cassava-based livelihoods and income generating activities,” Chikoye added.

The project coordinator, Ntawuruhunga Pheneas, while presenting on the project, indicated that it will be implemented in five Provinces and 10 Districts and has provided a good opportunity to bring all stakeholders along the value chain to work together “One of the main thrusts of this project to commercialize cassava in Zambia. is to strengthen the Zambia National Cassava Association (ZANACA) to Partners in this project include the make them into an effective and Ministry of Agriculture, the Zambia sustainable organization. The existence Agriculture Research Institute, Seeds of a strong and effective commodity Control and Certification Institute, association – in this case cassava – that ZANACA, and various private sector is able to represent key stakeholders players and farmers.

Announcements • World Conference on Root and Tuber Crops; Nanning, China, 18-23 January 2016.

• 7th International Conference of the Africa Soil Science Society; Theme: Critical soil solutions for sustainable development in Africa. February 2016, Salle de Banquets in

IITA Bulletin 2305

Ouaga 2000, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

• Joint World Cowpea and Pan-African Grain Legume Research Conference 2016, co-organized by IITA and the Feedthe-Future Legume Innovation Lab, Livingstone, Zambia, 28 February to 4 March 2016. For more

information, visit the conference website or download the conference announcement.

• 7th International Nitrogen Initiative Conference, Melbourne, Australia, 4-8 December 2016. More details on the conference are available here.

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