Africa research in sustainable intensification for the next generation

Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation

Mateete BekundaFarming Systems Agronomist

East and Southern Africa Project

Seminar Presentation

Selian Agricultural Research Institute, Arusha

03 May 2013

Provide pathways out of hunger and poverty for small holder families, particularly for women and children, through sustainably intensified farming systems that sufficiently improve food, nutrition, and income security and conserve or enhance the natural resource base

Identify demand-driven sustainable intensification options that are socially acceptable, economically feasible, and environmentally sound

Combine and adapt these options to address constraints and exploit opportunities

Evaluate their effectiveness at multiple scales

Catalyze ongoing sustainable farm intensification

Program purpose

Which locations

Guinea – Savannah Ethiopian

Highlands

East and Southern Africa

Whole farm productivity Natural resource management Connect to markets & input suppliers Nutrition and poverty, especially women and

children Economic & environmental resilience

Program outcomes

Maize

Horticulture

Livestock

Legumes

Ma

rket

ing

Mill

ing

/ p

acka

gin

g

Po

st-h

arve

st s

tora

ge

Production

Ex

ten

sio

n

Eq

uip

men

t / f

erti

lizer

See

ds

& B

reed

s

Strong, formalized linkages

Value chain contextINPUTS PROCESSING & MARKETS

The Research Framework

Research output 1: Situation Analysis and Programme-wide Synthesis. Includes the activities that are necessary to ensure that project activities are able to characterise and stratify target communities effectively so that promising interventions are identified and inappropriate interventions rejected.

Research output 2: Integrated Systems Improvement. This output is delivered via a broad approach of participatory technology development and / or identification. This requires projects to allow for the identification of existing sound practices within communities that might be more widely propagated, the adaptation of these and other, exogenous innovations and the more effective combination of innovations from multiple sources.

Research output 3: Scaling and Delivery of Integrated Innovation. The first two outputs will generate integrated technology combinations that are more effectively targeted on farmer’s real development needs. This third output recognises that, even where such technology combinations can be identified, the approaches used for scaling them out may not always be effective and seeks to redress this shortcoming.

Research output 4: Integrated M and E Process. The programme will aim to wrap the three process-oriented outputs in a firm M and E framework.

• ADOPTION rates for any innovation (combinations of technologies and management practices and knowledge) are enhanced by targeting on the demand from and capacities of potential adopters

• INTEGRATION: Innovations with components that mutually reinforce whole farm performance/productivity produce greater and more sustained benefits than the joint adoption of equally effective single purpose technologies and practices

• TRADE-OFF: Effective targeting of innovations also reduces the negative impacts of trade-offs between farm productivity and environmental sustainability and helps to identify potential “win-win” options for SI

• SEQUENCING: Adoption of innovations that lead to SI is affected by the sequence in which the component technologies, practices and knowledge are integrated and applied

• SCALABILITY: A research approach based on targeting and evaluating SI-related innovations, in context, increases the relevance of findings from action research sites and enhances their scalability to similar strata elsewhere (i.e. to similar development domains and households typologies in other locations)

Research design: hypotheses

Research Implementation:Multi-discipline Research Teams at each Action SiteExample: Babati sub-humid maize-based Research Team (2012/13)

Lead Scientist Institution Research Subject*

Mateete Bekunda IITA Principal Investigator

Job Kihara CIAT Biophysical constraints to crop/livestock production (seminar subject for today)

Dan Makumbi & Jean C Rubyogo

CIMMYT, CIAT

Improved food and feed crop varieties

Ben Lukuyu ILRI Improved fodder species

Stephen Lyimo &Mateete Bekunda

SELIAN, IITA Efficient application of fertilizers and intercropping

Fen Beed IITA Mycotoxin contamination along crop value chains

Adebayo Abass IITA Post harvest technologies and management

*Within each research package are several other disciplinary researchers

Some useful links• List of all the tools: http://africa-rising.wikispaces.com/comms_tools• Our wiki: http://africa-rising.wikispaces.com/• Our calendar: http://goo.gl/2m56L or http://africa-

rising.wikispaces.com/Calendar• Our outputs on CG Space:

http://cgspace.cgiar.org/handle/10568/16498• Our presentations on Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/africa-

rising• Our pictures on FlickR: http://www.flickr.com/photos/africa-rising• Our website: http://www.africa-rising.net• Soon, YouTube, Yammer

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