Agricultural research for crop and livestock value chains development: The IPMS experience

Agricultural Research for Crop and Livestock Value Chains

Development: The IPMS Experience

Dirk Hoekstra, Azage Tegegne and Berhanu Gebremedhin

Livestock Live Talk, Addis Ababa, 28 March 2013

Seminar outline

Project design and implementation

Commodity development within a R4D framework

Project results and lessons

Project rationale and Goal

Ethiopian agricultural development strategy until 2000 - focused on food security and natural resource management

Early 2000, strategy was amended to included more commercial oriented agriculture Need to (re-) orient small holder agricultural sector towards

more market oriented agriculture. Emergence of large scale commercial high tech farms and

infrastructure support (ECEX)

Goal - To contribute to improved agricultural productivity and production through market-oriented agricultural development, as a means for achieving improved and sustainable livelihoods for the rural population.

Project pillars

• Commodity value chain development

• Knowledge management

• Capacity development

• Research/promotion

Pilots in 10 Districts in 4 Regions

Project design

• Research for development project conceived in the early 2000 at the request of the MoARD and CIDA

• Impact (development) oriented project, which included funds for development activities

Project implementation

No multi location project research frame work at the start, as development interventions varied considerable by site and over time

Mostly full time staff dedicated to the project

Limited sub contracting of research components

Outsourcing of selected development activities to development partners/companies

The IPMS Commodity Development Approach in a R4D

Framework

The Research Impact PathwayResources

(Staff time, finance, equipment/materials, transportation etc.)

Activities(Problem identification,

research design, implementation,

evaluation)

Outputs (technologies, institutional/

Organizational/policy recommendations,

publications, briefs etc.)

Outcomes (Research

outputs are taken up/adopted by intended users)

Impact (economic,

social and environ-mental changes)

IPMS Action-oriented Research Approach

Technology generation

Lab-based On-station On-farm

Experimental (controlled setting)

Technology application Organizational issues Institutional issues

Diagnostic research Action research Impact research

Developmental (uncontrolled setting)

Focus

Methods

The Types of Research• Diagnostic

– Research conducted to identify, describe, quantify value chain constraints and opportunities, and technological, organizational and institutional intervention requirements

• Action Research– Research aimed at generating qualitative and quantitative

knowledge on the development process and performance of a single or combination of interventions, which can be used to modify the interventions, and/or identify context specific adoption factors that can be used to scale out/up best practices

• Impact research– Research aimed at generating qualitative and quantitative

knowledge on the impact of interventions on economic, social and environmental conditions of farm households.

Consumption

Market information and intelligenceMarket information and intelligence

Financial servicesFinancial services

TransportationTransportation

CommunicationsCommunications

Govt. policy regulationGovt. policy regulation

Tech. & business training & assistanceTech. & business training & assistance

Production input supplyProduction input supply

ResearchResearch

The Value System

Trading

Processing

Trading

Post-harvesthandling

Production

Input supply

Value chain versus channels focus

(Peri-)urban specialized fluid

milk farmers

Rural mixed crop and livestock

butter producers

Urban consumers

Rural consumersButter traders

Agro-processing industry

Fluid milk traders

Commodity development in R4D framework

Diagnostic studies and Identification of interventions

Planning and Implementation of interventions

Action research on interventions as follow up of diagnostic research

Adaptation/modification of interventions

Impact evaluation

Implementation of Commodity development interventions

IPMS facilitated the identification of market oriented commodities and required interventions

Interventions were validated by stakeholders

IPMS’s role limited to introducing and facilitating the implementation of interventions ultimate implementation responsibility rested on

the value chain stakeholders

IPMS focused on reorientation of the MOA’s extension system, value chain actors, service providers and the institutional environment

R4D outputs

R4D outputs along the value system

Promotion of R4D Outputs

Over 70, 000 hard copy publications

2000 DVDs distributed

IPMS website receives 4500 unique visitors per month

Participatory market-oriented commodity value chain development approach resulted in increased agricultural production, productivity, sales value and market participation and orientation of smallholders in the 10 PLWs

Results

Revenue from market-oriented livestock enterprises

Revenue (2009/10 prices)Million ETB

Livestock enterprise 20054/06

2009/10 Growth rate (%)

Remark

Improved dairy 2.2 6.5 195 5 PLWs, excluding urban dairy and butter-based local system

Small ruminant fattening

46 120 159 6 PLWs

Cattle fattening 44 207.5 867 7 PLWs

Improved poultry 1.0 3.9 291 5 PLWs

Improved apiculture 4.94 11.19 127 6 PLWs

Selected livestock value chain intervention results

Hormone assisted mass insemination

Crossbreeding Borana with highland Zebu

Communal grazing area development

Pullet production by women groups

Mass AI with hormones

Initial results hormone assisted mass insemination – Tigray & SNNPR

  Variables Awasaa-Dale Milkshed

Adigrat-Mekelle

Milkshed

No. % No. %Total animals presented for synchronization

210 - 212 -

No. animals treated with PGF2α 175 83.3 199 93.9

No. of cows that aborted - - 6 3.0Final No. cows synchronized 175 100 193 97.0

No. of animals that responded to PGF2α treatment

171 97.7 193 100.0

Animals that died (after insemination)Animas that did show up for pregnancy

diagnosis

35

1.82.9

--

--

Interval to oestrus, hours NA - 45.13 -Pregnant animals 94 57.7 119 61.7

Suitability analysis for introduction of Borana cattle breed in Ethiopia

Borana x Highland Zebu crossbred calves in Metema

Grazing area improvement

Pullet production by women groups

5 groups with 15-20 members each = 80

Each group member raised 50 day old chicks

Vaccination by women Credit Birr 1300/woman Mortality rate 13% Sales price 4 month old

pullet Birr 50 Average return/woman

farmer Birr 833/4mnts Loan repayment 100%

Lessons learned

The nature of the value chain development approach is that several interventions need to be combined in order to achieve impact – no stand alone good practices

Value chain development is a process which is context specific and evolves over time

Over time, value chain development can be driven by the actors with research and development organizations in a supporting role

Lessons learned

Participatory approach, combined with internal and external knowledge led to identification of new technologies and interventions

Failures were observed however, due to market failure and/or insufficient returns

Focusing on the value chain as compared to a specific channel, can bring more farmers into market oriented agriculture.

Lessons learned

The extension system can play a key role in developing market oriented development, by developing their skills beyond the present production skills and being responsive

Farmer to farmer exchange of knowledge was an effective tool used by the project

Use of modern IT can contribute significantly to enhance knowledge and skills of extension staff as well as value chin actors

Lessons learned

Achieving a more gender balanced development is a slow process, which can be put in motion through awareness creation based on gender assessment, involvement of women in capacity development,

knowledge management activities Involvement of women in decision making

institutions Focusing on gender sensitive commodities and

value chain interventions

Three Key Messages

Technology generation by itself is not enough to achieve developmental outcomes and impact

R4D can be combined well in a research environment

Knowledge management and capacity development are key elements for the extension system to be responsive in transforming subsistence agriculture in to sustainable economic development

Thank you!