Transforming lives and landscapes with trees

Annual Report 2015-2016

Transforming lives and landscapes with trees

Our visionOur vision is a rural transformation in the developing world as smallholder households increase their use of trees in agricultural landscapes to improve food security, nutrition, income, health, shelter, social cohesion, energy resources and environmental sustainability.

Our missionThe Centre’s mission is to generate science-based knowledge about the diverse roles that trees play in agricultural landscapes, and to use its research to advance policies and practices, and their implementation that benefit the poor and the environment.

Our core values• Professionalism • Mutual respect• Creativity• Inclusiveness

Our strategic goals• Building livelihoods by generating knowledge, choice and

opportunities• Improving landscapes and their sustainability by better managing

their complexity • Transforming agroforestry impacts to large-scale through policy,

innovation and partnerships

Our partnersThe World Agroforestry Centre has always implemented much of its work in partnership with a range of public, private and international bodies. Our partnerships are based on a clear recognition of the value that is added through working jointly with partners and sharing strengths to achieve specific outcomes. We partner with universities, advanced research institutions, national agricultural research organizations, private sector organizations, and government and non-government agencies in the fields of agriculture, forestry, environment, conservation and climate change.

Front cover photo: Farmer Hady TRAORE from Mandela village in Sikasso, Mali, with a flowering cashew tree. Cashew, Anacardium occidental (Fam. Anacardiaceae), is known for its tasty, nutritious and valuable nut. Photo©ICRAF/Ake Mamo

Back cover photo: Farmland in Eastern DRC. Photo©ICRAF/Emilie Smith-Dumont

© World Agroforestry Centre, Nairobi, Kenya, 2016

ISSN 1995-6851

World Agroforestry Centre. 2016. Annual Report 2015-2016: Transforming Lives and Landscapes with Trees.

Nairobi: World Agroforestry Centre

No use of this publication may be made for resale or other commercial purposes.

The geographic designation employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the World Agroforestry Centre concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

All images remain the sole property of their source and may not be used for any purpose without written permission from the source.

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ContentsMessage from the Board Chair

Message from the Director General

Global concerns

Sustainable land management

Annexes

Genes, health and nutrition

Trees and the changing climate

Trees and energy

The way we work

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Message from the Board Chair

As a science, agroforestry can be thought of as being something of a hybrid between the sciences of forestry and agriculture. However, the boundaries of agroforestry have expanded rapidly over the last decade, in large part due to finding a strategic space in emerging global agendas. Agroforestry combines the potential of climate adaptation and climate mitigation and is now a leading approach to climate-smart agriculture.

Agroforestry as well finds a central role in reversing land degradation, from virtually unusable land such as mine tailings and highly eroded hill slopes to overgrazed grasslands. Sustainable intensification has recently been put forward as the banner for meeting world food needs within planetary boundaries, and agroforestry finds a role from fertilizer trees in Malawi to sustainable oil palm in the selva of Peru. All of these agendas are now nested within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and agroforestry has the potential to contribute in a substantive way to a majority of these. As something of a feedback loop, these agendas have expanded the boundaries of agroforestry science to also include landscape ecology, policy studies, geoinformatics, genomics and hydrology, just to name a few.

The World Agroforestry Centre continues to lead the evolution of the science, but even more importantly, its application in meeting some of the most difficult global problems.

During 2015, ICRAF’s researchers continued to generate and share knowledge and recommendations on context-sensitive options for integrating trees on farms for sustainable food production and environmental health. In collaboration with a large complement of partners, including sister CGIAR Centres, this work has produced many important publications and products. This year ICRAF scientists produced 183 articles in peer-reviewed journal articles in addition to 182 other published materials aimed at academics and boundary partners such as development NGOs, extension services and policymakers.

During the historic 21st UN Climate Change Conference (Paris COP 21), where the first universal climate agreement was adopted, ICRAF participated with a 20-person-strong delegation involved in as many events. At this COP and the concurrent Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) in Paris, Centre scientists tackled issues ranging from how to implement countries’ Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) in data- and tool-scarce countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia; land and forest governance at multiple levels in supporting climate change mitigation; agroecology as a viable pathway to climate-resilient and sustainable food systems; land restoration; and Indonesia’s green economy.

The Little Book on Sustainable Landscapes, to which ICRAF’s environmental services and

The organization continues to lead the evolution of agroforestry science, but even more importantly, its application in meeting some of the most difficult global problems

2 Annual Report 2015-2016

climate change programmes contributed, was launched at the GLF 2015.

The World Agroforestry Centre remains an engaged member of what was termed the Consortium of CGIAR Centres and under the current phase of reform will now be known as the CGIAR System. The Director General was the Centre’s representative in many of the key meetings leading up to and during this latest reform process. While creating an understandable level of uncertainty, at the same time as a downturn in funding to the Consortium, the reform process looks positively on track to redressing the structural problems in the initial reform, in creating a more logical division of responsibilities between funders and Centres, in continuing to move the CGIAR Centres toward working as an integrated system, and in the search for greater efficiencies in how the work is done.

ICRAF’s contribution to the CGIAR Research Programmes remains strong, as the work of the first phase moves toward conclusion. The organization has contributed significantly to the thinking in the design of the next portfolio of Consortium Research Programmes.

From the perspective of the Board of Trustees, the year has marked a significant focus on improving governance procedures, restructuring the Board’s committees, and continuing to improve the quality of our Board membership. ICRAF itself has established a process known as the ICRAF Business Plan which is designed to integrate governance, operations, administrative systems, and control frameworks, ensuring efficiency and effectiveness at each level of work within the Centre. Given the changes in the CGIAR, the changing global agenda, the shifts in the funding landscape, and the evolving science,

the Centre has also launched a strategy refresh of its 2013 strategy to ensure that it remains on course in its mission within a rapidly changing external environment.

On behalf of the Board, I take this opportunity to thank the staff for their accomplishments in 2015, and despite the funding uncertainties, look forward to a highly productive and impactful year ahead in 2016.

John LynamBoard Chair

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Message from the Director GeneralFollowing the global food crisis of 2008, international donors significantly increased support for overseas development. Much of the extra money went towards programmes which focused on reducing food insecurity and increasing agricultural productivity. However, we now find ourselves in a very different – and politically more unstable – world. Donors have reacted accordingly. One of our long-term supporters has cut its overseas development assistance by 30%, and four-fifths of the remaining budget will now be spent on dealing with the refugee crisis. Another major donor has decided to direct half of its development assistance to fragile states.

This means more money for emergencies and humanitarian aid and less for science and research, so it is a good time to reflect on how an organization like the World Agroforestry Centre can thrive and survive during this time of belt tightening. A passive response is not an option. We have to proactively make the case for the importance of science, the value of agriculture, the value of agroforestry research and the value of the Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centres, under whose umbrella we operate. We need to demonstrate that we provide value for money.

Ask yourself a simple question: what would life be like without trees? Nothing is better than a tree at bringing water up from depth; at taking

carbon out of the atmosphere; at providing a home for biodiversity; at cooling the agricultural environment; and at improving soil health. Trees made Planet Earth habitable; their wholesale loss and destruction would make it uninhabitable.

As many of the stories in this annual report illustrate, agroforestry practices and policies are helping millions of families in developing countries to improve their incomes and nutrition. Agroforestry is playing a vitally important role when it comes to increasing farm productivity and tackling land degradation. Trees on farms provide a whole range of goods and services, from fuelwood to fruit, livestock fodder to green fertilizer, which can have a transformative impact on people’s lives.

But we still have a long way to go. Most of the 500 million smallholder farming families in the world are subsistence farmers. Our theory of change maintains that we should use every available resource to help subsistence farmers move up the ladder from subsistence farming to pre-commercial farming to profitable farming to sustainable farming. This will only happen when, and if, farmers have access to the latest technologies – these could be drought-resistant crops or new agroforestry practices – developed through the work of a research agency such as ours.

We have to proactively make the case for the importance of science, the value of agriculture, the value of agroforestry research and the value of the CGIAR, under whose umbrella we operate


In previous annual reports, I have emphasized the importance of public-private partnerships. These help to reduce the cost of research, encourage greater innovation, enhance the impact of research and raise the visibility of agroforestry. We have achieved much in collaborative work with companies like Mars, Inc., Unilever and Danone and we will continue to work with a wide range of partners over the coming years.

One of our greatest strengths is our ability to convene, to bring people together to weigh the evidence and make the best decisions. A good example of this is the SHARED approach, the acronym stands for Stakeholder Approach to Risk-Informed and Evidence-Based Decision-making – which our scientists

have developed in conjunction with partners in local and national government and UN agencies. SHARED provides a safe space for people to test the decisions they make against available evidence. (See page 16)

As this annual report goes to press, we are refreshing our strategy. In preparation, the Senior Leadership Team decided to test the temperature of the water with mid-level and senior staff. A survey was sent to 176 scientific and administrative staff with an MSc or higher qualification. Considering the short turnaround, we had an outstanding response rate of 89%. Staff were invited to answer 22 questions; 15 were multiple-choice, and seven were open-ended. The latter elicited 1037 written messages.

Overall, the survey provided a rich set of responses with around a third being critical, a third being neutral and a third complementary about the way we operate. The survey responses suggest that our staff are fully engaged and have a deep sense of commitment to our long-term goals as a research organization.

Tony SimonsDirector General

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Global concerns

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With over three decades of experience working with smallholder farmers in Africa, Asia and Latin America, we are uniquely positioned to address a range of social and environmental challenges through agroforestry. Key global concerns during the past year include landscape restoration, bioenergy, trees and nutrition, and soil health.

Photo: In the Indian drylands, crop roots are often used as cooking fuel.

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The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the World Resources Institute (WRI) have been responsible for establishing a state-of-the-art methodology for identifying opportunities for restoration. The Restoration Opportunity Assessment Methodology (ROAM) is helping governments and regions work out which areas to focus on for restoration schemes. However, ROAM is principally about where, rather than how, to restore landscapes.

To address this gap, the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) commissioned a group of scientists, including Lars Graudal, co-leader of the World Agroforestry Centre’s Tree Diversity,

Domestication and Delivery Programme, to examine the issue in detail. Their findings were published in ‘Forest Landscape Restoration as a Key Component of Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation’ and launched at the Paris meeting.

There are three different areas where restoration can take place: remote areas with few people; areas which are, or were, largely covered by forest; and mosaic landscapes – although the three are not mutually exclusive.

“Although people often talk about forest landscape restoration, rather than just landscape restoration, mosaic landscapes are by far the largest area and the most important

for restoration,” says Graudal. “These are areas where people are growing food and other crops, and this is where agroforestry can be the ideal solution for restoration, as it combines restoring biodiversity and ecological functions with improving the incomes and welfare of local people.”

Indeed, the IUFRO publication, and much of the work carried out by the World Agroforestry Centre under the banner of restoration, is helping to make what Graudal describes as a value proposition for agroforestry. It is demonstrating that agroforestry can restore landscapes, help land users adapt to climate change and increase food production in a sustainable manner.

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A global effortLandscape restoration is a global priority for the World Agroforestry Centre. In Latin America, under an IUCN-funded initiative, Andrew Miccolis, country coordinator in ICRAF-Brazil, has developed a restoration guidebook which identifies 11 different agroforestry options for use on restoration projects (see page 36). IUCN is also providing support for the World Agroforestry Centre to monitor land and soil health in Peru and Uganda. Meanwhile, Rhett Harrison, a tropical forest ecologist based at the ICRAF China office, is leading a project which is exploring the potential of agroforestry to improve biodiversity and sustainability in rubber plantations in the Upper Mekong. This is a continuation of work carried out by the GIZ-funded Green Rubber Project, which was described in last year’s annual report.

In Africa, a major new three-year restoration project was launched in April 2015. Funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the project is benefiting

from the World Agroforestry Centre’s multidisciplinary strengths. The overall aim of the project – Restoration of Degraded Land for Food Security and Poverty Reduction in East Africa and the Sahel: Taking Successes in Land Restoration to Scale – is to reduce food insecurity and improve the livelihoods of people in Niger, Mali, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania.

“We are seeking to upscale restoration activities by using the options-by-context approach,” says Leigh Winowiecki, who is managing the project. This approach takes into account the fine variations in context – context meaning anything from rainfall to soil type and ethnicity – when promoting agroforestry practices or any other technologies. As part of the project, a training workshop on the approach, led by Fergus Sinclair, Ric Coe and Karl Hughes, and attended by 26 World Agroforestry Centre staff, was held in May 2015.

During the course of the year, scientists began working with local communities, gathering local knowledge about different agroforestry

practices, and reviewing restoration successes and failures. “By working closely with local communities, and applying the options-by-context approach to development, we hope to scale up appropriate agroforestry practices over large areas,” says Winowiecki. The project is working closely with the Drylands Development Programme (DRYDEV), which is described on page 18, and existing IFAD- funded activities.

Wrapping up the COP 21 meeting in Paris, World Agroforestry Centre Deputy Director General, Ravi Prabhu, emphasized the importance of working with local people. “Restoration must learn from the past,” he said. “We have moved beyond ‘one size fits all’ or ‘you participate, we orchestrate’ towards using our knowledge and technologies to channel the diversity of life, cultures and opportunities. Some of the largest, most durable and cost-effective restoration initiatives have been the result of local people harnessing the power of nature, with government policy providing an enabling environment.”

Photo Left: The highland landscape in central Nicaragua.


“Forests and agroforestry have a major role to play in diversifying diets and tackling malnutrition and micronutrient deficiency,” says Ramni Jamnadass, head of the Tree Diversity, Domestication and Delivery Unit at the World Agroforestry Centre. This was the subject of a global scientific assessment undertaken by a panel of experts on forests and food security and published by the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO).

Over a dozen of our scientists contributed to Forests, Trees and Landscapes for Food Security and Nutrition, with Jamnadass and her colleague Stepha McMullin taking the lead for the chapter on “Understanding the Roles of Forests and Tree-Based Systems in

Food Provision”. The IUFRO report makes the case that despite impressive crop productivity increases, there is growing evidence that conventional agricultural strategies are failing to tackle global hunger, and frequently result in unbalanced diets that lack nutritional diversity.

Approximately one-third of the world’s population experiences single or multiple micronutrient deficiency. In many African countries, a third of children under the age of five suffer from stunting, and a third of the population in sub-Saharan Africa suffers from chronic hunger. They may get sufficient carbohydrate – in the form of cassava and maize, for example – but their diets are frequently poor in fruits. Fruit consumption

in East African countries is between 36g and 123g per person per day – a fraction of the level recommended by the World Health Organization.

“The report offers the most comprehensive review to date of the role of forests and agroforestry in improving food and nutritional security,” says McMullin. “They are often talked about in terms of providing safety nets – but they are much more important than that.”

Trees provide a variety of healthy foods, including fruits, leafy vegetables, nuts, seeds and edible oils. Forests are often a source of a wider range of edible plants and fungi, as well as bushmeat, fish and insects. And agroforestry

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provides a great many other products which can improve the household diet or boost incomes. For example, they provide fodder for livestock, green fertilizer to improve soil fertility, and fuelwood. Forests and trees also help to regulate water flow, reduce soil erosion, sequester carbon and protect biodiversity.

The chapter led by Jamnadass and McMullin includes a number of case studies which focus on the value of the “hidden harvest” of edible forest foods and the cultivation of trees by smallholders. To give just one example, in Machakos, Kenya, World Agroforestry Centre scientist, Katja Kehlenbeck and her team

looked at food security levels among 300 smallholder households and the harvesting periods for the most important fruit trees. She found that even during the “hungry season”, which runs from August to December, at least one of the 20 fruit species used by smallholders was providing a harvest. Drawing on this research, Kehlenbeck and McMullin subsequently devised fruit tree portfolios for farmers. These are described on page 40. By growing a variety of different species, families can have a year-round harvest which provides key micronutrients such as vitamins A and C.

The IUFRO report, which received widespread coverage on national and international media, recognizes that in order to maximize the future potential of indigenous species found in forests or grown on farms, more work needs to be done by both the scientific and development communities. The domestication of indigenous fruit trees could help to diversify diets and provide farmers with new sources of income. Indeed, this is one of the purposes of the African Orphan Crops Consortium, whose goal is to make nutritious indigenous plants even more nutritious, as well as more productive. Its recent achievements are described on page 42.

Reference

Vira B, Wildburger C, Mansourian S (eds) 2015. Forests, Trees and Landscapes for Food Security and Nutrition. A Global Assessment Report. IUFRO World Series, Volume 33. Vienna.

Photo Left: There are several species of waterberry in Kenya, some of which are indigenous.

Photo Right: Desert date is a spiny shrub with hanging branches and a small open crown. It is indigenous to Kenya and grows best in arid or semi-arid areas.

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We know a great deal about biodiversity above the ground; much less about biodiversity below. “It is estimated that 90% of all vascular plants have been described,” says Edmundo Barrios, soil ecosystem scientist with the World Agroforestry Centre. “But it’s a very different picture below ground. While we know about close to 50% of some soil macro-fauna, that is organisms with a body width greater than 2mm, we have identified less than 2% of bacteria and close to 6% of fungi. Yet these are major drivers of life on earth.”

To gain a greater understanding of soil biodiversity, and to foster better use of what we already know about the important roles played by soil organisms, the Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative (GSBI) was launched in Wageningen, The Netherlands, in 2011. The Global Soil

Biodiversity Atlas is the first major product of the GSBI and is the result of a partnership with the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC). Published in 2016, the Atlas describes what we know and, just as crucially, what we don’t know. Beautifully illustrated with colour photographs, maps and conceptual figures, it contains chapters on soil habitat, the diversity of soil organisms, ecosystem functions driven by the soil biota that underpin ecosystem services, threats to soil biodiversity, interventions to conserve and manage soil biodiversity, and policy, education and outreach opportunities and challenges.

Barrios was a member of the editorial board and lead organizer of the chapter on interventions. “Agricultural landscapes hold a large proportion of the world’s biodiversity, but

our knowledge about the relative contribution of each land management type to the conservation of soil biodiversity, and soil-mediated ecosystem functions, is still limited,” he says.

What we do know is that there are strong interactions between above-ground biodiversity – which is easy to observe – and below-ground biodiversity. The soil provides a habitat for billions of organisms of extraordinary diversity, and it supports a range of vitally important ecosystem services, such as soil fertility, plant growth, water regulation and disease control. “This means that the loss of soil biodiversity not only has an impact below ground, but above ground as well,” says Barrios.

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In the chapter on interventions, he and his colleagues – these include Peter Mortimer, a World Agroforestry Centre soil biologist based in China – looked at a range of different activities and technologies that can be used to restore soil biodiversity, including the removal of invasive species, the diversification of cropland, conservation agriculture and agroforestry.

Agroforestry can simultaneously help to improve food security, raise incomes, conserve biodiversity and ecosystem services and help land users adapt to climate change. The presence of trees helps to intercept rainfall, provides shade for understory crops and plants, and organic matter and nutrients to replenish soil fertility. Trees also act as hotspots for soil biodiversity, as one of the illustrations in the Atlas shows.

Much of the credit for the project, which represents a milestone in terms of our understanding of what goes on below the ground, must go to Diana Wall, the scientific chair of the Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative. However, this was very much an international collective effort, with 27 co-editors and 121 experts in soil biology and ecology from 26 countries contributing to the Atlas.

Reference

Orgiazzi A, Bardgett R, Barrios E, Behan-Pelletier V, Briones MJI, Chotte J-L, De Deyn GB, Eggleton P, Fierer N, Fraser T, Hedlund K, Jeffery S, Johnson NC, Jones A, Kandeler E, Kaneko N, Lavelle P, Lemanceau P, Miko L, Montanarella L, Moreira FMS, Ramirez KS, Scheu S, Singh BK, Six J, van der Putten WH, Wall DH. (eds) 2015. Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas. European Commission, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg. 176 pp.

Photo Left: Left to Right- Neville Ash, Director, UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre; John Lynam, Board Chair, ICRAF; Anne Larigauderie, Executive Secretary of IPBES; Jeffrey Herrick, US. Department of Agriculture; Edmundo Barrios, Senior Soil Ecosystem Scientist, ICRAF; Diana Wall, Colorado State University and Science Chair of the Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative (GSBI); and Arwyn Jones, European Commission’s Joint Research Centre at the launch of the Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas at UNEA 2 conference, Nairobi.

Photo Right: Spatial distribution of soil biological activity near agroforestry trees.

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“This has been a very significant year for us,” says Navin Sharma, the World Agroforestry Centre’s biofuels programme director. “We have developed a new strategy on tree-based energy and this will guide our work plans over the coming years.” The strategy puts emphasis on the importance of developing sustainable sources of energy to improve the livelihoods of the poor.

One of the reasons why many people are poor is because they lack access to affordable sources of energy. They need energy to heat their homes, cook their food and engage in productive activities. The strategy underscores the fact that traditional sources of energy such as fuelwood and charcoal will continue

to remain important for billions of people in developing countries. “Many believe we should be moving away from traditional fuels, but in places like Africa most cooking is still done with fuelwood and charcoal, and it will take time to shift from these to modern sources of renewable energy,” says Sharma.

The strategy outlines the World Agroforestry Centre’s approach to developing bioenergy from trees. This includes making the production of charcoal and fuelwood more sustainable and efficient. The strategy also discusses how electricity can be generated from cow dung, agricultural residues and tree seeds. This sort of energy production, based on renewable resources, will become increasingly important

in remote areas which are ill-served by the national grid. Stories from Indonesia and India (see pages 64 and 68) illustrate the point.

In May 2015 the World Agroforestry Centre held a workshop on “Sustainable Tree-Derived Bioenergy in Sub-Saharan Africa” at its headquarters in Nairobi. Much of the discussion was informed by a working paper on charcoal, specially written for the workshop. “We wanted to focus on charcoal because it is such a big issue in Africa,” says Phil Dobie, one of the working paper’s co-authors. “There has been a lot of controversy about whether charcoal should be part of any sustainable energy strategy. We believe charcoal and fuelwood have been unfairly demonized.”

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Charcoal is frequently linked to deforestation, but Dobie points out that the main cause of deforestation in sub-Saharan Africa is agricultural expansion. It is true, however, that the charcoal industry often operates illegally or semi-legally. As a result, few are prepared to invest in improving the sustainability of the industry.

“We believe that if charcoal production is properly managed, it could provide a low-cost energy source that can alleviate poverty in urban areas, support livelihoods, and be conducted in a sustainable way,” says Dobie. For example, in Kenya, much greater use could be made of timber waste and fast-growing species such as the invasive Prosopis. The working paper and two policy briefs published after the May workshop explore the subject

in detail. They show that agroforestry has an important role to play in supporting sustainable tree-based bioenergy systems in sub-Saharan Africa.

In October 2015, the World Agroforestry Centre and the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) held a conference in Berlin, Germany, on bioenergy and development, with a focus on the investment case for sustainable production systems. The conference was attended by 135 experts, including government representatives, the research community, civil society and the private sector. Participants concluded that various forms of bioenergy have the potential to contribute to the energy mix required for achieving sustainable development and overcoming poverty. They identified eight factors which are crucial for successful

bioenergy production. In a final statement, participants urged governments and the private sector to increase investment in renewable energy and research into bioenergy.

Bioenergy was also the focus of two major events in Indonesia (see page 64). Indonesia has set an ambitious target of reducing its carbon emissions by 29%, or 41% with international help, by 2025. It also aims to increase access to electricity and boost the share of energy derived from renewable sources to 23% by 2020. Almost half of this, it hopes, will come from bioenergy. Agroforestry will help rural communities to produce more energy, as well as food, building material and other products.

References

Dobie P, Neufeldt H, Sharma N, Iiyama M, Ciannella R, Njenga M, Paez AM, Bohra B, Pragya N, Favaro S, Cornelius J, Micolis A, Sinclair F, Jamnadass R, Neely C, Hassan M, Mbow C, Watson C, de Jong M, Chevenoy A, Okia C, Lynam J, Cisneros H, Prabhu R, Terheggen A, Mohan S. 2015. Strategy on tree-based energy: clean and sustainable energy for improving the livelihoods of poor people. World Agroforestry Centre, 2015

Iiyama M, Neufeldt H, Dobie P, Hagen R, Njenga M, Ndegwa G, Mowo J, Kisoyan P, Jamnadass R. 2014. Opportunities and challenges of landscape approaches for sustainable charcoal production and use. ICRAF Policy Brief 31. World Agroforestry Centre. Nairobi, Kenya

Neufeldt H, Dobie P, Iiyama M, Njenga M, Mohan S, Neely C. 2015. Developing sustainable tree-based bioenergy systems in sub-Saharan Africa. ICRAF Policy Brief No. 28 Nairobi, Kenya. World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)

Neufeldt H, Langford K, Fuller J, Iiyama M, Dobie P. 2015. From transition fuel to viable energy source: improving sustainability in the sub-Saharan charcoal sector. ICRAF Working Paper No. 196. Nairobi, World Agroforestry Centre. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5716/WP15011.PDF

Photo Left: A young woman stands by carefully packed sacks of charcoal, ready for sale to travellers along the Kampala-Gulu highway in Uganda. The country’s main source of charcoal is the dry cattle corridor that this road traverses.


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Integrating trees into the agricultural landscape can help individuals and communities make sustainable use of their natural resources. The stories here illustrate how trees can improve land health and food security by providing a wide range of products, from fruit to fodder, fertilizer to fuelwood.

Photo: Faidherbia albida parklands in Mali.

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Turkana is a county in the northern frontier of Kenya. Ninety-five per cent of its 855,000 inhabitants – the vast majority of whom make a living from pastoralism – live below the poverty line, compared to 46% for the country as a whole. Just 18% can read and write, compared to 66% for Kenya. Frequent droughts, overgrazing and a combination of other factors have led to serious land degradation in recent decades.

Kenya’s new constitution has devolved governance to the county level, and each county is now responsible for developing and implementing a County Integrated Development Plan and establishing an inclusive consultative planning process. This is a tall order for many county governments. However, a new approach to decision-making, developed by

the World Agroforestry Centre and applied with the Turkana County Government, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) is revolutionizing Turkana’s planning and prioritizing landscape.

The SHARED process – the acronym stands for Stakeholder Approach to Risk-Informed and Evidence-Based Decision-Making – provides a safe space for people to address complex decisions, work across sectors and test the decisions they are making against available evidence. “What we have been trying to do in Turkana is work with the county government to improve its decision-making capacity and frame its decisions and county goals within the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals,” says Constance Neely, one of the architects

of SHARED. There are two main components: tailored process facilitation and the creation of tools for decision-making. Neely has led the former; Tor-Gunnar Vågen, who manages the World Agroforestry Centre’s Geoscience Lab, has been responsible for the latter. SHARED also works with other tools. For example, it has used the decision analysis work of Eike Luedeling to test a specific decision on infrastructure.

The SHARED team has been working with different ministries in Turkana – planning, education, environment, and so on – to develop tools which will help them to increase the population’s resilience. The initial focus was on land health. In collaboration with representatives from the county government, UNICEF and other UN agencies, the National

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Drought Management Authority and local NGOs, Vågen developed the Resilience Diagnostic and Decision Support Tool. “We didn’t want to be prescriptive,” he reflects. “We wanted to provide a framework and a tool which would allow people to interact with the available evidence.”

The decision support tool has a range of different modules, for example on health and nutrition, education, livestock and irrigation. Information is multilayered, and accessed through a computer dashboard. For example, decision-makers interested in land health can get a broad overview using the “traffic light report”. Areas in red are suffering from significant land degradation and in need of remedial treatment; areas in green are currently in good health. However, some organizations and individuals will want more detailed information, and by digging deeper they can find point-specific data on soil organic carbon, pH, erosion and others factors affecting soil health. One of the strengths of the system is that the user can zoom in, interact with the data and look at trends over time. They can also compare, for example, land health trends and their links with socio-economic trends, such as the number of girls in school, conflict and human well-being.

Since SHARED was officially launched in Turkana in September 2015, it has had significant influence. When the process began, county officials told Neely: “We have no system for using evidence to determine how to allocate money or identify priorities among wards and sectors. And we lack evidence to influence our

discussions with donors, who often turn up with hats when we want shoes.” After the first round of interactions, they told her: “We are now having precisely the sort of discussions we need if we are to plan effectively.”

At the end of 2015, the SHARED approach was already changing the way the county government does business. “They re-mapped their annual planning and budget cycle and they are now in a much better position to make decisions about where to allocate spending,” says Neely. The county is now developing its own capacity to facilitate the process, gather evidence and adapt the decision support tool for its own use in the Turkana County resource centre.

Vågen confirms that the response to the decision-support tool has been overwhelmingly positive. He cites the example of the irrigation module. Using this, government officials can assess existing projects and look at the

risk factors involved. Using the module, the government suspended one irrigation scheme on the grounds that it was going to have a negative impact on the community.

SHARED has used very different disciplines – Neely’s facilitation techniques and Vågen’s data analysis – to provide government officials and others with the skills and information they need to improve decision-making. Ultimately, this will help them to tackle poverty, improve education and health care and make the land more resilient to external shocks. SHARED has also helped to bring different organizations together to work on common goals. “One of our main achievements has been that we have built strong partnerships with the county government and a range of other organizations,” says Neely. They have also shown that SHARED can be used anywhere – to good effect. Other Kenyan counties have expressed an interest in using SHARED, and it will be working in other countries in 2016.

Photo Left: Emathe Namuar, Chief of Economic Planning and Finance, describes the changes to be made in the Turkana Annual Budget and Planning Cycle using the SHARED process, evidence and community engagement.

Photo Right: Colleagues from the County Executive Committee in Turkana County interact with inter-sectoral data in the Resilience Diagnostic and Decision Support Tool.

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Funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DGIS) and managed by the World Agroforestry Centre, the Drylands Development Programme (DRYDEV) seeks to improve water management, enhance food security and encourage economic development in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Ethiopia and Kenya. The programme is promoting technologies to improve farmland productivity and help farming households not only to become self-sufficient, but also grow a surplus for sale. The programme focuses on areas suffering from high levels of poverty and dependence on food aid.

In last year’s annual report, we described the progress during 2014, the inception year.

Country partners implemented various quick-win activities which helped local communities to undertake a range of initiatives to improve pasture, conserve water and rehabilitate degraded land. This was done by introducing technologies such as Zaï pits and rainwater harvesting.

In early 2015, responsibility for managing the programme was handed to Karl Hughes, who heads the World Agroforestry Centre’s new Monitoring, Evaluation and Impact Assessment Unit. “DRYDEV was conceived as a development programme, yet it is being led by a research organization, so a legitimate question to ask is: what extra value can we add?” he says.

During the course of the year, the programme underwent considerable reorganization while Hughes and his colleagues introduced a strong research component, something that had previously been lacking. In particular, the researchers have been working with implementing partners and local farmers to set up planned comparisons. “Instead of rolling out an intervention in one particular way, we are encouraging our partners to promote a number of different designs, so they can be tested against one another and we can work out which are the most cost-effective,” says Hughes.

For example, a key challenge faced in the drylands of Ethiopia is ensuring the survival of newly planted trees. To overcome this,

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the programme is supporting farmers to systematically compare different ways of looking after tree seedlings and record data on survival and growth. This will enable researchers and participating farmers to establish the most appropriate ways of introducing agroforestry in a site-specific way.

In recent years, Fergus Sinclair, a systems scientist at the World Agroforestry Centre, has promoted the idea that research should be embedded in development, rather than conducted as a separate enterprise. This means assembling whatever information is available and working out what works best, in development terms, in different contexts. The shorthand for this is Options-by-Context, its message being that there should be no ‘one size fits all’ approach. “It’s been very exciting establishing a dialogue with our DRYDEV partners about how to build planned comparisons into projects so we can work out costs and benefits of different technologies in different situations,” says Sinclair.

This is all about using research to generate lessons and evidence which can be fed back into the programme to improve decision-making. “We also hope that the research will influence policy and practice on a wider scale,” says Hughes.

Water mattersDuring 2015, the five countries involved in DRYDEV identified sub-water-catchments in which project interventions will take place. Using these sub-catchments ICRAF used Geographical Information Systems (GIS) techniques to delineate sites for quick-wins, planned comparisons and scaling up interventions. Further work is ongoing using high-resolution imagery to check the status of the watersheds and recent trends, such as tree cover change; identifying possible interventions; and discussing the plans with local communities.

“Farmers have been encouraging natural regeneration of trees using techniques like coppicing and pruning, so we’re not inventing new technologies,” says Maimbo Malesu, a water expert at the World Agroforestry Centre. These relatively ancient technologies do not require significant investment and project partners have been

promoting them, and providing training to farmers, for many years. However, large-scale infrastructure, such as rainwater harvesting ponds, does require significant investment, regardless of whether it takes place under the umbrella of DRYDEV or any other project.

In 2015, the Southern and Eastern Africa Rainwater Harvesting Network (SearNet) and the World Agroforestry Centre launched the Billion Dollar Business Plan. “The aim is to raise funds from financial agencies for a massive upscaling of rainwater harvesting ponds,” says Malesu. The plan involves a support system that will enable farming households to take advantage of the latest pond technology. This will involve technical and financial support, and linking farmers to markets. In Kenya, Equity Bank and Chase Bank are already taking a strong interest in the business plan.

Photo Left: Ms Wambua and her great grandchild in Machakos. Ms Wambua and her family use seedling sales as one of their major cash income generators.

Photo Right: A champion farmer shows participants his farm pond system during a DRYDEV training course in Machakos, Kenya.

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The welfare of some 6 million people in Côte d’Ivoire depends on the cocoa industry, which accounts for 40% of exports. However, while the country’s farmers should be getting at least 1.5 tonnes per hectare per year, the countrywide average is less than 500kg per hectare.

Launched in 2010, the Vision for Change (V4C) project supported by Mars Inc. and managed by the World Agroforestry Centre seeks to arrest the decline of cocoa productivity by bringing about a significant increase in yields. During the initial demonstration phase, the project showed that grafting of improved clones onto mature trees in old orchards could swiftly push annual yields up to 2 tonnes per hectare.

The V4C project has set up an innovative delivery platform to help cocoa farmers increase their productivity. Initially, this involved establishing 16 Cocoa Development Centres (CDCs). These centres of excellence are used for demonstration and training in advanced agronomic practices, particularly the rehabilitation of old cocoa orchards using superior planting material. The next stage in establishing the V4C delivery model involved the creation of Cocoa Village Centres (CVCs). These small, independent businesses are owned and managed by local entrepreneurs. Each is linked to a specific CDC and is capable of delivering high-quality planting material, agricultural inputs and specific services such as pruning.

In early 2014, the project placed advertisements in newspapers and sent messages to local communities inviting young people between the ages of 21 and 45 to apply for training as CVC operators. After a rigorous selection process, 52 individuals, all of whom had some experience of cocoa farming, were invited for training. Among other things, training covered site selection of CVCs, opening a bank account, monitoring stocks, developing a business plan, establishing a nursery, setting up clonal gardens and training farmers.

The operators then returned to their villages to set up CVCs with guidance from master trainers and coaches. Each operator was provided with a starter kit. This consisted of a metal shipping container fitted out for use as a store and shop;

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equipment such as wheelbarrows, spades and pruning gear; and a supply of agricultural inputs.

The core business of the CVCs is providing farmers with the “triple productivity package” of high-quality planting material, training in good agricultural practices, and – in the case of those associated with Mars – agricultural inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides, says project leader Christophe Kouamé.

By the end of 2015, the 52 CVC operators had produced enough seedlings to establish 236 hectares of new cocoa gardens. With a germination rate of 90%, the CVC operators are far more successful than farmers who get their seeds directly from the government extension agency. This is a commercial operation. For example, Hélène Amenan, one of just two female CVC operators among the 2014 cohort, produced over 10,000 seedlings in her nursery in 2015, enough to establish 7 hectares of new

cocoa orchards. She sold the seedlings for 100 CFA each, earning around 1 million CFA (US$1630). “Having the opportunity to become a CVC operator is the best thing that has ever happened to me,” she said.

CVC operators train farmers on how to prune their cocoa and provide demonstrations on their own cocoa plots and in farmers’ orchards. They also offer pruning services, for which they are paid. Reflecting on the benefits of pruning and the use of good agricultural practices, Moustafa Sawadogo, a farmer in Dabouya, had this to say: “The CVC operator came to my farm, did some pruning and showed me how to use fertilizers. I now get three times more cocoa from my orchard than I did in the past.”

The V4C project recognizes that a profitable cocoa sector will create local private sector opportunities along the value chain, especially for individuals who produce superior planting material in private nurseries and sell agricultural

inputs. At present, each CVC serves an average of 100 farmers of varying sizes. Some have been particularly successful and even taken on new staff to help run operations. The CVC model encourages entrepreneurship and provides vital services to local farmers. The first tranche of CVC operators included just two women. The next tranche of 40 operators will include at least 10 women.

A memorandum of understanding between Mars Inc. and the Conseil Café Cacao limits V4C’s current operations to Nawa Region. The goal is to establish at least 120 CVCs in the region, but if the Conseil approves this business model, it could be used elsewhere in the country. Mars hopes that by 2020, at least 10,000 farmers will have access to the triple productivity package, thanks to training provided by government extension agents and the services of the CVCs.

The text for this story is taken from a technical paper written by Thomas Kouakou, Camara S. Kingoun, Stephane Diomande, Siagbe Golli, Gabin A. Kouamé, Naka S. Sylla and Christophe Kouamé. This was one of two policy briefs and four technical papers about the V4C project published in early 2016.

Photo Left: Young cocoa seedlings in a nursery belonging to a Cocoa Village Centre.

Photo Right: Jérôme Bolé, a CVC operator in Dabouyo, runs a thriving business selling inputs and services to cocoa farmers.

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At present, millions of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa struggle to produce enough food for themselves, never mind the expanding populations in urban centres. Unsustainable management practices, declining soil fertility and low use of fertilizers are among the factors preventing farms from fulfilling their productive potential.

Increasing agricultural production entails enhancing the quality of the soil, increasing cropping intensity and using the land for both food crops and crops with high market value. However, as scientists working for the World Agroforestry Centre in Cameroon point out in a recent paper, this can only be achieved if there is good quantitative and up-to-date information

about soil quality indicators. “In an agricultural context, high soil quality means a highly productive soil with low levels of degradation and the capacity to withstand extreme weather events and reduce nutrient loss,” says Bertin Takoutsing, who has been leading the land health research.

Takoutsing and his colleagues used the Land Degradation Surveillance Framework, developed by the World Agroforestry Centre and described in previous annual reports, to measure and monitor land health indicators in Bamendjou, Western Cameroon. The framework is a spatially stratified, random sampling technique used to characterize sentinel sites which consists of 10km×10km blocks and clusters of 160 plots.

Over 88% of the Bamendjou site was under cultivation at the time of the survey, implying that nearly every hectare of the land, including the steeper slopes, was being used for crop production. Soils in the study site were described as marginally suitable for the sustainable production of priority crops like maize. However, the research indicated that there is considerable potential to improve productivity if current management practices are modified and farmers have access to more inputs.

According to the scientists, the widespread problem of low soil organic carbon and nitrogen could be addressed, through integrated soil fertility management. This includes a wide range of activities. For example, soil acidity

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and mineral deficiencies could be corrected by the application of organic manure, and nutrient deficiencies could be tackled by the targeted application of inputs such as fertilizers. Problems related to low pH, which affects the entire site, could be addressed through the application and incorporation of lime, compost and green manure. Farmers could

also consider planting nitrogen-fixing trees. Intercropping of rain-fed annual crops – such as beans, cassava, sweet potatoes and yam – could reduce the risk of crop losses as a result of diseases or pests.

The research provides an effective set of tools for those in the study site to better understand

and manage the landscape. It also provides a basis for developing targets that help in planning and management, as well as the sort of information that decision-makers need when implementing programmes for land rehabilitation.

Reference

Takoutsing B, Ayenkulu E, Tchoundjeu Z, Coe R, Nna D, Shepherd K. 2015. Land health surveillance for identifying land constraints and targeting agroforestry intervention in smallholder farming systems in Western Cameroon. ICRAF Working Paper No. 191. Yaounde, World Agroforestry Centre. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5716/WP14253.PDF

Photo Left: Taking field samples at a sentinel site in Cameroon.

Photo Above: Farmers discussing the soil health indicators of their plot with World Agroforestry Centre scientist Bertin Takoutsing.

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Landscape restoration is a major preoccupation for many countries and organizations, and agroforestry will have to make an important contribution if the Bonn Challenge – a global aspiration to restore 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested land by 2020 – is to be achieved. Success will depend on choosing the right trees and communities of trees for use in restoration.

Recent research conducted by World Agroforestry Centre scientists and their colleagues in China has shed new light on the importance of using indigenous species. They studied the effect of restoration on soil communities and documented changes over time in a phosphate mine in Yunnan province. They selected sites with different restoration ages and compared soil microbial biomass

under one exotic species (Eucalyptus globulus) and two indigenous species, Cupressus torulosa and Pinus yunnanensis. Control sites included natural land and disturbed sites without vegetation.

The researchers found that tree-based restoration led to significant increases in soil nitrogen, compared to the unrestored control sites. This highlights the positive effect of planting trees as a means of restoration. However, the choice of tree species also made a significant difference to soil health. There was a high degree of variability in a number of soil factors between the indigenous and exotic species at different stages of restoration. Soil nutrient levels increased at a faster rate in soils associated with native species. This result is consistent with previous reports

which support the use of native species in restoration. It seems that native species are genetically adjusted to the local environment, while alien species take time to adjust. This provides clear evidence that species selection is vitally important when undertaking restoration programmes.

RESTORING SOIL HEALTH

Reference

Li C, Shi L, Ostermann A, Xu J, Li Y, Mortimer PE. 2015. Indigenous trees restore soil microbial biomass at faster rates than exotic species. Plant and Soil. Published online 8 July 2015

Photo: One of the restoration sites in Yunnan Province.

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It is now widely recognized that single-crop farming systems lead to nutrient depletion and a decline in microbial functional diversity in the soil, thus disrupting processes which are crucial to maintaining soil health. Living organisms in the soil play a key role in organic matter decomposition, nutrient recycling and soil formation. Soil microbes also contribute to plant productivity through the formation of symbiotic relationships. The best-known symbiotic groups are nitrogen-fixing bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi.

Scientists working for the World Agroforestry Centre in China recently explored the impact of introducing nitrogen-fixing alder trees (Alnus nepalensis) into monoculture tea plantations in Yunnan province. At three different sites, they analysed soil microbial communities, nutrients

and tea productivity in tea plantations with alder trees and control plots represented by a tea monoculture.

Tea production significantly increased as a result of planting alder, with the mean yield of the agroforestry systems being 65% higher than that of monoculture plantations. This suggests that the agroforestry systems are capable of maintaining high plant productivity and supporting the growth of the trees. The lack of significant differences in soil nutritional status between the monoculture and agroforestry plots suggests that the differences observed may be biologically driven as a result of increased microbial biomass in the soils under agroforestry. The study confirms the benefits of introducing nitrogen-fixing tree species into monoculture systems.

A TREE FOR TEA

Reference

Mortimer PE, Guia H, Xua J, Zhang C, Barrios E, Hyde KD. 2015. Alder trees enhance crop productivity and soil microbial biomass in tea plantations. Applied Soil Ecology 96: 25–32

Photo: Tea agroforestry in Baoshan County, Yunnan Province, China. Tea is grown with Alnus nepalensis trees, a traditional practice that is now being encouraged by the local forestry extension officers.

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Average maize yields in Zambia are a fraction of what they could be, partly because many farmers cannot afford to replenish nutrients taken up by the crops. Smallholders apply an average of 18kg of fertilizer per hectare, less than a third of the world average.

To tackle this problem, the EverGreen Maize for Africa Initiative, a partnership between the World Agroforestry Centre and hybrid seed producers, DuPont Pioneer, have been promoting the use of fertilizer trees as a way of improving soil fertility, building soil carbon and helping farmers adapt to climate change. The project focused on seven districts in Eastern Zambia during the maize-growing season which ended in April 2015.

“It’s been a very exciting project,” says Sid Mohan, who works with the EverGreen Agriculture team at the World Agroforestry Centre. “It has shown the benefits of working with the private sector to upscale agroforestry, and it has demonstrated agroforestry’s potential to complement agricultural technologies, such as improved varieties of maize.”

The project focused on four agroforestry species, Faidherbia, Gliricidia, Sesbania and Tephrosia. These improve soil fertility by fixing nitrogen and by providing green manure in the form of nitrogen-rich leaf biomass.

Led by Isaac Nyoka and Godfrey Kundhlande of the Southern Africa office, the project team

provided training in agroforestry practices to government extension offices and staff working in the field for DuPont Pioneer. Training included topics such as setting up nurseries, how to intercrop the agroforestry species with maize, and incorporating biomass into the soil. During the planting season, the extension officers trained 2571 lead farmers, of whom 950 were women; they, in turn, were able to provide advice to over 7000 farmers. The project also provided training for input suppliers and local agricultural dealers on tree seed handling; nursery establishment and management; and agroforestry practices. The project was able to meet 92% of total planting material requests from farmers.

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This is part of a wider EverGreen Agriculture programme which is being implemented in Zambia to increase farmers’ opportunities to

improve and sustain maize yields using locally available resources. “The success of the early users – such as those in Eastern Zambia –

should help to influence other farmers who are currently not using agroforestry,” says Mohan.

Photo Left: A stand of relay fallow of Sesbania sesban in a demonstration plot. The photo was taken soon after the maize harvest.

Photo Above: A well-established Sesbania sesban maize relay intercrop.

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Shifting cultivation is an ancient land use system which involves clearing a patch of forest for the cultivation of crops. After cropping, sometimes for a period as short as a year, the land is managed as a fallow. The forest then re-grows and soil fertility is restored. After a fallow period, ideally between 10 to 15 years, the process can be repeated. However as populations have risen and pressure on the land has increased, fallow periods have become shorter and shifting cultivation is increasingly giving way to permanent cropping. In mountainous areas in Myanmar, many farmers are now monocropping rubber and sugarcane, practices that are unsustainable.

In September 2015, the World Agroforestry Centre’s East and Central Asia Regional Programme launched a new agroforestry project, the first of its kind, in Shan and Chin states. At the launch meeting, Dietrich Schmidt-Vogt, a human geographer then working with the project, said: “Agroforestry is the ideal solution for uplands. It can drastically reduce the need for expensive chemical fertilizers and noxious pesticides, while boosting yields and diversifying incomes.”

The project is being supported by the Livelihoods and Food Security Trust Fund (LIFT), whose contributors include Australia, Denmark, the EU, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden,

Switzerland, the UK and the US. A major private donor is Mitsubishi Corporation. Partners in the project include the University of Forestry at Yezin and two Myanmar NGOs, Ar Yone Oo and ECCDI.

The project’s opening ceremony, which was addressed by the Minister of Environmental Conservation and Forestry, U Win Tun, was followed by a workshop attended by some 25 participants. They were able to exchange knowledge and discuss future collaboration. Local communities have provided sites on which to set up pilot agroforestry systems, where the researchers hope to incorporate nitrogen-fixing trees, such as Alnus nepalensis and Albizia lebbeck, with agricultural crops.

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During the initiation workshop, a minister from the Myanmar Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry expressed his enthusiasm for agroforestry, proposing that the World Agroforestry Centre set up additional agroforestry demonstration sites around the capital Nay Pyi Taw.

Peter Mortimer, the project leader responded by saying: “Having strong backing at all levels is so important for this type of project, and we have a feeling that Myanmar and its people will prove to be great partners and an example to similar projects elsewhere.”

Photo Left: Characteristic mountainous landscape of the Chin State, Myanmar. A mixture of fallow forests, old growth forests and agricultural land can be seen.

Photo Right: Agroforestry demonstration plot in Ping Laung Township, Shan State, Myanmar. Demonstration plots include a combination of mixed planting using local crops and Albizia lebbeck saplings, as well as alley cropping systems, also using Albizia lebbeck saplings.

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New research in Vietnam, led by Elisabeth Simelton of the World Agroforestry Centre, suggests that agroforestry can help farmers to cope with extreme weather events.

The researchers interviewed farmers in 21 villages in northern and north-central Vietnam and asked them about their experiences with trees and crops affected by major events such as droughts, floods and storms. The key finding was that farms with trees tended to recover more rapidly after most types of natural disasters – cold spells excepted – than farms with fewer trees. Incorporating trees in farming systems reduces risk in a number of ways. Trees are generally more resilient to

extreme weather and also act as windshields, reduce soil erosion, and improve soil fertility and moisture retention for surrounding crops. Compared to most crops, the wood provides some value or purpose, even if the tree has been damaged or uprooted.

Individual farmers’ experience with trees – and their uses as coping mechanisms – depended on their income status, their awareness of species and their management, and government policies. Existing agroforestry systems reflected a transition from indigenous farming systems to the use of new species and technologies.

However, many farmers were still unfamiliar with agroforestry and its possible benefits. To increase adoption, the researchers decided that rather than discussing new species and new technologies at the same time, it might be more effective to start with what farmers already knew. They recommended that either new species should be planted in a familiar way – such as adding understory plants in gardens – or familiar species should be planted in a new way, such as along contours. Gradually, farmers would observe the benefits – both environmental and economic – of these new agroforestry systems.

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However, if farmers are going to be encouraged to plant more trees on their land, they need support from policymakers and land-use planners. At present, this support is typically limited to few species for reforestation programmes.

“This is among the first quantitative evidence from Vietnam about the value of agroforestry and trees from a land-use planning perspective,” says Simelton. More studies of this nature would provide strong economic arguments for policymakers to support diverse and permanent agroforestry systems.

Photo Left: Crop damage caused by violent weather.

Photo Right: This wall was blown down by the wind.

Reference

Simelton E, Dam VB, Catacutan D. 2015. Trees and agroforestry for coping with extreme weather events: experiences from northern and central Vietnam. Agroforestry Systems. DOI 10.1007/s10457-015-9835-5.

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The World Agroforestry Centre is now using its Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy (MIR)-based technology in India. This is creating the opportunity to measure soil health and nutrient status in real time, thus giving farmers rapid results to soil analysis tests. The Centre’s Soil-Plant Spectral Diagnostics Laboratory and South Asia Regional Programme are working closely with the Indian Institute of Soil Science (IISS) of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) on this initiative.

Around 119 million farmers in India depend on agricultural production for their livelihoods. Information on soil health and nutrient status will help them to apply the right types and amounts of nutrients and adopt management

practices to maximize profitability without compromising the health of their soils. However, the current annual capacity of existing soil laboratories is around 1.3 million soil samples per year, against a projected demand of about 40 million samples per year as planned by the Government.

Traditional soil analysis methods are time-consuming and expensive and they often use hazardous chemicals. They are also incapable of meeting high levels of demand from farmers with low incomes. To overcome this, the World Agroforestry Centre has established a fully functional MIR laboratory at IISS and trained 12 Indian scientists to use the technology.

The scientists are calibrating the technology to the diverse soil types of India, and the results obtained so far are very promising in terms of their accuracy, speed, economy, mobility and adaptability. The speed and low cost enables large numbers of geo-referenced soil samples to be taken. This allows digital mapping of soil properties and soil potential at state or national level. The information can then be used to inform decisions about which land use and management practices are suitable for specific locations.

Light-based technology is being applied in other ways as well. In addition to MIR, the World Agroforestry Centre has installed a portable x-ray fluorescence spectrometer (pXRF) in the

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IISS lab for total element analysis in both soil and plant samples. This will help scientists to analyse micro and macro nutrient deficiencies in crops, and to calibrate the new spectral soils tests. The results can then be used to develop a risk-based approach to fertilizer and agronomic recommendations. The pXRF technology can also analyse heavy metals in soils and plants and be used to monitor soil pollution at mining and industrial sites and in urban areas, says Erick Towett, a soil spectroscopy scientist.

Photo Left: Degraded landscape of Bhilwara, Rajasthan.

This page: Top right: Using an infiltrometer at Bhilwara site, Rajasthan.

Bottom left: Brick kiln with soil excavation leading to degraded landscapes.

Bottom right: Degraded landscape, Bhilwara, Rajasthan.

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Since 2014, the World Agroforestry Centre has taken the lead in a project to safeguard biodiversity and improve the well-being of people living on either side of the Kenya/Somalia border. This is one of three cross-border regions which are the focus of the Biodiversity Management Programme in the Horn of Africa, a project funded by the European Union and managed by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD).

“Due to security concerns, the project was slow to start in 2014, but it really took off in 2015,” says Josephat Nyongesa, who became project manager in April 2015. Activities north of the Somali border remain limited, for security

reasons, and incursions across the border by armed insurgents have also meant that work on the Kenyan side has mostly taken place in the south of the project area.

Project partners include the Kenya Forest Service (KFS), the National Museums of Kenya and Lamu County Government, Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT), The African Network for Agriculture, Agroforestry and Natural Resources Education (ANAFE), National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), Coastal Oceans Research Development Indian Ocean (CORDIO), Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux International (CABI), International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), Bhadhadhe

District Administration in Somalia, Rain Water Association of Somalia (RAAS) and local communities in project intervention areas.

One of the main aims of the project is to take pressure off the forests. In the past, KFS was keen to expel many of the people living in the area around Witu Protected Forest since most did not own the land, but had settled in the area some 20 years ago. “However, since the project began, they’ve taken a different approach,” says Jan de Leeuw of the World Agroforestry Centre. “KFS is now encouraging the villagers to practise agroforestry, and plant trees which will provide them with fruit and timber.” It is hoped that that will mean they have less reason to exploit the forest.

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Since the project began, over 700 farmers have been trained in agroforestry and tree management. KFS has also worked with the villages to rehabilitate degraded areas of the forest. This has been done by fencing off areas so that trees can regenerate naturally, as well as through replanting.

The project has also established four demonstration sites for rainwater harvesting in Soroko/TCN, Tangeni, Kakate and Maisha Masha. This is providing water, which will enable villagers to intensify their agricultural activities and grow high-value crops; rainwater harvesting is also providing the means to irrigate agroforestry nurseries. This, too, should help to take pressure off the forests and safeguard local biodiversity.

Increasing local incomes lies at the heart of this project. Thus in 2015 significant progress was made in developing a sustainable honey value

chain. The traditional way of collecting honey is highly destructive. Villagers look for wild colonies of bees in the forests and smoke them out. This frequently leads to the death of the colonies and it can also cause wildfires which destroy biodiversity. The honey collected by this traditional method is also frequently of low quality.

During 2015, the project trained 99 people – 31 from Witu and 68 from Awer – in modern beekeeping methods at Arabuko Sokoke Forest near Malindi. The training involved two days of theory and two days of practical field experience, providing participants with the opportunity to visit a successful community-driven value chain centre established within Arabuko Sokoke Forest by local beekeepers.

Like many participants, 54-year-old herder and subsistence farmer Shokolu Oloo had seen his returns from pastoralism and farming steadily

dwindle in recent years. He now saw apiculture as a viable and exciting alternative. “From this training,” he reflected, “I’ve learned that beekeeping for honey production offers more income with less effort when compared to either farming or livestock keeping.”

In November, the project supplied 60 modern Langstroth hives, and harvesting and honey processing equipment to community groups in Witu. By the end of the year, 90% had been colonized by wild bees and the first honey harvest was expected in April 2016. “There is a very good market for honey, both locally and further afield, as demand exceeds supply,” says Nyongesa. “We will continue to support the value chain, but there will be no problem finding buyers. Indeed, the hive suppliers are already offering to take whatever honey is produced in Witu.”

Photo Left: Participants of a honey value chain workshop visit a processing centre in Arabuko Sokoke.

Photo Right: Workshop participants visit a farm involved in honey production.

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In December 2015, the World Agroforestry Centre organized a meeting on landscape restoration during the UN climate conference in Paris. The idea of bringing scientists together from the Centre and other institutions, such as the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the World Resources Institute (WRI), was first mooted by Jonathan Cornelius, the World Agroforestry Centre’s Regional Coordinator for Latin America. “Restoration was becoming an increasingly important subject, both for us here and for our scientists in other parts of the organization,” says Cornelius.

During the Paris meeting, the scientists agreed to produce a position paper which will act as

a guide for restoration, with a focus on how agroforestry can restore degraded land. This will complement the methodology developed by IUCN and WRI – outlined in the Restoration Opportunity Assessment Manual (ROAM) – for identifying sites for restoration. In other words, it will be about the ‘how-to’, rather than the ‘where’, of restoration.

A similar exercise, focusing on the Brazilian Cerrado and Caatinga biomes, has been undertaken by Andrew Miccolis from the World Agroforestry Centre’s Brazil office. The restoration guidebook was produced under the IUCN-funded Knowledge Management for Forest Landscape Restoration (KnowForFLR) project. It aims to disseminate knowledge to

increase the use of agroforestry in restoration activities.

The Brazilian Forestry Code obliges farmers to restore degraded land on privately-owned protected areas, and allows them to do so using agroforestry. However, the law fails to specify how the agroforestry systems should be used in practice and there is a serious lack of understanding about the costs and benefits of forest restoration. To fill the knowledge gap, Miccolis and his colleagues undertook a number of activities, including a literature review, interviews with farmers, and a workshop, which brought together farmers, technicians, experts and policymakers.

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“The combination of inputs gathered during the study confirms that agroforestry can provide practical solutions for turning the onus of restoration into a bonus for farmers,” says Miccolis. The study found that medium- to high-diversity agroforestry systems are best suited to the goals of restoring protected areas.

Using the options-by-context approach – described elsewhere in this annual report (see, for example, page 7) – the guidebook proposes 11 different options that could be adapted to different situations. “These options are not meant as fixed models to be copied, but rather as guides for those seeking to build solutions that can be adapted to specific situations, yet are flexible enough to be applied across wider scales,” wrote Miccolis and his fellow authors in a paper for Experimental Agriculture.

Photo Left: Workshop for family farmers on conservation through agroforestry, held in Brasilia, Brazil.

Photo Right: Principles and practices for agroforestry-based restoration in the drylands of Brazil (Caatinga), as proposed by participants at the workshop.

Reference

Restoration through agroforestry: options for reconciling livelihoods with conservation in Brazil. Andrew Miccolis et al. Experimental Agriculture, 2016. ©

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3.

Eating fruit is one of the best ways of ensuring that you get enough vitamins essential for good health. Progress was made by the African Orphan Crops Consortium and in Kenya our scientists developed tree portfolios which will ensure farmers can harvest different fruits throughout the year. Projects in Latin America and Asia have been exploring how to improve fruit value chains.

Photo: Planting trees on a farm in Machakos, Kenya.

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In 2015, scientists from the World Agroforestry Centre launched a new way of tackling micronutrient deficiencies, or hidden hunger as it is often known. The fruit tree portfolio approach, developed by Stepha McMullin and Katja Kehlenbeck, encourages farmers to cultivate a set of location-specific fruit tree species which can provide a constant supply of nutritious, vitamin-rich fruits throughout the year. The aim is to increase dietary diversity and improve health.

The approach was developed and tested in Machakos in Eastern Kenya, under the Fruiting Africa Project, which is funded by the European Commission and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Although Kenya is rich in both indigenous and exotic fruits, consumption is meagre, with the vast majority of people consuming less than a quarter of the daily amount recommended by the World Health Organization. A lack of micronutrients, including vitamins, is a significant cause of stunting in children and a range of malnutrition-related diseases.

“The daily consumption of sufficient fruits and vegetables could do much to tackle the problem of hidden hunger,” says McMullin. “In Machakos, we focused on developing a portfolio of fruits which can provide vitamins A and C, as well as other important nutrients.” The scientists identified 10 indigenous and exotic species which, if cultivated together on

the farm, could provide a harvest of fresh fruit during every month of the year. These are pawpaw, mango, waterberry, custard apple, guava, lemon, orange, chocolate berry, passion fruit and desert date.

Focus group discussions enabled McMullin and her team to establish farmers’ preferences for certain fruit species and identify the periods when poorer farmers’ families have run out of grain from the last harvest and are waiting for the next. They also looked at the data on current and potential fruit tree diversity and the nutrient contents of different species before drawing up the final fruit tree portfolio. In March 2015, the scientists worked with local partners to establish a demonstration plot at the World

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Agroforestry Centre’s rural resource centre in Machakos. Other demonstration plots were established on community nurseries, in farmers’ fields and in schools.

“Both exotic and indigenous species have the potential to be highly productive, but many of the wild species are better adapted to the harsh local environment, and some provide more nutritious fruits when compared to common exotic fruit species,” says Kehlenbeck. Indeed, when the scientists identified the wild desert date (Balanites aegyptiaca) as a candidate for the portfolio, they were greeted with much laughter from the local women who were asked

to plant these trees on their farms. They had no knowledge about its potential value for family nutrition. In other parts of Africa, its fruits are sold at local markets and used to produce juice and syrup. There is no reason why the same shouldn’t happen in Kenya.

One of the main communication tools has been a colour booklet which provides simple guidance on which species to plant and how to plant them, with a description of the nutritional benefits provided by each and their harvesting times. Targeted at farmers and extension workers, the booklets have been distributed during farmer training sessions and

at agricultural shows and farmer field days.

The fruit tree portfolio approach could be adopted elsewhere in Africa and used for species which provide products besides fruit, such as timber, fuelwood and fodder. Stepha and her colleagues are now developing a toolkit describing the methodology. The next stage will involve developing combined fruit and crop portfolios for smallholder farmers, including vegetables and pulses for year-round production. These will also help to improve nutrition and family incomes.

Photo Left: Establishing fruit trees at a nursery in Machakos.

Photo Right: Mangoes play an important role in fruit tree portfolios.

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In the last two decades, scientists sequenced the genomes of around 60 plant species. Thanks to extraordinary advances in gene-sequencing technologies, the African Orphan Crops Consortium (AOCC) expects to sequence the genomes of almost double that number in just five years. Launched in 2011, AOCC seeks to identify specific gene sequences linked to desirable traits of 101 indigenous African crops.

The Consortium is a global collaborative research effort, involving Mars Inc., the World Agroforestry Centre, Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI), Thermo Fisher Scientific, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the University of California, Davis (UCD), the African Union’s

New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), various CGIAR institutes, LGC Genomics, iPlant Collaborative (now CyVerse) and Google, among many others.

“2015 was a very significant year for us,” says Prasad Hendre, a plant genomics scientist who manages the AOCC laboratory at the World Agroforestry Centre’s headquarters in Nairobi. “We began sequencing 29 orphan crops – including 15 tree species – and by the end of the year we had reached an advanced stage in the sequencing of five species, including three trees.” These are the custard apple (Annona senegalensis), Faidherbia albida, a leguminous nitrogen-fixing tree of great importance, and Moringa oleifera, a species renowned for its

nutritional and medicinal properties. The whole genome sequencing is being undertaken in China by BGI, and the re-sequencing at the AOCC genomics lab in Nairobi.

“We are identifying the genetic sequences, known as DNA markers which are associated with particular traits, such as high yields, or nutrient content, or drought resistance, or particular flavours, or early flowering,” explains Hendre. “And we are using modern genomics and marker-assisted selection techniques to work out how to improve indigenous crops that have largely been ignored by scientists until now.”

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Work carried out by the Consortium will enable African plant breeders to determine the genetic profile of a young plant when it has produced just one or two leaves. By analysing the genome, scientists will be able to check for the presence (or absence) of gene sequences associated with particular traits, rather than wait until the plants mature before they can establish whether or not they will show these traits.

Last year, we reported that 23 young scientists from 11 countries had graduated from the African Plant Breeding Academy in Nairobi in 2014. This was the first batch of some 250 scientists who will benefit from training in modern genomics. The second batch of 29 young scientists began training in Tanzania in December 2015.

The first annual progress report of AOCC was launched at a high-level dinner in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, hosted by the AOCC Steering Committee on 27th January 2016. In his introduction, NEPAD’s CEO Ibrahim Mayaki highlighted the overarching purpose of the project, which is “to improve the diets and livelihoods of the 600 million people who live in rural sub-Saharan Africa.”

Photo Left: AOCC is sequencing the genome of Cleome spp, a highly nutritious vegetable.

Photos Above: Left - Bicentina Auma, a small-scale farmer in Uganda, harvests her finger millet. Right - A karité or shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa). This species, which is found in 21 African countries, is an important source of oil and fruit.

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On 18th October 2015, the World Agroforestry Centre’s Vietnam office celebrated Vietnamese Women’s Day and World Food Day by organizing a cooking competition in Ky Son commune to raise awareness about climate-smart agriculture. Twenty-seven male farmers from eight villages and the local Youth Union cooked over 70 dishes using local ingredients – and there was scarcely a spring roll in sight.

“Looking at the ingredients in the cooking competition gave us a far better idea of what people grow than any previous household survey, focus group discussion or visit to the market,” says Elisabeth Simelton, who organized the competition with Hai Van Le, the World Agroforestry Centre’s community

organizer in My Loi climate-smart village. “Everybody may not grow everything, but planting material and local knowledge are readily available.”

Local schoolgirls performed at the event, and Simelton and her colleagues explained how the colour of fruit and vegetables provides an indication of the nutrients they contain and their health benefits. For example, yellow and orange fruits and vegetables contain high levels of beta-carotene, which is converted to vitamin A, which helps to keep the eyes, bones and skin healthy. Antioxidant vitamins such as C and E are found in green vegetables and help to lower the risk of chronic disease.

Green was by far the most common colour, with dishes including wild fern fried with garlic, bitter gourd stuffed with pork meat, cucumber, numerous herbs, sprouts and leafy vegetables. These dishes were often sprinkled with home-grown black pepper and served with fresh green tea, two common agroforestry crops. Many of the seasonal fruits and vegetables were yellow and orange, with dishes including jackfruit, pumpkin, mango, orange and forest banana. A popular red dish – red fruits and vegetables contain high levels of vitamins C and carotenoids – was tilapia cooked in tomato sauce.

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The competition helped to raise awareness about climate-smart agriculture, not only in the climate-smart village where it took place (My Loi is one of six which comes under the CGIAR Research Programme on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security in Southeast

Asia) but in villages beyond. “Knowing the diversity of the available fruit and vegetables is important for planning new vegetable gardens, and these will provide lunches for kindergarten and primary schoolchildren,” says Simelton. She adds that this event would never have

happened without the enthusiasm and support of many people, including the Youth Union, the Farmers’ Union in Ha Tinh province and local village leaders.

Photo Left: Elisabeth Simelton talking to the dancing girls.

Photo Right: Over 70 dishes were produced for the cooking competition.

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For people in the semi-arid Sahel, Ziziphus mauritiana – locally known as ber or pomme de Sahel – has always been an important source of food, during times of scarcity and famine, as well as a nutritious component of the diet during better times. Its fruit is rich in vitamin C, sugars and carotene; the leaves make good fodder for livestock and are also used for medicinal purposes.

Until recently, Ziziphus was largely overlooked by scientists, but it is now starting to come into its own thanks to a participatory tree domestication programme led by the World Agroforestry Centre and its partners. The programme is helping to improve productivity

and the tree’s ability to cope with drought, and it is doing so by taking the best traits of local accessions and blending them with Asian accessions.

The fruits of West African Ziziphus trees are tiny compared to those from Asian trees. For example, the mean weight of fruit from trees sourced in Senegal was 85 times less than fruit from a Ziziphus variety from Thailand. Production also tends to be lower in local varieties. However, local varieties also have advantages, being more drought-tolerant and less vulnerable to attacks by pests and diseases.

Using promising accessions introduced from Asian countries and others collected in the Sahel, the domestication work has involved field trials to evaluate the germplasm. Working with local farmers in Mali and neighbouring countries, scientists led by Antoine Kalinganire, have selected trees for desirable traits such as large fruit size, sweetness and resilience to drought.

“So far, over 50 accessions of Ziziphus have been tested and 10 have been adopted by farmers in the Sahel,” says Kalinganire. Similar participatory research has also been used to develop improved varieties of tamarind, baobab and shea. More than 2500 extension

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agents and farmers are being trained each year in tree nursery techniques, including vegetative propagation, to take advantage of the domestication programme.

One of the aims of the programme is to make fruits available throughout the year. Creating improved accessions of Ziziphus by combining the best traits of native and exotic trees is helping to prolong the months during which it produces fruit. Ziziphus is now the only major fruit tree in the West African Sahel which produces fruit in October and November, provided it is grown under irrigation.

Reference

Kalinganire A, Weber JC and Coulibaly S. 2012. Improved Ziziphus mauritiana germplasm for Sahelian smallholder farmers: First steps toward a domestication programme. Forests, Trees and Livelihoods. Available at: http://bit.ly/1M8ivNA

Photo Left: Jujuber (Ziziphus mauritiana) trees at the World Agroforestry Centre Research Centre in Samanko, Mali.

Right Top: Comparing improved with non-improved Jujuber (Ziziphus mauritiana) at the World Agroforestry Centre in Samanko, Mali.

Right Bottom: Young girl takes a break from collecting Jujuber (Ziziphus mauritiana) at a private plantation in San, Mali.

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From time to time, indigenous crops from developing countries have moved swiftly from relative obscurity to high-value exports of international renown. Think, for example, of açaí, a Brazilian palm fruit, or quinoa from the High Andes or shea from West Africa, all of which you will find in health food shops in the United States and Europe.

However, numerous more remain unknown. “For each indigenous crop superstar, there are hundreds of wild or partially domesticated indigenous plants and trees that remain relatively unknown,” says Jason Donovan, value chains expert at the World Agroforestry Centre’s Latin America office.

Donovan and his colleague Trent Blare have looked at the challenges facing newly domesticated indigenous fruits, mainly focusing on the lessons learned from the camu-camu value chain in Peru. Camu-camu (Myrciaria dubia) has a lot going for it. A shrub which grows on seasonally flooded land beside the Amazon, its cherry-like fruits not only taste delicious, they contain 32 times more vitamin C than lemons by weight. They also possess many anti-oxidative and strong anti-inflammatory properties.

Prior to the late 1990s, the shrub was only available in the wild and human consumption was limited to the remote Amazonian city of Iquitos. However, two factors led to camu-

camu production and consumption reaching far beyond Iquitos. First, a sizeable market for frozen camu-camu pulp was identified and developed in Japan as a result of a government-based effort to promote Peruvian agricultural products; and second, government agencies, including research stations, NGOs and international research centres developed an ambitious strategy to expand and domesticate camu-camu, with the aim of establishing some 10,000 hectares of new plantations. Since then the fruit has experienced cycles of boom and bust. In 2008, the Japanese export market collapsed and there was a significant dip in demand.

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Donovan and Blare examined camu-camu’s short and turbulent history as a domesticated crop by trawling through the grey literature and conducting interviews with over 50 producers – smallholder farmers living alongside the Amazon – and seven processors, most of whom are based in Lima.

They found that 9 out of 10 producers were satisfied with their engagement in the camu-camu value chain. Many said that it helped them to send their children to school, improve their homes and meet their daily needs. “Camu-camu is my future and it has provided many benefits to my family,” one farmer told them. However, most of the farmers are failing to follow recommended agronomic practices and are not harvesting as much as they could. Perhaps this is not surprising. “The boom and bust cycle of camu-camu has made it difficult

for many smallholders to plan for the future,” explains Blare. “After the market crash in 2008, camu-camu farm gate prices went from about US$2 to less than a cent for a 25kg crate of fresh fruit.”

The processors also have their concerns. They point to the lack of uniformity of fruit, in terms of size and quality, and the high transaction costs involved in dealing with individual farmers, who are often difficult to reach as they live in remote areas that can only be accessed by boat. Furthermore, both farmers and local processes often lack refrigeration facilities needed to store the fruit.

The development of camu-camu in Peru can be considered a partial success story. In the context of value chain development, the question of how to achieve greater impact at

scale in shorter time periods is an important one that has received limited attention. The camu-camu study provides insights into how to achieve greater impact.

“Our study shows that the private sector, while quick to engage with smallholders, has had limited capacity to build, expand and diversify camu-camu markets in Peru and abroad,” says Donovan. The research highlights the need for interventions that focus on the bottlenecks at different stages of the value chains. A continued focus only on farm-level technical solutions is insufficient. The authors suggest the need for greater collaboration among processors, smallholders, government agencies and NGOs to address the current and future challenges facing the value chains of camu-camu and other indigenous crops.

Photo Left: Ripe camu-camu berries.

Photo Right: A Peruvian woman picking camu-camu fruit.

Reference

Blare T, Donovan J. 2016. Building value chains for indigenous fruits: lessons from camu-camu in Peru. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems (Forthcoming)

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China was the first country in the world to domesticate mulberry trees for silk production, so it comes as no surprise that the Chinese recently discovered, and are now commercializing, another vegetable fibre. This one is known as Calos. As smooth as silk, as comfortable as cotton and warm as wool, the fibre comes from the seeds of Calotropis gigantea, or the Sodom Apple, a species found in arid regions stretching from China to Africa.

The Sahel also has its own species, C. procera, and in drought-prone regions it is often one of the few plants you will see. A team of scientists led by Jianchu Xu, who manages the World Agroforestry Centre’s office in China, is currently exploring the fibre potential of this species, which has larger fruits than C. gigantea and longer fibres. “We believe that through the

domestication and breeding of C. procera, new desert oases and a brand-new ‘silk road’ will be created,” says Xu.

In the past year, a World Agroforestry Centre project team has been overseeing the harvest in Mali, Niger, Benin and Kenya. Local governments and community organizations have worked with the project to organize the community for fruit collection. The community has received training in harvesting techniques from domestication teams in Kenya and Mali. The project has been welcomed by local villagers as they can now earn money from a resource that previously had no use. Once harvested, the fibre is taken for processing research by a Chinese textile company.

An important component of the project has involved the genetic analysis of the Calotropis. This was led by Nkatha Murira, a Chinese Academy of Sciences fellow supervised by Aizhong Liu of the Kunming Institute of Botany and Alice Muchugi of the World Agroforestry Centre. Using high-throughput transcriptome and gene functional analysis, they have made great progress identifying the molecular markers related to the species’ drought resistance and high-quality fibre biosynthesis. “This research lays the foundation for selecting superior varieties and genetic improvement,” says Muchugi.

ReferenceMuriira NG, Xu W, Muchugi A, Xu J, Liu A. 2015. De novo sequencing and assembly analysis of transcriptome in the Sodom apple (Calotropis gigantea). BMC Genomics 16(1): 723

SODOM AND TOMORROW

Photo: Harvesting Sodom apples.

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The African poplar (Populus ilicifolia) has long been used by communities living near its riparian habitat in Kenya to make beehives, dugout canoes and fence posts. However, decades of overharvesting, and damage caused by elephants and floods, mean that the tree is now classified as an endangered species by the Kenyan Wildlife Service. There is an urgent need to formulate plans to conserve the species, and possibly make better commercial use of it.

In 2015, scientists from the World Agroforestry Centre and the Kenya Forestry Research Institute (KEFRI) compared poplar populations found in Kenya along the Athi, Ewaso and Tana rivers with samples from five North American species and another species introduced by

KEFRI from India. “We found that the Athi population was the most genetically diverse and could be particularly important for conservation, domestication and improvement studies,” says Sammy Carsan, a tree scientist with the World Agroforestry Centre.

However, genetic diversity of the poplar population as a whole is decreasing across Kenya. The scientists recommend that programmes should strengthen in situ conservation in protected areas to maintain evolutionary processes which have shaped its genetic diversity. They also suggest that seeds should be collected from randomly sampled trees as a way of conserving diversity.

According to Alice Muchugi, a tree geneticist at the World Agroforestry Centre, there is a strong case to be made for developing new varieties by hybridizing P. ilicifolia with temperate species such as P. fremontii and P. deltoides. This will be done in collaboration with Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, US. “In Kenya, we suffer from acute scarcity of wood for energy, and we think that the African poplar, grown on farmers’ fields, is a potential source of bioenergy,” she says.

ReferenceMuraguri S, Muchugi A, Kariba R, Carsan S, Runo S, Oballa P, Jamnadass R. 2016. Genetic diversity of the African poplar (Populus ilicifolia) populations in Kenya (in prep)

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Photo: African poplar cuttings.

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Many of our projects focus on researching, developing and promoting climate-smart agricultural practices. Agroforestry can help farmers become more resilient to climate change, and by sequestering carbon trees on farms can play an important role in the battle against global warming.

Photo: The burning of forest land leads to a significant release of greenhouse gas emissions.

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For Todd Rosenstock, an environmental scientist with the World Agroforestry Centre, 2015 was a very significant year. He believes that during the past couple of years, the World Agroforestry Centre has helped to change the way climate-smart agriculture is being implemented in Africa. The Centre has done this by promoting context-specific approaches, building regional and national partnerships, and creating the evidence base for climate-smart agriculture.

Climate-smart agriculture aims to sustainably increase farm productivity, help farmers adapt to climate change, and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases when possible. By focusing on outcomes, rather than prescribing particular

practices, it promotes flexibility for people and places, yet allows them to aim for the same goals. “We know from more than 50 years of research that interventions are site-specific, so what is climate-smart in one area will not necessarily be climate-smart in another,” says Rosenstock.

“Given the site-specificity of CSA outcomes, implementation autonomy is particularly important for scaling up climate-smart agriculture in Africa,” says Christine Lamanna, a climate change decision scientist. This enabled stakeholders ranging from farmer groups to the African Union’s New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) to agree on a target of getting 25 million households to practise

climate-smart agriculture by 2025. Groups that typically act independently have come together through mechanisms such as the Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture in Africa (ACSAA), which the World Agroforestry Centre supports with data and evidence for CSA implementation.

To produce a robust, site-specific evidence-base for CSA in Africa, Rosenstock and Lamanna are conducting the largest agricultural meta-analysis ever attempted. This is examining the impact of over 70 agricultural practices on 40 indicators of productivity, resilience and mitigation into a ‘CSA Compendium’. Preliminary results are promising. When presented to ACSAA in Tanzania, they changed the conversation in

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the room, according to Karl Deering, climate change advisor for CARE Africa. Those present started to think outside of the box about transformative change to achieve climate and food security goals.

“The CSA Compendium has been a herculean task, involving a review of 145,000 scientific papers,” says Rosenstock. In Africa alone, this has generated a dataset of more than 100,000 observations from 45 countries. A CCAFS working paper and info note describing the

motivations, methods and preliminary results, is available. By the end of 2016, the evidence in Africa will be compiled in a searchable web-based database and analytic engine. Users will be able to assess the effectiveness and strength of evidence for a wide range of climate-smart agricultural practices to identify best practices for specific farming contexts and evaluate their investments with evidence.

In 2015, the World Agroforestry Centre’s data-driven approach to scaling up climate-smart

agriculture has supported the development of policy frameworks, programmes and implementation plans in Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Malawi, Zambia, Niger and Uganda. Scientists also developed a model to establish the suitability of different climate-smart options to help operationalize Tanzania’s Agricultural Climate Resilience Plan. Through its combination of data, process and partnerships, the World Agroforestry Centre is truly changing the way the CSA is being discussed and implemented across Africa.

Photo Left: Both feeding high protein tree species and diversification into small ruminants are thought to be climate-smart because they can increase production, build resilience to changing weather patterns (e.g. drought) and reduce greenhouse gas emissions/intensity.

Photo Right: Farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR) is one of the practices being examined as part of the CSA Compendium meta-analysis.

References Rosenstock TS, Lamanna C, Arslan A, Richards BM. 2015. What is the scientific basis for climate-smart agriculture? CCAFS Info Note. Copenhagen, Denmark: CCAFS

Rosenstock TS, Lamanna C, Chesterman S, Bell P, Arslan A, Richards M, Rioux J, Akinleye AO, Champalle C, Cheng Z, Corner-Dolloff C, Dohn J, English W, Eyrich AS, Girvetz EH, Kerr A, Lizarazo M, Madalinska A, McFatridge S, Morris KS, Namoi N, Poultouchidou N, Ravina da Silva M, Rayess S, Ström H, Tully KL, Zhou W. 2016. The scientific basis of climate-smart agriculture: A systematic review protocol. CCAFS Working Paper 138. Copenhagen, Denmark: CCAFS

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In many parts of sub-Saharan Africa pastoralist communities are having to cope with an increase in droughts and floods, as well as greater climatic variability. Helping them adapt to a changing climate is one of the main objectives of the Local Governance and Adapting to Climate Change in Sub-Saharan Africa project, which was launched in January 2015. The project, which focuses on dryland areas in Kenya and Burkina Faso, is managed by the World Agroforestry Centre and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), and funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

“We are trying to understand whether specific land and natural resource management settings, structures and institutions help to increase the adaptive capacity of agro-pastoral households and communities,” explains Lisa Fuchs, who is managing the three-year project. During the first year of the project, she and her colleagues identified areas in both countries which are as similar as possible, in order to isolate environmental differences. They also developed a methodology for analysing the influence of governance structures and property rights.

During the course of the project, Fuchs and her colleagues will share lessons learned with local partners and policymakers and jointly develop forward-looking scenarios that factor in future expected changes in the climate. They will also develop a decision-support tool that will help all those involved take better decisions regarding the types of policies, investments and interventions that can contribute to successful climate change adaptation.

GOVERNANCE AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Photo: The local governance project is working in arid lands in Kenya and Burkina Faso.

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“Oil palm is one of the most controversial agricultural commodities of our time,” begins a paper by World Agroforestry Centre scientists Faisal Mohd Noor, Anja Gassner and Anne Terheggen. “To its supporters, it is the ‘golden crop’ that catalyses smallholders out of poverty and brings salvation to the global food and energy crisis. For its critics, it is the single biggest threat driving the wholesale destruction of peatlands and rainforests, as well as adding to greenhouse gas emissions.”

The authors suggest that it is time to defuse the tension by considering “livelihood insetting”. This is very different from the more familiar approach of offsetting. “Carbon offsetting is really a fine for pollution,” says Terheggen, an economist based in Nairobi. “A company

produces too much carbon pollution and pays somebody else – maybe on the other side of the world – to mop it up.” With offsetting, there is no interaction between the parties involved apart from the financial arrangement. In contrast, insetting involves companies, frequently working through state agencies, providing incentives to communities or suppliers to mitigate their local environmental or social impact. Insetting is always done where a company’s activities have the greatest impact.

The thinking behind livelihoods insetting was presented by Noor at the International Palm Oil Congress and Exhibition, held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in October 2015. A researcher working in the CGIAR Oil Palm Sentinel Landscape, Noor explained how insetting could

simultaneously address consumer concerns about oil palm sustainability and the industry’s concerns about productivity.

“Insetting isn’t a new idea, but it is usually only used in the context of mitigating environmental impact, such as land degradation, biodiversity and climate change,” said Noor. “What is new is that we are asking the industry to work together with other partners to set up market structures and functional value chains for other agricultural and forest products besides palm oil.” Simply put, insetting would see the industry investing in alternative agricultural livelihood options for farmers in oil palm landscapes. Insetting can be used as an approach by forward-thinking companies to show consumers what more can be done to tackle the issue of sustainability.

LIVELIHOODS INSETTING – A NEW WAY OF DOING BUSINESS?

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Research by the World Agroforestry Centre and other organizations has shown that farmers with diverse livelihoods tend to be more resilient when faced with fluctuating prices or climatic shocks. Insetting would also benefit companies, as it is directly linked to their core business, which is increasing productivity: farmers who are better off are more likely to produce higher yields than farmers who eke out a marginal existence.

Reference

Noor F, Gassner A, Terheggen A. 2016. Beyond Sustainability Criteria and Principles: Addressing Consumer Concerns through Insetting. Ecology and Society

Photo: Nypa palm is a potential bioenergy source with multiple benefits.

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In July 2015, the World Agroforestry Centre - Philippines invited 27 farmer leaders and agricultural technicians from Lantapan, Bukidnon Province, to a training workshop on sustainable, tree-based farming activities. The workshop was one of the activities carried out during the second year of the Climate-Smart, Tree-based Co-investment in Adaptation and Mitigation in Asia (Smart Tree-Invest) Project, which is supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the CGIAR Research Programme on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry. One of the objectives of the project is to help local communities devise climate-smart practices using trees on their farms in collaboration with local governments and the private sector.

Participants visited the Conservation Agriculture with Trees (CAWT) centre in

Claveria, Misamis Oriental Province, where they learnt about different farming systems and practices, including vegetable agroforestry, rubber agroforestry, cocoa agroforestry and conservation agriculture with trees. They also learned about the importance of rainwater harvesting and the use of animal-built embankments and animal-drawn scrapers. During the training, the farmer leaders and technicians planned how they would integrate these sorts of systems on their farms and in their villages, and identified available resources that could be used.

Farmers were also consulted with regard to the development of a co-investment scheme in their municipality. These schemes typically involve communities and other sectors investing in the protection of environmental services, such as clean air and reduced soil erosion. They

discussed who should participate in any such scheme and what activities could be funded through co-investment. They also identified specific climate-smart tree-based farming activities which would be appropriate.

Regine Evangelista, one of the Smart Tree-Invest researchers in the Philippines, was encouraged by the enthusiasm shown by the workshop participants. “When they return to their villages, they will share what they’ve learned with the neighbours, and by practising these climate-smart farming systems themselves, they will inspire others to do the same,” she says.

ADAPTING TO CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE PHILIPPINES

Photo: Eulalia Cardente, a farmer from Songco, Lantapan, presents a design for a sustainable farming system.

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Many developing countries would like to introduce climate-smart technologies to help them adapt to climate change and reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases. However, they often lack the technical know-how and financial means. That is why the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) set up the Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN), which is led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

The World Agroforestry Centre is one of 15 partner organizations and in 2014 it helped three countries – Côte d’Ivoire, Chile and Mali – refine their requests for technical support from CTCN. In the case of Côte d’Ivoire, scientists

from the Centre supported and advised the government on the development of a National Environmental Information System. “We identified the best indicators for monitoring change, and advised on how to collect data,” says Audrey Chenevoy. Access to better data means that government ministries are now in a position to design programmes to reduce the impact of climate change and be better prepared to respond to extreme climate events.

There is a standard procedure for CTCN applications. When developing countries apply for support, they submit a four-page request. If eligible, the CTCN passes the request to one of the consortium partners, who will then help the country to develop an action plan. Once the country has signed off on the action plan,

the CTCN will then look for experts to help implement the plan.

Following the successful completion of the Côte d’Ivoire project, the World Agroforestry Centre was invited to develop a new action plan which will enable Mali, Niger and Guinea-Bissau to introduce climate-smart agricultural practices. CTCN subsequently invited the Centre to implement the project. This involves a scoping study to establish which climate-smart agricultural practices are appropriate, the use of the SHARED approach (see page 16) to improve decision-making at government and local level, and support to develop a proposal to scale up activities.

SUPPORT FOR CLIMATE-SMART TECHNOLOGIES

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“The CTCN has the potential to be really big in terms of scaling up sustainable land-use practices such as agroforestry,” says Henry Neufeldt, who leads the World Agroforestry Centre’s climate change programme.

Photo Left: Agroforestry for dairy farming. Abraham Kiprotich at his farm in Metkei, Elgeyo/Marakwet County in Kenya. He grows fodder trees, shrubs and grass for his dairy cattle.

Photo Right: Fatoumata Dembéle tends to her vegetable garden in the village of Molobal, Mali. Policies that promote climate-smart technologies will improve productivity for smallholder farmers like her.

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Our new strategy on tree-based energy puts emphasis on the importance of developing sustainable sources of energy to improve lives. This includes improving the efficiency of charcoal and firewood production and use, and researching new tree-based sources of bioenergy.

Photo: Woody matter could help developing countries achieve their bioenergy targets.

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Indonesia has set a target of reducing its emissions by 29%, or 41% with international help, by 2025. The country also has ambitious targets for increasing access to electricity, (at present, some 50 million people are not connected to the national grid) and boosting the share of energy derived from renewable sources to 23% by 2020. The aim is that almost half of this renewable energy will come from bioenergy, in other words from energy derived from plants.

“Plant leaves are one of the best solar panels we have,” said World Agroforestry Centre Director General Tony Simons in his welcoming remarks at the Renewable Energy Forum, held in Bali in October 2015 and hosted by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources

in collaboration with United Nations Office for REDD+ and the World Agroforestry Centre. “Trees should be seen as important contributors to reaching bioenergy targets, with agroforestry systems as a means for smallholders not only to produce energy, but also food and building materials.”

During the forum, the World Agroforestry Centre and the Ministry signed a Memorandum of Understanding to conduct more research into sustainable sources of bioenergy. During the signing of the MoU, both Simons and FX Sutijastoto, head of the Ministry’s Agency for Research and Development, noted that the Centre would work with the government towards meeting many of the challenges it faces if it is to achieve its targets. The Ministry

of Environment and Forests offered to join the partnership. This was a welcome move.

The best-known bioenergy plant is oil palm, which is highly effective at capturing carbon dioxide and turning it into energy. However, large swathes of plantation have been established at the expense of primary and secondary forest. Sonya Dewi, the Country Coordinator for Indonesia, suggested that there was no one-size-fits-all solution, and the choices about which species to use for bioenergy production should be based on sound scientific evidence and environmental considerations.

This was the first of two major events in Bali to focus on bioenergy. Bali was an appropriate

INDONESIA’S BIOENERGY PROGRAMME

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choice of venue as it is the first province in Indonesia to be declared a “clean and green” energy area, and has set a target of getting all its energy from renewables by 2018. “We are establishing a centre of excellence in Bali that will serve not only the province, but the nation, region and the international arena,” said Sudirman Said, the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources.

The right bioenergy crop for the right place

In February 2016, the Bali Clean Energy Forum attracted scientists, energy experts, representatives of governments and NGOs and others with an interest in energy matters from 26 countries. The Forum was organized by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources and the International Energy Agency (IEA). It began with the launch of the Centre of Excellence for Clean Energy, which aims to support programmes to accelerate the development of renewable energy so that Indonesia can achieve its targets, among other activities. This will include the development of a 35MW electrification programme, with a quarter coming from renewable energy.

A session on bioenergy was chaired by Ingrid Öborn, World Agroforestry Centre’s Southeast Asia Regional Coordinator. Six speakers

discussed what needs to be done if Indonesia is to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels and increase the production of biofuels. Biofuels will have a particularly important role to play in bringing electricity to remote areas. At present, the provinces of Papua, Nusa Tenggara Barat and Nusa Tenggara Timur have household connection rates to the national electricity grid of just 36–64%. These are areas with low population densities, difficult terrain and a scarcity of the usual sources of energy for electricity production. In short, they are ideal candidates for bioenergy production.

According to Dewi, energy produced from biomass could do much to improve the livelihoods of people living in remote villages which lack access to electricity. Bioenergy production could also be important for villages which do have access to electricity, but not at a price the villagers can afford. These villages tend to be in, or on the margins of, land designated as protection or conservation forests, as well as in areas of mangrove forest. Such areas are often blighted by poor roads and infrastructure.

There are three main types of feedstock for the production of biofuels: converted food crops, such as maize and sugar; energy trees and grasses; and underutilized species, the potential of which has yet to be realised or fully researched. One possible candidate is

the mangrove palm, Nypa fruticans, which is plentiful in mangrove and saltmarsh swamps around the Indonesian coast. Research suggests that it is highly productive and that ‘tapping’ the sap can be maintained for up to 50 years. Mangrove palm can also grow on peat without drainage, so it could potentially be used for peat restoration. It could also provide an important source of income for local communities.

Dewi pointed out that if biogas production is to take off in a significant way, there need to be supportive local policies, sufficient local labour and improvements in infrastructure such as roads. Plans for biogas production in remote areas should be tailored to local conditions and particular attention should be paid to the needs of local people.

One methodology which promotes inclusive decision-making is the Land-Use Planning for Multiple Environmental Services (LUMENS) system developed by Dewi and her team and now mandated for use in the national greenhouse gas reduction plans drawn up by the National Development Planning Agency. LUMENS could play an important role in enabling local communities and local governments make decisions related to bioenergy production.

Photo Left: Saliman tends a young tree intercropped with high-value annual crops in his oil-palm plantation in Jambi Province, Indonesia. The World Agroforestry Centre is working with farmers, governments and the private sector to design mixed systems that provide food, income, energy and environmental benefits.


Growing multipurpose trees on farms provides households with an affordable and convenient source of firewood and significantly lightens the workload of women and children. These were among the findings of a 2015 study carried out in Kenya by scientists from the World Agroforestry Centre. The study compared the contribution of agroforestry to firewood consumption for 40 households in Kibugu village, Embu County, on the flanks of Mt Kenya, and the same number in Keraita village in Kiambu County, at the foot of the Aberdares.

Large numbers of farming families have adopted agroforestry in Embu, frequently intercropping timber and fruit trees in their tea and coffee gardens, and planting trees along farm boundaries. Four trees are favoured

in particular: Grevillea robusta, macadamia, avocado and eucalyptus. In contrast, farming households in Kiambu have had little experience of agroforestry and have relatively few trees on their farms. “When you’re there, you can see for kilometres,” says Mary Njenga, who led the research.

Njenga and her colleagues found that 40% of the surveyed households in Embu harvested all their firewood needs from their farms. In contrast, just 5% of households in Kiambu got all of their firewood from their own land. The rest – in both study sites – either bought their firewood from merchants, or harvested it themselves from nearby forests.

“In the past, people used to go to the edge of the local forest and collect residues from the forest floor,” says Njenga. “But now, because of overharvesting, they are forced to go deeper into the forest to find fuelwood, and in Kiambu they walking over 4km in both directions just to get one load.”

This can be immensely draining for those involved, as Njenga discovered when she accompanied a group of women to the harvesting sites. Before leaving home, most of them took just a cup of tea for breakfast. It then took them an hour and a half to get to the forest, the same amount of time to gather a 54kg load, and another hour and a half to return home. Frequently, they were accompanied by children, who help to collect the wood.

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Besides the burden involved in collection, the women were also losing income. “If a woman works from 8.00am to 1.00pm – for example labouring in fields – she earns the equivalent of US$2.5 in wages,” says Njenga. Each time they spend the morning collecting firewood, they are effectively forgoing the chance of earning that money. These are the opportunity costs of each trip.

Firewood harvested from trees on farms, such as the prunings of Grevillea, can be stacked and dried before being used. In contrast, families who harvest their firewood from the forest tend to use it immediately. All too often, it is high in moisture, burns poorly and emits more smoke with noxious gases than firewood which is dry.

The study shows that agroforestry can play a major role in satisfying household energy needs. Njenga also points out that families that use more efficient cooking stoves require less firewood than those using traditional stoves. So, they should ideally, combine growing trees on farms with more efficient cooking stoves.

Reference

Njenga M et al. 2015. Innovations in Affordable and Clean Tree-based Cooking Energy Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa

Photo Left: Collecting firewood in Kireita Forest.

Photo Right: Woman with a bundle of firewood for cooking.

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A recent global health survey, whose findings were described in the journal Nature, found that smoke from domestic fires causes some 4 million premature deaths a year, with over a quarter of these being in India. Here, two-thirds of all households cook their meals on traditional stoves, or chulha, using firewood. Smoke from the firewood is the prime source of indoor air pollution.

Encouraging families to cook by other means is now a national priority, and the village of Kinnarhalli, on the outskirts of the town of Hassan in Karnataka, has shown what the future could look like. On 4th February 2016, Kinnarhalli was declared a smokeless village in a ceremony organized by the University of Agricultural Sciences Bangalore (UASB) and the District Council of Hassan. Working in

partnership with the World Agroforestry Centre, they had helped the villagers revolutionize their energy use and cooking methods.

“Kinnarhalli is one of the pilot villages for our biofuels programme in India,” says programme director Navin Sharma. “We want to introduce clean energy systems in rural areas and this village will act as a model for others in the region.”

Out of the 79 households in Kinnarhalli, 77 now have biogas facilities which use locally available resources such as cow dung, oilcake from tree seeds, oilseeds from perennial crops and organic waste. The oilcake, a by-product of oil extraction from tree seeds, acts as a catalyst which enhances biogas production.

Experiments show that a kilogram of oilcake can increase production by 200 to 250L in a biogas plant producing 2000L of gas a day. The differential is enough to satisfy the cooking requirements of a family with seven members.

This is just one of the achievements of a larger programme which is encouraging local communities to adopt biofuels as a replacement for firewood and liquified petroleum gas (LPG). “We see this as a good example of technology adoption using locally available resources to produce clean energy solutions,” says Sharma.

PROMOTING SMOKELESS VILLAGES IN INDIA

Photo: Biogas cooking stoves make use of resources like dung, organic waste and oil seeds.

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In the late 1980s, water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes), a South American aquatic weed, was introduced into Lake Victoria. As a result, the world’s largest tropical lake, and a hotspot for biodiversity, has undergone a severe transformation which has affected both the ecology of the lake and the economy of the region.

Water hyacinth has an astonishing growth rate – an individual plant is theoretically capable of producing the equivalent of 28,000 tonnes of fresh weight in one year – and it has clogged up shipping lanes, raised toxicity and created the ideal breeding conditions for malarial mosquitoes and schistosomiasis. One estimate puts the economic damage caused by water hyacinth at US$350 million a year.

A group of scientists, including Henry Neufeldt, who directs climate change research at the World Agroforestry Centre, are proposing a solution for this invasive species. “We believe it

may be possible to transform an environmental catastrophe into a success story by turning this aggressive weed into feedstock for biogas,” he says.

Most water hyacinth management programmes have focused on its eradication. According to the scientists, it is time to attempt a new approach, and focus on the sustainable management of the weed. This approach centres on creating an economic incentive to exploit water hyacinth by generating renewable energy and high-value organic fertilizers. There are several compelling arguments in favour of this. For one thing, the countries around the lake – Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda – have significant unmet energy needs. And the surrounding farmlands are seriously depleted of soil nutrients; organic matter from water hyacinth could provide a much-needed boost to fertility.

Neufeldt and his colleagues point out that current extraction and processing technologies

need to be tested in pilot plants, as there is too little experience with the management of the weed. Getting the mix right between collection, processing, energy generation and further use of the residues will be a challenge, as will be working with governance and energy policy issues. The authors, however, are confident about the plant’s bioenergy potential. “With innovative uses of new technology, water hyacinth could become a viable tool for energy generation, environmental remediation and food security,” says David Güereña.

Reference Güereña D, Neufeldt H, Berazneva J, Duby S. 2015. Water hyacinth control in Lake Victoria: Transforming an ecological catastrophe into economic, social, and environmental benefits. Sustainable Production and Consumption 3 (2015) 59–69

TURNING AN ENVIRONMENTAL MENACE INTO A SUCCESS STORY

Photo: Hyacinth biomass being collected for analysis from the Kenyan shores of Lake Victoria. The establishment of hyacinth has caused severe economic and environmental problems for communities that depend on the lake for their livelihood.

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As part of our work to bring tree-based solutions to bear on poverty and environmental challenges, our researchers work in close collaboration with a wide range of partners to develop new technologies, tools, manuals and policies aimed at improving food security and land health.

Photo: Farmers receiving training in Gorontalo and Bantaeng, Indonesia.

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In 2014, the Indian Government approved a National Agroforestry Policy. This is set to transform the way land is used over much of the country. It has the multiple objectives of improving food security, raising rural incomes, restoring degraded land and helping farmers become more resilient to climate change and natural calamities. Since the policy was announced at the 3rd World Congress of Agroforestry, considerable progress has been made in terms of putting it into practice.

Pal Singh, former Regional Coordinator and now Senior Adviser for Policy and Impact, represents the World Agroforestry Centre on the recently constituted inter-ministerial committee for the implementation of the recommendations made by the National Agroforestry Policy.

Besides setting up the new committee, the Government has upgraded the National Research Centre for Agroforestry to the Central Agroforestry Research Institute (CARI), with a budget to match its new status as a fully-fledged national institution.

The Government is keen to encourage business to support agroforestry, and agroforestry ventures can now get financial backing from the corporate social responsibility portfolios of both public and private companies. To give just one example, in early 2016 the World Agroforestry Centre was awarded a new project – “Enabling smallholders to improve their livelihoods, food, nutrition and environmental security through agroforestry systems” – by the National Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC).

The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (MOA&FW) is also playing a significant role in the promotion of agroforestry. “It has taken a policy decision to include trees in all its programmes, and this will significantly increase tree-planting on farms, especially under schemes funded by the National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture” says the Joint Secretary, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation & Farmers Welfare (DAC&FW) of the MOA&FW, R. B. Sinha. This has so far approved the funding for 80,000 hectares of new agroforestry projects.

However, all is not plain sailing. “The production and supply of high-quality planting material for agroforestry species has been a nagging problem for some time,” says Pal Singh.

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However, the new guidelines on the production and supply of high-quality planting material would turn the scenario around. These were prepared by DAC&FW in collaboration with a number of organizations, including the World Agroforestry Centre.

Until recently, the felling, transit and processing of trees grown on farms required approvals and permits from government agencies, and this was a significant impediment to establishing agroforestry systems. However, the National Agroforestry Policy has advised states to de-notify tree species from its regulations. “As a result many states have de-notified between six and 84 tree species from felling and transit regulations, and this will make it much easier for landowners and farmers to practise agroforestry,” says Singh.

There is now strong political support for agroforestry. India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, frequently uses the phrase ‘Har Med par Ped’, which means “trees on every field boundary”. He believes that agroforestry is an excellent insurance policy, providing farmers with the opportunity to diversify their income and protect the environment. He has suggested that banks should extend loans and offer insurance for agroforestry. In the event of crop failures, the trees would provide farmers with a much-needed safety net.

At the time of going to press, DAC&FW was drawing up a National Agroforestry Project for a five-year period with an expected budget of US$250 million, having an outlay of US$20

million for the first year (2016–17). This is in addition to other interventions by DAC&FW. The project is expected to help all states scale up agroforestry in a targeted manner.

“It is an indication of the importance of the Indian National Agroforestry Policy that other countries in the region are now considering adopting similar policies, based on the experience in India,” says the Deputy Director General for Natural Resource Management of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Alok Sikka. For example, the relevant ministries in Nepal have unanimously agreed to develop

a national agroforestry policy with support from the World Agroforestry Centre.

Policymakers in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan have also shown a keen interest in drawing up new agroforestry policies. A senior policymaker from Afghanistan paid a visit to the World Agroforestry Centre’s regional office in New Delhi in 2015. “He was keen to learn about our experience in India and intends to set up agroforestry programmes in his own country with our help,” explains Javed Rizvi, the World Agroforestry Centre’s Regional Director for South Asia.

Photo Left: Rice-poplar tree system, Haryana.

Photo Right: Farmers attending an agroforestry workshop in Manipur, India.

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The Forests and Climate Change in the Congo Project, which is managed by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), is working with a range of partners to strengthen forestry research in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and protect Virunga National Park, an area rich in biodiversity which is threatened by poaching, mining, charcoal making and insurgency.

In last year’s annual report we described one component of the project, a participatory research programme managed by Emilie Smith Dumont, a scientist at the World Agroforestry Centre. She and her colleagues have been working with WWF and local communities around the periphery of Virunga National Park. Their objective is to take pressure off the park

by encouraging farmers to plant tree species which provide them with fruit, timber and fuelwood and help restore degraded lands.

At two workshops in 2014, scientists, farmers, herders, representatives of women’s groups and rural advisory agents identified a range of agroforestry options. These, combined with further field research, provided the raw material for a technical guide to agroforestry – Guide Technique d’Agroforesterie pour la Selection et la Gestion des Arbres au Nord-Kivu – written by Smith Dumont, Subira Bonhomme and Fergus Sinclair and published in July 2015. “This is the first resource to provide a detailed account of the trees that can be incorporated into agroforestry systems in North Kivu,” says Smith Dumont.

The guide describes the potential of agroforestry in North Kivu, the key products and services provided by 120 species of trees, woody perennials and lianas, and how to propagate and manage them. It offers practical advice on the different sets of trees that are best suited to a range of conditions and practices. This includes trees used to provide shade in coffee gardens, shrubs for erosion control on steep slopes, high-value trees on field boundaries and woodlots designed for beekeeping.

Flick through the guide and you will immediately be struck by the 3-D environmental illustrations by Kamunya Johnson. With their brilliant colours and unusual use of perspective, they seem to shimmer off the page and provide

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memorable images of how agroforestry practices can transform even the most degraded of landscapes.

The researchers also produced an electronic toolkit – Outil Arbres utiles pour le Province du Nord-Kivu – which enables users to choose trees appropriate to different agro-ecological zones and the products and services they require.

WWF’s forestry team, development NGOs and farmers’ leaders are among the main targets

of these resources, together with forestry and agricultural technical agents working for community-based organizations. “At the moment, given the lack of active government extension services, the real agents of change are the technical agents, so we hope they will find the guide and the toolkit particularly useful,” says Smith Dumont.

In November 2015, 58 people were trained in the use of the guide and the electronic toolkit at two one-day workshops held in Goma and Butembo. The feedback was overwhelmingly

positive, with many saying that the knowledge they gained from the workshops will help them to promote agroforestry more effectively than before. As for the electronic toolkit, 30% judged it to be extremely useful, 58% said it was very useful, and 12% useful. Eighty-six per cent of participants said they found it easy to use.

Reference

Dumont ES, Bonhomme S, Sinclair F. 2015. Guide Technique d’Agroforesterie pour la Selection et la Gestion des Arbres au Nord-Kivu, World Agroforestry Centre.

Photo Left: An intensively farmed landscape in Eastern DRC.

Photo Above: 3-D photos by Kamunya Johnson provide memorable images of agroforestry practices and their power to transform the landscape.

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Imagine, for a moment, that you’re the leader of a farmers’ group or community-based organization in an African country and you want to introduce agroforestry as a way of improving local livelihoods or restoring degraded land. Where would you get your information? Your first port of call could be a new website, launched in 2016 by the EverGreen Agriculture Partnership, which comprises the World Agroforestry Centre, World Vision, Africa Forest Forum and the World Resources Institute.

“The Agroforestry Guidance Tool for Africa is aimed at anybody who wants to know more about agroforestry and the sort of practices that are currently found under different farming systems,” says Sid Mohan, who works in

Strategic Planning at the World Agroforestry Centre. “It’s written in plain language so that it will appeal to anybody, from farmers to policymakers.” The tool also provides links to relevant publications, tools and methodologies on agroforestry.

Click on the website (http://worldagroforestry.org/agt/) and you get an overview of the 14 main farming systems in Africa, such as maize-mixed farming systems, agri-pastoral farming systems, root and tuber crop systems, irrigated systems and forest-based systems. The overview includes information on the croplands, yields and the biophysical conditions characteristic of these farming systems.

The Agroforestry Guidance Tool for Africa identifies the agroforestry practices which can be found under each of the 14 farming systems, and provides detailed advice about the nature of each practice, the species involved, the biophysical requirements and relevant management practices, such as pruning and providing fertilizer.

A more in-depth section is devoted specifically to Rwanda. The Agroforestry Guidance Tool for Rwanda identifies six farming systems and five relevant agroforestry practices, based on research led by the World Agroforestry Centre’s country coordinator in Rwanda, Athanase Mukuralinda.

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What makes the site unique, and takes it beyond similar tools, is the incorporation of a simple financial information calculator for key agroforestry practices in Rwanda. “Based on a combination of extensive market research, literature review and expert knowledge, the calculator was constructed to provide information about the cost of establishing different agroforestry practices and the financial benefits which might accrue after 15 years,” says Mohan. This means that farmers, NGOs and others have a clear idea about the profitability of specific agroforestry practices, and whether they are worth pursuing in financial terms. The EverGreen Agriculture team hope to build up a similar profile for other African countries over the coming years.

Photo Left: Ethiopian home gardens grow crops such as ensete (Ensete ventricosum) and coffee (Coffea arabica) that can coexist with various tree species.

Photo Right: Screen shot of the website’s home page.

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In September 2015, the World Agroforestry Centre and the University of Copenhagen launched a new version of the online map developed by the Vegetation and Climate Change in East Africa (VECEA) project. “The maps are designed to help people choose the right trees for the right place, and we hope they will be particularly useful to those involved in forest landscape restoration,” says Roeland Kindt.

In the past, users could only access the map, which now covers eight countries, via Google Earth. Now they can go direct to the website www.vegetationmap4africa.org and directly zoom in to any point. With the first click, they can get information about the original

vegetation type of an area. Click again, and a fact sheet provides a list of characteristic species found there, including information about the various goods and services provided by these species. Finally, users are taken to the Agroforestry Species Switchboard. First launched in 2013, this provides information on over 26,000 species, harvested from 26 web-based databases. No other tool in the world links to more information about tree species.

During the development of the latest version of the vegetationmap4africa, Kindt and his colleagues also designed smartphone versions of the map, including one version that can be directly installed from the vegetationmap4africa website and another version – the Africa Tree

Finder – that is available as a free download from the Google Play Store. The Africa Tree Finder was developed with colleagues from the World Agroforestry Centre’s geospatial lab and was specifically designed so that it can be used on the most basic Android devices. The apps provide the same information on suitable species and their uses as the web-based maps, and have the added advantage of showing the location of the user on the map.

The Africa Tree Finder app was piloted at a training workshop coordinated by the World Agroforestry Centre and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on the flanks of Uganda’s Mt Elgon. The workshop attracted officers and representatives of a

THE RIGHT TREE FOR THE RIGHT PLACE

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wide range of organizations, including district forestry officers, district environmental officers, IUCN Uganda, the Uganda Wildlife Authority and the National Forestry Resources Research Institute. “Everybody said that they found the app extremely useful, and they suggested some extra features which we subsequently added,” says Kindt.

The vegetationmap4africa and smartphone app feature in a video about landscape restoration which won an award at the United Nations climate change conference in Paris in December 2015. ‘Equipping Uganda for restoration: Radio and apps for reforesting landscapes’ explores Uganda’s plans to restore 2.5 million hectares of land by 2020. If the country is to achieve this, those involved will need to choose the right tree for the right place.

References

http://bit.ly/2aHo1Hc

http://bit.ly/29WOgfF

www.vegetationmap4africa.org

Photo Left: Confirming the identification of Bridelia micrantha on Mt. Elgon, Uganda during IUCN-ICRAF field testing of the Africa Tree Finder App.

Photos - Top: Africa Tree Finder app installation in Kampala, Uganda.

Bottom: Review of app, documentation and user guidelines by workshop participants in Mbale, Uganda.

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“Our recent policy work has highlighted the role that agroforestry can play as a consensus builder for development. Agroforestry brings people together to plan, collaborate and create a coalition for success,” says Joseph Tanui, reflecting on a series of policy dialogue meetings held at five sites in Kenya. The meetings, which took place in Embu, Bungoma, Lari, Naivasha and Laikipia, used the policy dialogue tool developed during the second phase of the Strengthening Rural Institutions (SRI) Project, which is managed by the World Agroforestry Centre.

Using action research, the SRI project aims to strengthen local communities’ ability to improve their livelihoods, take advantage of new ideas and technologies – including those related to agroforestry – and contribute to sustainable

land management. At each of the five sites, policy experts from the World Agroforestry Centre and Eco-Agriculture Partners organized meetings at the sub-county and county levels. These brought together a range of different groups with an interest in managing the landscape, including county governments, NGOs, community groups and private sector companies.

“We began by getting all those involved to identify – and prioritize – major issues or problems affecting communities and the environment,” explains Tanui. Having identified the key issues, participants then worked out who was affected – in some cases there were both winners and losers – and collectively developed compromises and solutions.

The challenges varied from one area to another. For example, in Bungoma, land fragmentation and the marketing of dairy products were two major issues which needed to be addressed. In Lari, soil erosion and forest management were key concerns. In Laikipia, the focus was on wildlife–human conflicts and land fragmentation.

The process lasted four days at each site and in every case the policy dialogue had a significant influence. “We had very good feedback from the leadership after the meetings,” says Tanui’s colleague Douglas Bwire. “They said that the process had helped to identify the challenges and problems they need to tackle, and many have incorporated recommendations from the meetings into their county development plans.”

ENCOURAGING POLICY DIALOGUE IN KENYA

Photo: A farmer in his vegetable farm in Bungoma.

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During the past decade, funding for public-sector extension services in most developing countries has significantly declined, and government extension agents are no longer able to reach all farmers. Could volunteer farmer trainers help to fill the gap? If the experience in Rwanda is anything to go by, the answer is yes.

Since 2008, the East African Dairy Development (EADD) project has sought to double the incomes of 179,000 dairy farmers in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda by improving production and marketing. In Rwanda, the project has recruited and trained volunteer farmers to transmit information about livestock feed technologies to other farmers. According

to Steven Franzel, leader of the World Agroforestry Centre’s research on rural advisory services, the volunteer farmer approach is changing the way we think about agricultural extension.

In early 2016, he and his colleagues published the findings of a study based on interviews with 86 volunteer farmer trainers from 17 dairy cooperative societies, a third of whom were women. Most had served as volunteer farmer trainers for an average of 42.5 months and trained an average of 24 farmers a month. The majority carried out their tasks on foot.

“Unlike government extension agents, volunteer farmers are not paid a salary, but they are

motivated by a range of non-financial factors,” says Franzel. The study suggests that the main motivation for becoming a trainer was to gain knowledge and skills which could be used on the trainer’s own farm. This was followed by altruism, the anticipated benefits of the project and social factors. A breakdown of the social benefits showed that volunteer farmer trainers ranked gaining confidence highest, followed by increased social networks and improved social status. Just 12.8% of the volunteer farmer trainers reported obtaining financial benefits from the inputs and services associated with training.

The researchers stress that the volunteer farmer approach complements regular

IN PRAISE OF VOLUNTEER FARMER TRAINERS

Photo: Abraham Kiprotich at his farm in Metkei, Elgeyo/Marakwet County in Kenya. He grows fodder trees, shrubs and grass for his dairy cattle.

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extension services run by governments; it does not replace it. Indeed, it is the government extension agents who provide support and training to the volunteer farmer trainers about innovations in the dairy sector.

The volunteer farmer trainer approach has been so effective in Rwanda that it has been taken up by other organizations, including four dairy cooperatives, two food crop cooperatives, two government organizations and one NGO. All had been influenced by their exposure to the EADD project. The organizations appreciated the fact that the approach allowed them to reach many more farmers than would otherwise be the case, while only slightly raising costs.

References

Franzel S, Degrande A, Kiptot E, Kirui J, Kugonza J, Preissing J, Simpson B. 2015. Farmer-to-farmer extension. Note 7. GFRAS Good Practice Notes for Extension and Advisory Services. Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services: Lindau, Switzerland. http://www.g-fras.org/en/download.html

Kiptot E, Franzel S. 2015. Farmer-to-farmer extension: Opportunities for enhancing performance of volunteer farmer trainers in Kenya. Development in Practice 25:4. 503-517

Kiptot E, Franzel S, Nzigamasabo P.B, Ruganirwa C. 2016. Farmer-to-farmer extension of livestock feed technologies in Rwanda: A survey of volunteer farmer trainers and organizations. ICRAF Working Paper No. 221. Nairobi, World Agroforestry Centre. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5716/WP16005.PDF

Kiptot E, Karuhanga M, Franzel S, Nzigamasabo PB. 2016. Volunteer farmer-trainer motivations in East Africa: Practical implications for enhancing farmer-to-farmer extension. International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability DOI: 10.1080/14735903.2015.1137685

Photo: A volunteer farmer in her calliandra and napier grass demonstration plot in Kieni-Kenya.

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http://www.g-fras.org/en/download.html

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09614524.2015.1029438

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09614524.2015.1029438

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09614524.2015.1029438

http://dx.doi.org/10.5716/WP16005.PDF

http://dx.doi.org/10.5716/WP16005.PDF

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14735903.2015.1137685

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In the 1980s, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) began promoting farmer field schools in Southeast Asia as a way of improving farmers’ knowledge about how to manage pests and diseases. The approach, which involves farmers getting together in their own fields to discuss ways of tackling specific issues, has subsequently been adopted across the developing world with considerable success.

The Agroforestry and Forestry in Sulawesi (AgFor Sulawesi) project, funded by the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, has found that farmer field schools are a particularly effective way of communicating information about agroforestry.

The schools are also producing a cadre of expert farmers who share their knowledge with other farmers.

The schools targeted farmers in 27 villages in Sulawesi. “To identify the topics to be included in the curricula, we first held discussions with community members,” explains Endri Martini, AgFor Sulawesi extension specialist. The discussions identified five commodities – cocoa, coffee, cloves, pepper and durian – for promotion at the farmer field schools.

Having identified the key topics, Martini invited experts from national institutions to share their knowledge and information with farmers. She then organized cross visits, so that farmers

could learn from one another by looking at successful practices in their gardens and fields. Farmers were then encouraged to develop demonstration plots. These are seen as experimental platforms where farmers can put into practice lessons they have learned at the farmer field schools.

Within a year of implementation, the schools had reached 1733 individuals and over 100 demonstration plots had been established in. An evaluation noted that the schools had benefited farmers by improving garden productivity and they had successfully developed communication links between farmers and experts. The cross visits had improved the adoption rate of agroforestry innovations.

SPREADING THE WORD WITH FARMER FIELD SCHOOLS

Photo: Retno Hulupi, a coffee expert from the Indonesian Coffee and Cacao Research Institute, visits a garden during a farmers’ field school in Mulia Jaya village, Southeast Sulawesi.

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Lessons learned from the schools were presented at Inspirasi Bakti, a collaborative sharing session for development partners held in August 2015 in Makassar, South Sulawesi.

Ms. Israk, an expert farmer turned independent extension agent, expressed her enthusiasm for farmer field schools as follows: “Previously, I only planted corn, just like everyone else in Kayu Loe village, then I joined an agroforestry farmer field school and learned about other commodities, garden management, pruning and making organic fertilizer. I started planting coffee, cloves and cocoa in my garden.” Ms. Israk is now helping the project to disseminate agroforestry information in neighbouring villages.

Learning plant production techniques at a farmers’ field school. Photo ©World Agroforestry Centre/ Enggar Paramita

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7.

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Dr John Lynam

Chair Vice Chair

Ex-officio (CIFOR Board Chair) Ex-officio (Government of Kenya)

Assistant Director General, Partnerships & Impacts

(left August 2016)

Executive ManagerDirector of Human Resources

(joined November 2016)(left November 2016) (left April 2016) (joined November 2016)

Director General Deputy Director General, Research & Regions

Deputy Director General, Finance and Corporate Services (left June 2016)

Ex-officio (ICRAF Director General)

Prof Tony Simons Mr John Hudson

Dr Margaret Kroma Ms Elizabeth KariukiMs Christine Larson-LuhilaProf Tony Simons

Ms Hilary Wild

Dr Richard L. Lesiyampe

Dr Ravi Prabhu

Dr Lailai Li

Ms Bushra Naz Malik Mr Alexander Müller

Dr Héctor Cisneros

Mr Laksiri Abeysekera

Dr Rita SharmaProf Augustin Brice Sinsin

Dr Lisa Sennerby ForsseMs Marie Claire O’Connor

OUR PEOPLE: Board of Trustees

Senior Leadership Team

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Science Domain LeadersDr Lars Graudal (Co-leader) – SD3 – Tree Diversity, Domestication & DeliveryDr Ramni Jamnadass (Co-leader) – SD3 – Tree Diversity, Domestication & DeliveryDr Peter Minang – SD5 – Environmental Services & ASBDr Henry Neufeldt – SD6 – Climate ChangeDr Ravi Prabhu (Acting) – SD2 – Markets, Value Chains, InstitutionsDr Keith Shepherd – SD4 – Land Health DecisionsDr Fergus Sinclair – SD1– Systems Science

Regional and Nodal CoordinatorsDr Jonathan Cornelius – Latin America Dr Antoine Kalinganire – Sahel Node Dr Jeremias Gasper Mowo – Eastern & Southern AfricaDr Isaac Nyoka – Southern Africa NodeDr Ingrid Öborn – South East AsiaDr Javed Rizvi – South AsiaDr Zac Tchoundjeu – West & Central AfricaDr Jianchu Xu – East & Central Asia

Country RepresentativesDr Dengpan Bu – ChinaDr Ann Marie Degrande – CameroonDr Kiros Hadgu – EthiopiaDr Anthony Kimaro – TanzaniaDr Christophe Kouamé – Côte d’IvoireDr Rodel Lasco – PhilippinesMr Andrew Miccolis – BrazilDr Athanase Mukuralinda – RwandaDr Jonathan Muriuki – KenyaDr Clement Okia – UgandaDr Sonya Dewi Santoso – IndonesiaDr Jerome Tondoh – Mali

Mega-Programme ManagersDr Ramni Jamnadass – African Orphan Crops Consortium (AOCC) LaboratoryDr Christophe Kouamé – Vision for ChangeDr Henry Neufeldt – Biocarbon & Rural Development (BIODEV) ProgrammeDr George Okwach – Drylands Development Programme (DRYDEV)Dr Navin Sharma – Development of Alternative Biofuel Crops Programme

Heads of Departments

Research Support UnitDr Steven Franzel – Rural Advisory Services Dr Anja Gassner – Research Methods GroupDr Mehmood Hassan – Capacity Development UnitDr Karl Hughes – Monitoring, Evaluation & Impact AssessmentDr Tor-Gunnar Vågen – Geo Science UnitDr Thomas Zschocke – Knowledge Management Unit

Non-Research Support UnitsMr Stephen Dean – ICRAF/ILRI Joint Information & Communications Technology Unit Mr Robert Finlayson – Communications Unit (Interim)Mr Ernest Gatoru – Financial Services UnitMr Jimmy Kiio – Operations UnitMr Jose Mendez – Internal Audit UnitMs Anne Munene – Contracts and Grants UnitMr Peter Murunga – Security UnitMrs Idah Ogoso – Human Resources UnitMs Catharine Watson – Programme Development Unit


Agropolis Foundation

Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)

Centro Internacional de Agricultural Tropical (CIAT) Colombia

Chemonics International

Columbia Global Centre in Eastern & Southern Africa (CGC Africa)

Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)

Concern Universal

Concern Worldwide

Cornell University

Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA)

Department for International Development (DfID)

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) Germany

Dupont Pioneer Inc

European Union

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

Ford Foundation

German Academic Exchange Service

Global Crop Diversity Trust

Global Green Growth Institute

Government of Belgium

Government of China

Government of Finland

Government of India

Government of Ireland

Government of Japan

Government of Peru

Government of Philippines

Government of the Netherlands

Governors of St. Francis Xavier University (COADY)

Heifer International

Hunan Yunjin Group Ltd

IDH

Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD)

International Centre for Research in Organic Food Systems

International Crop Research Institute for the Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

International Institute of Environment and Development (IIED)

International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)

International Livestock Research Institute

International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT)

International Plant Genetic Resources Institute

International Water Management Institute (IWMI)

Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD)

Kunming Institute of Botany

Laboratoires Clarins

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Margaret A. Cargill Foundation

Mars, Inc

McKnight Foundation

Michigan State University

Natural Resources Institute

Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation

Operational Support Unit Collaboration

Princeton University

Programme for the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources

Republic of South Africa Government

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Swiss Development Corporation

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology

The Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)

The Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centres (CGIAR)

The Interprofessional Fund for Agricultural Research and Council (FIRCA)

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

United Nations Office for Project Services

United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

United States Department of Agriculture

University of California, Davis

University of Copenhagen

World Bank

World Cocoa Foundation

World Conservation Union

World Vision

LIST OF INVESTORS 2015

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STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITIONAS AT 31 DECEMBER 2015 (In US Dollars ‘000) 2015 2014

ASSETS Current assets Cash and cash equivalents 24,897 25,431 Short term investments 2,602 3,929 Accounts receivables Donors 8,216 15,779 Employees 1,860 870 Other CGIAR Centres 2,860 1,800 Other 13,614 11,234 Inventories – net 51 58 Prepaid expenses 3,608 860 Total current assets 57,708 59,961Non-current assets Property and equipment 7,938 8,470 Long term investments 11,775 11,635

Total non-current assets 19,713 20,105TOTAL ASSETS 77,421 80,066LIABILITIES AND NET ASSETSCurrent liabilities Accounts payable Donors 26,614 32,672 Employees 1,801 727 Other CGIAR Centres 2,000 916 Other 4,896 2,580 Accruals 7,149 7,642

Total current liabilities 42,460 44,537Non-current liabilities Accounts payable Employees 8,351 7,442

Total non-current liabilities 8,351 7,442

TOTAL LIABILITIES 50,811 51,979NET ASSETS Unrestricted Designated 17,408 15,058Undesignated 9,202 13,029

Total net assets 26,610 28,087

TOTAL LIABILITIES AND NET ASSETS 77,421 80,066

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS


Unrestricted Restricted - CRPs Restricted - Non-CRP

Total 2015 Total 2014

Revenue and Gains

Grant Revenue

Window 1 & 2 - 13,068 - 13,068 19,502

Window 3 597 17,457 1,081 19,135 8,557

Bilateral 318 25,749 4,581 30,648 34,410

Total Grant Revenue 915 56,274 5,662 62,851 62,469

Other Revenue and Gains 2,086 - - 2,086 835

Total Revenue and Gains 3,001 56,274 5,662 64,937 63,304

Expenses and Losses

Research Expenses 4,385 37,220 3,642 45,247 54,115

CGIAR Collaborator Expenses - 836 - 836 641

Non-CGIAR Collaborator Expenses - 12,145 124 12,269 6,368

General and Administration Expenses 581 6,073 1,896 8,550 1,538

Other Expenses and Losses - - - - -

Total Expenses and Losses 4,966 56,274 5,662 66,902 62,662

Financial income 316 316 484

Financial expenses 172 172 (150)

(Deficit)/Surplus (1,477) - - (1,477) 976

STATEMENT OF ACTIVITIES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2015 (In US Dollars ‘000)

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The Board of Trustees have reviewed the risk register and the proposed mitigating actions. The Board endorses the current risk ratings, having considered the requirement for any amendments. The Board of Trustees has the responsibility of ensuring that an appropriate risk management process is in place to identify and manage current and emerging significant risks to the achievement of the Centre’s business objectives, and to ensure alignment with CGIAR principles and guidelines as adopted by all CGIAR Centres. These risks include operational, financial and reputation risks that are inherent in the nature, modus operandi and locations of the Centre’s activities. They are dynamic owing to the environment in which the Centre operates. There is potential for loss resulting from inadequate or failed internal processes or systems, human factors or external events. Risks include:• Misallocation of scientific efforts away from

agreed priorities;• Loss of reputation for scientific excellence

and integrity;• Business disruption and information system

failure;• Liquidity problems;• Transaction processing failures;• Loss of assets, including information

assets;• Failure to recruit, retain and effectively

utilize qualified and experienced staff;• Failure in staff health and safety systems;• Failure by the Consortium to execute legal

and fiduciary responsibilities;• Withdrawal or reduction of funding by

donors due to the financial crisis;

• 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;

• Failure by the lead Centre to comply with the terms of the agreement and/or not delivering on the agreed outputs which could have a negative effect on ICRAF as a participating Centre; and

• Non-prioritization of agroforestry in the CGIAR Consortium Research Programmes due to lack of funding.

The Board has adopted a risk management policy that includes a framework by which the Centre’s management identifies, evaluates and prioritizes risks and opportunities across the organization; develops risk mitigation strategies which balance benefits with costs; monitors the implementation of these strategies; and periodically reports to the Board on results. This process draws upon risk assessments and analysis prepared by staff of the Centre’s business unit, internal auditors, Centre-commissioned external reviewers and the external auditor.

The risk assessments also incorporate the results of collaborative risk assessments with other CGIAR Centres, office system components, and other entities in relation to shared risks arising from jointly managed activities. The risk management framework seeks to draw upon best practices, as promoted in codes and standards promulgated in a number of CGIAR member countries. It is subject to ongoing review as part of the

Centre’s continuous improvement efforts.

Risk mitigation strategies include the implementation of systems of internal controls, which, by their nature, are designed to manage rather than eliminate risk. The Centre endeavours to manage risk by ensuring that the appropriate infrastructure, controls, systems and people are in place throughout the Centre. Key practices employed in managing risks and opportunities include business environmental scans, clear policies and accountabilities, transaction approval frameworks, financial and management reporting, and the monitoring of metrics designed to highlight positive or negative performance of individuals and business processes across a broad range of key performance areas.

The design and effectiveness of the risk management system and internal controls is subject to ongoing review by the Centre’s internal audit team, which is independent of the business units, and which 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 very alive to the impact of external events over which the Centre has no control, other than to monitor and, as the occasion arises, to provide mitigation.

John LynamChair, Board of Trustees27 April 2016

BOARD STATEMENT ON RISK MANAGEMENT


PERFORMANCE INDICATORSThe Performance Measurement (PM) system of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) measures the performance of the Centres it supports in terms of their results and potential to perform.

The PM system provides the Centres with a method to better understand their own performance and demonstrate accountability. The results are presented below.

Results for the World Agroforestry Centre

Publications

Composite measure of Centre research publications:

Number of peer-reviewed publications per scientist in 2015 that are published in journals listed in Thomson Scientific/ISI: 113

Number of externally peer-reviewed publications in 2015: 334

Percentage of scientific papers published with developing country partners in refereed journals, conference and workshop proceedings in 2015: 120/290 = 41.38%

Institutional health

Percentage of women in management: 32.61%

Financial health

Long-term financial stability (adequacy of reserves): 105 days where the minimum benchmark is 90 days

Cash management on restricted operations: 0.30 where the benchmark is less than 1.00

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Journal articles

Chomba S, Minang PA, Nathan I, Sinclair FL. 2015. Illusions of empowerment? Questioning policy and practice of community forestry in Kenya. Ecology and Society 20 (3): 1-11 http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol20/iss3/art2/

Coulibaly JY, Baker TG, Preckel PV, Sanders HJ. 2015. Will cotton make a comeback in Mali? Agricultural Economics 46 (1): 53-67 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/agec.12140

Freeman OE, Duguma LA, Minang PA. 2015. Operationalizing the integrated landscape approach in practice. Ecology and Society 20 (1): 1-24 http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-07175-200124

Guo L, Luedeling E, Wang MC, Xu JC, Dai JH. 2015. Responses of spring phenology in temperate zone trees to climate warming: a case study of apricot flowering in China. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 201:1–7 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2014.10.016

Haby S, Angulo-Escalante MA, Graudal LOV, Hansen JH, Kalinganire A, Kjaer ED, Kon S, Martonez-Herrera J, Nielsen LR, Nikiema A. 2015. Loss of genetic diversity of Jatropha Curcas L. through domestication: implications for its genetic improvement. Crop Science 55(2): 749-759 http://dx.doi.org/10.2135/cropsci2014.02.0165

Hengl T, Heuvelink GBM, Kempen B, Leenaars JGB, Shepherd KD, Tondoh JE, Walsh MG. 2015. Mapping soil properties of Africa at 250M resolution: random forests significantly improve current predictions. PLoS ONE 10(6): e0125814 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0125814

Khasanah NM, Manurung GES, Perdana A, Rahmanulloh A, Roshetko JM, van Noordwijk M. 2015. Intercropping teak (Tectona grandis) and maize (Zea mays): bioeconomic trade-off analysis of agroforestry management practices in Gunungkidul, West Java. Agroforestry Systems 89 (6): 1019-1033 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10457-015-9832-8

Leimona B, de Groot R, Leemans R, van Noordwijk M. 2015. Fairly efficient, efficiently fair: lessons from designing and testing payment schemes for ecosystem services in Asia. Ecosystem Services 12: 16–28 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2014.12.012

Nyaga J, Barrios E, Matiru VN, Muthuri CW, Öborn I, Sinclair FL. 2015. Evaluating factors influencing heterogeneity in agroforestry adoption and practices within smallholder farms in Rift Valley, Kenya http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2015.06.013

Nyemeck BJ, Kalinganire A, Place F. 2015. Effects of farmer-managed natural regeneration on livelihoods in semi-arid West Africa. Environmental Economics and Policy Studies 17(4): 543-575 http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10018-015-0107-4

Paudel E, Dossa GOG, Harrison RD, Xu JC. 2015. Litter fall and nutrient return along a disturbance gradient in a tropical montane forest. Forest Ecology and Management 353: 97-106 http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0378112715002972

SELECTED PUBLICATIONSHigh quality research publications are a core output of our activities.

In 2015 World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) generated a total of 477 publications. Of these, 334 were peer reviewed, 75 were extension and outreach materials, 50 were updates and progress reports and 18 were about science in progress.

A selection of publications follows:

http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol20/iss3/art2/

http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol20/iss3/art2/

http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/agec.12140

http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/agec.12140

http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-07175-200124

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2014.10.016

http://dx.doi.org/10.2135/cropsci2014.02.0165

http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0125814

http://link.springer.com/journal/10457

http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10457-015-9832-8

http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10457-015-9832-8

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2014.12.012

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2015.06.013

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2015.06.013

http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10018-015-0107-4

http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10018-015-0107-4

http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0378112715002972

http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0378112715002972


Books & Manuals

Catacutan DC, Naz F. 2015. A guide for gender mainstreaming in agroforestry research and development. Ha Noi: World Agroforestry Centre, 20p

Dharani N, Betemariam E, Dawson I, Jamnadass R, Tuei B, Yenesew A. 2015. Traditional ethnoveterinary medicine in East Africa: a manual on the use of medicinal plants. Nairobi: World Agroforestry Centre, 194p

Freundt D, Perla J, Robiglio V, Suber M. 2015. Estudiando El Mercado de Carbono Forestal En El Perœ. Evaluación de Actores: Intereses Y Limitaciones Para Inversiones En Proyectos de Carbono Forestal. Lima: World Agroforestry Centre, 41p http://libelula.com.pe/publicacion/estudiando-el-mercado-de-carbono-forestal-en-el-peru-2/

Kindt R. 2015. Vegetationmap4africa tutorials: show species distribution in Google Earth. Nairobi: World Agroforestry Centre http://www.vegetationmap4africa.org/Documentation/Tutorials/Species_distribution_maps.html.

Minang PA, Catacutan DC, de Leeuw JM, Freeman OE, Mbow C, van Noordwijk M. 2015. Climate-smart landscapes: multifunctionality in practice. Nairobi: World Agroforestry Centre, 405p http://www.worldagroforestry.org/downloads/Publications/PDFs/B17753.PDF

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ACIAR Australian Centre for International Agricultural ResearchACSAA Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture in AfricaANAFE African Network for Agriculture, Agroforestry and Natural

Resources EducationAOCC African Orphan Crops ConsortiumAU African UnionBGI Beijing Genomics InstituteBIODEV Building Biocarbon and Rural Development ProgrammeCABI Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux InternationalCARI Central Agroforestry Research InstituteCAWT Conservation Agriculture with TreesCCAFS Climate Change, Agriculture and Food SecurityCDC Cocoa Development CentreCEO Chief Executive OfficerCGC Columbia Global CentreCGIAR Consortium of International Agricultural Research CentresCIAT International Centre for Tropical AgricultureCIDA Canadian International Development AgencyCIFOR Center for International Forestry ResearchCIMMYT International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center CIRAD Centre de coopération internationale en recherche

agronomique pour le développementCOMESA Common Market for Eastern and Southern AfricaCORDIO Coastal Oceans Research Development – Indian OceanCRP Consortium Research ProgrammeCSA Climate-Smart AgricultureCTCN Climate Technology Centre and NetworkCVC Cocoa Village Centre

DAC&FW Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, and Farmers’ WelfareDANIDA Danish International Development AgencyDfID Department for International DevelopmentDGIS Dutch Ministry of Foreign AffairsDRC Democratic Republic of the CongoDRYDEV Drylands Development ProgrammeEADD East Africa Dairy DevelopmentECCDI Ecosystem Conservation and Community Development InitiativeEU European UnionFAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United NationsFIRCA Interprofessional Fund for Agricultural Research and

Advisory Services GIZ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale ZusammenarbeitGLF Global Landscapes ForumGSBI Global Soil Biodiversity InitiativeICAR Indian Council of Agricultural ResearchICRAF World Agroforestry CentreICRISAT International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid

TropicsIEA International Energy AgencyIFAD International Fund for Agricultural DevelopmentIFPRI International Food Policy Research InstituteIGAD Intergovernmental Authority on DevelopmentIIED International Institute of Environment and DevelopmentIISS Indian Institute of Soil ScienceIITA International Institute of Tropical AgricultureILRI International Livestock Research Institute

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS


IUCN International Union for Conservation of NatureIUFRO International Union of Forest Research OrganizationsIWMI International Water Management InstituteJRC Joint Research CentreKEFRI Kenya Forestry Research InstituteKFS Kenya Forest ServiceKnowForFLR Knowledge Management for Forest Landscape RestorationKWS Kenya Wildlife ServiceLIFT Livelihoods and Food Security Trust FundLPG Liquefied Petroleum GasLUMENS Land-Use Planning for Multiple Environmental ServicesMIR Mid-Infrared SpectroscopyMOA&FW Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ WelfareMoU Memorandum of UnderstandingMW MegawattsNDMA National Drought Management AuthorityNEMA National Environment Management AuthorityNEPAD New Partnership for Africa’s Development NGO Non-Governmental OrganizationNRT Northern Rangelands TrustNVP Natural Vegetative StripsONGC National Oil and Natural Gas CommissionpXRF Portable X-ray Fluorescence SpectrometerRAAS Rainwater Association of Somalia

REDD+ Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation

ROAM Restoration Opportunity Assessment MethodologySDG Sustainable Development GoalSearNet Southern and Eastern Africa Rainwater Harvesting NetworkSHARED Stakeholder Approach to Risk Informed Evidence-based

Decision-makingSRI Strengthening Rural InstitutionsUASB University of Agricultural Sciences, BangaloreUCD University of California, DavisUK United KingdomUN United NationsUNEA United Nations Environment AssemblyUNEP United Nations Environment ProgrammeUNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate ChangeUNICEF United Nations Children’s FundUNIDO United Nations Industrial Development OrganizationUS United StatesUSAID United States Agency for International DevelopmentV4C Vision for ChangeVECEA Vegetation and Climate change in East AfricaWHO World Health OrganizationWRI World Resources InstituteWWF World Wide Fund for Nature

Writer: Charlie Pye-Smith

Other contributors: Joan Baxter, Amy Cruz, Rob Finlayson, Sunil Londhe, Ake Mamo, Daisy Ouya, Enggar Paramita, Keith Shepherd, Elisabeth Simelton

Coordination and compilation: Betty Rabar and Martha Mwenda

Editing/proofreading: Betty Rabar and Daisy Ouya

Design & layout: Martha Mwenda

Front cover photo: Farmer Hady TRAORE from Mandela village in Sikasso, Mali, with a flowering cashew tree. Cashew, Anacardium occidental (Fam. Anacardiaceae), is known for its tasty, nutritious and valuable nut by Ake Mamo

Back cover photo: Farmland in Eastern DRC by Emilie Smith-Dumont

Financial information: Francis Kinyanjui

Performance indicators: Humphrey Keah, Jacob Musee, Francis Kinyanjui

Publications: Humphrey Keah

Staff list: Beatrix Gacho, Jacob Musee, Faith Munyasi

Distribution: Naomi Kanyugo, Hellen Kiarago

World Agroforestry Centre, United Nations Avenue, Gigiri,P. O. Box 30677-00100, Nairobi, Kenya.Phone + (254) 20 722 4000, Fax + (254) 20 722 4001,Via USA phone (1-650) 833-6645,Via USA fax (1-650) 833-6646,Email: [email protected]: www.worldagroforestry.org

We would like to thank all donors who supported this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Fund

contributions to the CGIAR fund: http://www.cgiar.org/who-we-are/cgiar-fund/fund-donors-2/.

Transforming lives and landscapes with trees

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